Designing a customer experience for business class

With the enormous changes in the airline and aerospace industries with advances in the

information and communication technologies les to the revolution in the consumer behavior.

With the changing needs and preferences, the airline industry is undergoing major transitions

such as achieving sustainable competitive advantage from their competitors[ CITATION

Tei08 \l 1033 ]. The entry of low-cost carriers in the market has led to the dramatic changes

in the competitive landscape as they have significantly penetrated in the market by

segmenting their customers into business and economy classes by using differentiated price

strategy[ CITATION Tei08 \l 1033 ]. This change in the market landscape has created market

transparency in the favor of customer needs based on their preferences and behavior.

Service quality in the airline industry is linked with the ability of the airline providers to

transport passengers from the point of arrival at the departing airport to the point in which the

passenger leaves the destination airport while providing excellent standards of

service[ CITATION Suk14 \l 1033 ]. On the basis of the previous literature, service quality is

summarized under three schemes; firstly, service quality is difficult to evaluate than the

goods quality; secondly, the comparisons of consumer expectations with actual service

performance leads to service quality perceptions; third, quality evaluations are the process of

service delivery[ CITATION AnM09 \l 1033 ]. The main conceptualizations of service

quality exist which are disconfirmation approach and the other was performance only

approach. SERVQUAL model was widely applied in the multi-dimensional service quality

tool as the evaluation of service quality is based on the gap between expectations and

performance. The service quality provided by the airline companies have both the fixed and

flexible characteristics. The fixed characteristics are subject to seat size, cargo storage, type
of airplane and airplane maintenance. The flexible characteristics of the airline service

includes inflight services by flight attendants from the point of departure to point of arrival.

Figure 1: Airline service quality [ CITATION AnM09 \l 1033 ]

Customer satisfaction is linked with the customer’s emotional perception about the service

quality and performance meeting their needs and preferences variables. With the growing

importance and relevance of customer experience in the airline industry, airlines have

introduced differentiation for delivering total customer satisfaction, which generates loyalty

and advocacy and delivers business growth[ CITATION Lam14 \l 1033 ]. The passenger

journey from the point of origin to the point of destination is linked with the overall

satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy were, for most airlines, cabin features followed by crew

(for satisfaction) and inflight food and drink (for loyalty and advocacy) delivering

profitability, revenue and growth [ CITATION Lam14 \l 1033 ]. According to Heskett et al.
(1997)in a study of British Airways they found a potential revenue loss of over £26 million

for not delivering required service quality.

Airlines receive nearly 60% of their revenue which includes cost of airfare, fees and other

travel expenses the airlines charge from passengers and rest from the credit card companies

and other travel partners by selling frequent flier miles. Out of 60% passenger revenue,

majority of them comes from business travellers that accounts for 12% percent of airlines'

passengers and represents 75% airlines revenue, which is twice as profitable than economy

class passengers[ CITATION How21 \l 1033 ]. According to the survey conducted, it was

found that majority of business class passengers were travelling alone with an average length

of the trip varied from 2- 4 day[ CITATION Dyn20 \l 1033 ]. With the frequent-flier mileage

programs, airlines are making profit from business class travellers and other first-class

passengers that links their credit cards to the programs and allow their consumption and

spending behaviours to be traced helping businesses to develop a marketing strategy and

product research development [ CITATION Tei08 \l 1033 ].

The point of failure that may impact service quality are the exposure issues such as flight

cancellations, overbooking, strikes, diversions, delays, the attitude of the ground or cabin

employees, or reservation problems. Hence, the setback for the airlines is to define

performance standards, communicate the importance of service recovery, educate

customers to make complaints and implement technological support, such as call centres

and internet solutions. With the help of Customers’ journey mapping airlines can truly

understand the feelings of passengers and the corresponding service solutions through

incorporating the internal customer relationship management (CRM) system[ CITATION

Saj20 \l 1033 ]. However, the point of failures offers an opportunity for service recovery,
resulting in turning unsatisfied customers into loyal ones. For airlines, this means

effectively minimizing passenger betrayal and strengthening the relationship with their

clients by visualizing the relationship between different services components such as people,

props (physical or digital evidence), and processes — that are directly tied to touchpoints in a

specific customer journey using the service blueprint. The service blueprint portrays the

service system that involves service delivery process, the touch points of the customer, the

positions of customers and staff, and the tangible elements of service or facts[ CITATION

Boe20 \l 1033 ].

The extended marketing mix decisions is the integral part of service blueprint design for

successful service delivery to business class passengers includes process, people and physical

evidence. Process is directly related with the service delivery for the customers the best

policy. The airlines performs the process to effectively provide passenger information and

facilities such as scheduled departures and on-time arrivals, quick baggage handling, easy

check-in and boarding process [ CITATION Sap18 \l 1033 ]. The privilege provided to the

business class passenger includes easy check in process and giving BoardMeFirst to avoid the

queue and checking booth. The People in the aviation and service industry are flight

attendants, Travel agent, Customer service and also ground and inflight employee that aids in

providing best class convenience from the point of origin to the destination. Businesses

should ensure that the staffs are well motivated and trained to provide best service quality.

Physical evidence in airlines are the ground environment which are ground handling system,

the baggage facility system and the booking office and In Flight Services such as inflight

amenities, the cleanliness and the ambience of the flight.

In the nutshell, the report concludes that it is fundamental that airport authorities and tourism

associate bodies build collaborative strategies that solidify the relationship with the
destination from within the airport to provide the best service quality to their passengers

based on their needs and preferences. For instance; the collaboration of Changi Airport

(CAG) and Singapore Tourism board (STB) which aimed to boost visitor's awareness and

emotional ties to both Singapore and Changi Airport[ CITATION Pre191 \l 1033 ].

References

An, M., & Noh, Y. (2009, July 11). Airline customer satisfaction and loyalty: impact of in-

flight service quality. Service Business, 3, 293-307.

Boediman, S. F., & Aditya, M. K. (2020). The Analysis of Service Blueprint Application for

Qantas Airways Passenger Handling in Departure Terminal Soekarno-Hatta

International Airport, Banten. International Journal of Innovative Science and

Research Technology, 5(11).

Dynamic surveying for aviation: Business passengers. (2020). Department for Transport.

Laminga, C., & Mason, K. (2014, April). Customer experience — An analysis of the concept

and its performance in airline brands. Research in Transportation Business & Management,

10, 15-25.

Prentie, C., & Kadan, M. (2019, March). The role of airport service quality in airport and

destination choice. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 47, 40-48.

How Much Airline Revenue Comes From Business Travelers? (2021, May 28). The

Investopedia Express.

Sajadi, R. E. (2020). Service Recovery in the Airline Industry. Retrieved from

https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/service-recovery-airline-industry

Saputri, M. E., & Sari, D. (2018). The Effect of Service Marketing Mix in Low Cost

Airlines:. Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 65.

Suki, N. M. (2014, April). Passenger satisfaction with airline service quality in Malaysia: A

structural equation modeling approach. Research in Transportation Business &

Management, 10, 26-32.

Teichert, T., Shehu, E., & Wartburg, I. (2008, January). Customer segmentation revisited:

The case of the airline industry. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and

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Appendix
Figure 2: Service blueprint