1.

0 Executive Summary

This projects present on the understanding of the customer relationship management

( CRM) strategies in the aviation industry, British Airway. Firstly, through the project it
help us to understand the meaning and important of CRM for any other business. In
order to implement a good CRM system, the organization need to fully understand the
customer needs and wants in order to having a good strategies and tactics thus to uses to
attract the new and existing customer and build strong relationship with them. The
project focuses on the CRM system/ activities taken up by British Airway and analyses
the impact on those activities on customer. Furthermore, the most important customer
relationship management strategies are they using the Teradata’s solutons to improve
the analysis and implementation of creating a good relationship and create a sustain
relationship with their customer. It is a new system which had replace the existing
Chordiant solution that empower British Airways to oversee and fortify client
connections dependent on a total, coordinated and shared comprehension everything
being equal. Besides that, BA also had carry up the loyalty programme” Executive Club
Member” which provide their member different type of benefit not only specific for
flights but also able to reward free fly, collect Avios ( points), upgrade for seat and so
on. Lastly, for the organization to implement the CRM is one of the major factor that
enable BA to sustain and become one of the largest international airlines in the world.
Through, CRM it help BA to understand the expectations of customer from the airlines
and in what way they want to be catered.

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Table Content

Contents Pages

1.0 Executive Summary 1

2.0 Company Background 3

3.0 Industry analysis of current CRM 4-5

4.0 Problems associated with the company

6
performance assessments

5.0 Identify the best practices or strategies in

7
implementing the CRM system.

6.0 principles made by the company to maintain their

8
competitiveness in the global market

7.0 Recommendation for future direction

9-10

8.0 Conclusion 11

9.0 References 12

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2.0 Introduction Of Company Background

British Airways is considered as one of the largest international airlines in the world
which are established in 1974 . For the headquartered are located at London Heathrow
Airport, which it is the world's busiest international airport and has a global network
of flights through partners such as USAir in the US, Qantas in Australia and TAT
Europe in France. Currently, British Airways (BA) covers more than 550 destinations.
According to the data of the year 2008/09, we can see that the company had serves
British Airways serves 95 million passengers a year using 441 airports in 86 countries
and more than 1,000 planes. In addition, it had approximately 45,000 employees in
early 2019. British airways is the result of merger of four companies – British
European Airways, British Overseas Airways Corporation, Cambrian Airways and
Northeast Airlines, which their parent company is International United Airlines
Group which established in 2011 by the merger of British Airways and Iberia. British
Airways had changed from state-owned airlines to private airlines. The company also
had a primary slogan which is “ To Fly To Serve”, “Upgrade to British Airways”, The
world Best Airlines and “ Fly the Flag. The airline has set its own goal of becoming
the world's leading global premium airline. With the increasingly competitive aviation
market, maintaining and handling relationships with all parts is very important to
British Airways.

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3.0 Industry Analysis For Current Development CRM

British Airways is one of the oldest airlines in the world and its origins date back to
1919. It has always been regarded as the industry leader. As a founding member of the
oneworld alliance, British Airways (BA) is the fifth largest airline in the world. In
order for the airlines to sustain for long term in the competitive aviation market, it is
very important for the company to implement the SWOT analysis .Which is a
management tool that helps identify organizational strengths, weaknesses,
environmental opportunities and threats. By having a Through SWOT analysis, an
organization will be able to generate an organized list of factors potentially related to
the company's strategic situation. One of the strengths of British Airways which it
had show the strong brand identity as the as customers show trust and loyalty, they
have built a strong brand image among the leading airlines in the UK that able to
Benefit the business at multiple levels. Besides that, BA also has its own engineering
department to maintain its fleet of aircraft in order to improve airline products and
service products, thereby increasing the number of passengers and also able to
compete with major competitor. Moreover, BA also offers its customers different
loyalty programs to ensure that they only travel back and forth from their airlines such
as the execute club is British Airways’ frequent flyer programme and so on. Through
membership it can assists the companies to identify their target audiences faster and
more accurately, thereby enhancing and improving the services more accurately.
Mobile module software also uses by BA as one of the CRM tool to manage its
communication with the Executive Club members. It helps the British Airway send
information and special offers to executive club members in real time, and allows
executive club members to make reservations on their mobile phones as well.
Secondly, excessive reliance on the UK market is a considerable weakness and must
be handled by British Airways management. According to BA revenues had show that
81% of revenue are coming from US and UK, the current situation has made the
company extremely vulnerable to market slowdown and increased competition in the
UK. The airlines also has a large number of union workers which the collective
bargaining happens all the time and a breakdown in the dealing procedure may disturb

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activities and unfavorably influence business execution. They continued efforts to
manage by layoffs and wage reduction reforms thus the employee confidence will be
reduce, the pressure on service personnel, and reduce employee productivity. The
global market penetration is low for BA, they have not completely entered the
potential markets of developing market such as china and india due to stable financial
conditions, increased disposable income and increased disposable income.
Furthermore, BA had an opportunities to expansion international market. Due to BA
had complete acquisition of Iberia airlines, which owns 13% of the shares, thus it
become the world largest airline with a combined market capitalization of
approximately 5.5 billion euros. By improving the operating conditions of Heathrow
Terminal 5 airport BA will has the opportunity to expand its presence in emerging
markets such as China, India and Middle East. Besides that, the government
intervention it release the pressure on small players which has been greatly affected
the airlines operation. So many competitors have been forced to withdraw themselves
from the market due to the high competition costs and the global economic
difficulties. This give an opportunities for BA to expand and develop their airline
more easily. Finally, the threats for the BA which is the economy slowed, fuel prices
rose and the pound depreciated. It seriously affected air transport due to the global
economic downturn. On the other side, the travel and tourism are moving in the
direction of more green practices had requires all airlines to limit carbon emissions.

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4.0 Problems associated with the company performance assessments

Customer service is at the heart of BA, and airlines pride themselves on providing
travelers with a world-class service experience. There are some challenges faced by
BA when implement the CRM when using the system where it increasing the
complicated by the incompatibility of technology for BA. The company had utilizing
two separate and heavily modified applications in US, UK and the formal system are
not available in other locations, so without an incorporated perspective on customer
collaboration, BA will has limited control over the effectiveness of its service
recovery activities. Thus will lead to inefficient case in compensation, handling
duplicate claims for some event. Furthermore, when implement the Customer Data
Warehouse( CDW) based on Oracle ( codename “ Oceanwave”) also one of the
challenges faced by BA due to the analysis team took 2 years to use the information
for reporting and activities. Complexity are one of the issues facing when using CDW,
where it not design for analytical purposes and data structure is completely different
from previous system which lead to time consuming and difficult to understand.

Furthermore, it also required a lot of time and effort from contractors to train the SAS
uses on accessing and using the data. There are also query with regard the data quality
hence this had weakens the confidence of analysis team. The query respond are slow
and complex whereby the data for analysis purposes involves many joins that make its
slow and programming skills are require to create SQL queries, even the simplest list
generation. Besides that, the combination of SAS, Business Objects and local
databases is used by the Analyst team to manage more complex activities. However,
the Vantage solution was found to be expensive and inadequate. Since BA has an
earlier unsupported version of Vantage and limited internal IT support, it usually takes
two to three days to query every two weeks. Finally, BA also facing challenges for
social CRM where the BA are infamous in using twitter to connect with disgruntled
customers. Example they promise 24 hours a day to customer service , yet often fail to
deliver.

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5.0 Identify the best practices or strategies in implementing the CRM system.

Teradata is a customer relationship management system that had implement by British

Airway that help to improve implementation, analysis of marketing campaigns.
Teradata is a new system which has replace the existing Chordiant solution which
enable BA to having understanding of all interaction with customer. In order to
differentiate the service and improve operations only if the CRM strategy
implemented effectively in the organization itself. Thus, there are several strategies in
implementing the CRM system by BA. First of all, Training and development for the
employee. Initially the employees may not accept the idea of trained to use new
software. Due to they think CRM will make their life become more complicated
indirectly thus they won’t received with the open heart. It is very important for the
employee itself familiar itself by knowing the main purposed for the CRM system that
implemented by BA. In order to fully utilizes the CRM system, continuous and
evaluation should be done among the employee to get the best result from CRM
technology. Secondly, getting professional assistance in implement the system. It is
beneficial for the employee/ organization regardless of where the employee are in the
position when working with the professional. In order to improve the CRM, by hiring
the professional acting as a mediator to help the employee get through the deadlock
with experienced managers. Hence its able to make the process clearer. On the other
hand, set targets and success metrics. The management for BA need to quantify the
payback from the CRM that being implement. The value are obtaining from the
customer and business from the CRM program. Airlines need to determine sort of
return they can reasonably expect from the CRM initiatives and manage towards clear
objectives. Lastly, make sure everyone share the same vision. Make sure all of the
employee in the organization involved in the CRM system due to the changes no only
effect on the sales team but also changes the function of all the department. Due to the
CRM system had been implement , thus they have to change their working style or
behaviour in order to get used to the new CRM tools/ system. Before implement, they
have to understand the purpose of implement the CRM system and be trained in
appropriate use.

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6.0 Principles made to maintain competitiveness in the global market

In order to maintain their competitiveness in the global market. BA partnering with

different hotels such as Radisson Hotel Group, Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group,
Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts and swissotel hotel. In which swissotel hotels and
resorts who are also BA Executive Club Members which have new reward to look
forward to. Where the customer stay at swiss hotel are able to collecting the BA
Executive Club Avios points directly. By sign up the Executive Club Members it
allowing the member to collect and save Avios that able to enjoy discount when
booking for the hotels. Besides that, it also allow to hotel point to be convert to Avios
in order to enjoying reward flights much sooner. Apart from this, BA also partnering
with American Express that had launch the credit card “ British Airways American
Express”. On business is BA complimentary loyalty programme that help the business
owner and employees able to maximise their company spending when corporate
travel and get substantial travel benefits to help their business grow. Its also able for
the business travellers to book the a seat the day before by using the point which
allow them to chnge the date and time of the flight for free. In order to be smart in
travel budget especially flight by participating royalty programme “On business”
which allow them to enjoy exclusive rewards, discount and the ability to earn points.
Furthermore, BA also having partnering with different airlines such as japan airlines,
Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airlines and many other airlines, the member
able to gain point through other airlines and not just British Airway. BA, able to
attract other customer from different way and not just targeted certain aspect of the
customer. Through this programme it may able to get the customer from other partner
that collaborate with. Last but not least, BA also having long running partnership with
Tesco supermarket (UK) which allow the member to gain Avios when they spend in
Tesco thus enable to convert the vouchers to Avios with BA. Avios can be used for
upgrades hotel, car rentals, award flights that allowing customers to reduce the cost of
all flights At here we can seen that BA having another way to implement the CRM
which they not only creating relationship with their own customer but they trying to

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create a relationship with other customer through their partner in order for them to
having relationship with BA.

7.0 Recommendation for future direction

Customer value and customer needs are critical to the airline's relationship with its
customers. Many airlines are developing loyalty programs that offer different benefits
to customers. Such as, redemption for free ticket and extra baggage allowance.
Throughout the years, many customer have filed numerous complaints against BA.
Their current offline CRM practices can be improved especially in social media
(Twitter) which fail to deliver the 24 hour service as promise and IT failure which
caused 1000 passenger flight to be delay. In order to for BA to gain competitive
advantage, there are some improvement in implement the CRM. Thus, BA would
need to develop an appropriate 1 to 1 CRM plan in the form of two retention
strategies. Through loyalty marketing can be an appropriate 1 to 1 CRM solution in
order to retain their customer base and not lose any further clients. This able to help
battle against the negative exposure against the organization. Besides that, in order for
BA to create a good relationship with customer it is important for BA to lead the
programme for employee motivation. Companies should listen to employee request in
order to avoid conflicts. BA should run the satisfaction surveys, besides that the
organization ought to improve its HR department about employee satisfaction,
motivation and training. In order for the employee to giving better servicing towards
the clients, by taking care of the employee are the major factor to success in the
airlines industry. Example, when interacting with the clients the employee who are
happy will often show their enthusiasm. Moreover, besides having the royalty
program “ Executive Club Members” the BA also encourage in partner with an
American Life Insurance company which called “ Allstate”. By implement the BA
Frequent Flyer program which it enable the members to earn miles/ points by
purchasing a new car or home owner insurance polivy from Allstate. Furthermore, BA
should launched the program which giving away 15000 free air ticket rewards to the
US residents in order to get attract more potential customer and also these CRM

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activities leverage the personal data received to expand customer knowledge and
provide high quality interaction management with the selected customers. On the
other hand, BA also encourage to launching a dedicated page on the website at
“ba.com/helpme” which is easier for the customer to receive assistance. In a nutshell,
the recommendation for BA is to use an IVR system ( interactive voice response).
Through IVR system, it enable clients to speak with the organization host framework
by phone/ keypad to discourse acknowledgment, in the wake of finding the idea of
their brumblings following their exchange. By implemented IVR system, it able to
reduce labor costs and deal with customer complaints in a more efficient manner.It not
just give customized travel experienced which is quick, friendly and personalized
travel experiences, but also help to resolve complaints, flight information, account
details and upgrade status.

understanding the
customer value and
customer needs is
essential for airlines
to build a relationship
to their customers.
Many airlines are
developing loyalty
program, which
offered different
10
benefits to their
customers such
as earning points for
future redemption of
free tickets and extra
baggage allowance.

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8.0 Conclusion

In a nutshell, the particular organization must be understand its own strengths and
opportunities in order to improve or expand the business methods. Due to the
customer experience is one of the deciding factor that will make up their mind when
purchasing something or they will making comparison for the company between their
competitor. In order to run the business smoothly and sustain for long time in the
industry the create relationship between the customer and the organization are
important. In order to create and retain the good relationship among their customer,
CRM are playing an important role in assist the company ( BA), it focus on
acquisition, expand and retention of customer base. By having different type of
program it able to create a continuous relationship with the customer. By analyzing,
collecting of client data, and more focused on items and administration to keep up
existing customer relationship. BA increasing effective in internal management and
training in order customer service able to improve. Relationship marketing designed
to achieve a win-win situation for both parties, BA stills need to do more in
implement good CRM to accomplish the goal. Therefore, winning the trust of
customers will be the key to gaining a competitive advantage.

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References

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Airways-PLC.html.

3) Newsdesk, M. C. (2017, April 13). British Airways CRM Case Study. Retrieved from
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4) HQ base theme. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://about.americanexpress.com/press-

release/business-credit-cards/american-express-and-british-airways-launch-new-
business-card.

5) What are the benefits of joining British Airways Executive Club? (2019, April 16).
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of-joining-british-airways-executive-club/.

6) Who are British Airways hotel partners where I can earn Avios? (2019, April 16).
Retrieved from https://www.headforpoints.com/2019/01/02/who-are-british-
airways-hotel-partners-where-i-can-earn-avios/.

7) Davies, R. (2019, August 31). Strikes, IT failures, customer unrest: can BA pull out of
this nosedive? Retrieved from
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passenger-anger-computer-failures.

8) SWOT Analysis Of British Airways. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/swot-analysis-british-airways.php.

9) byUnknown, P. (n.d.). SWOT Analysis And PESTLE Analysis Of British Airways.

Retrieved from http://researchkorner.blogspot.com/2013/11/swot-analysis-and-
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