Analysis of the Flixbus Seat Reservation System

1. Basic conditions
Flixbus is a company that pushed the boundaries of bus transportation in Europe, during the last few years.
The system offers modern bus transportation with relatively cheap prices, that comes in most cases with
some equipment that is considered basic for this brand, such as: WIFI and slots for chargers. It operates in a
way that Flixbus hires different other bus companies and subjects them to it´s system. They use Flixbus´s
branding color, green and it´s reservation system and apps.
Customers buy tickets very easy, using the app. They receive reservation number, a QR code and sometimes
seat number. Different problems happen, as bus drivers sometimes do not know how to scan it, do not have
adequate equipment, or even sometimes, seat number reservation fails. In my example, drive from Ljubljana
to Vienna: one seat more was booked. Such problems happen when the system and processes are not
synchronized.
We hope to analyze processes they use in the system, and by doing that to point out on all bottlenecks and to
find out the best solutions for each one of them. It will be challenging, as a lot of human factor is in the
game, but we stand by the saying that the customer is always on the first place, therefore our bad experience
with the company should not happen anymore. By saying that, we hope to find the best solutions for the
processes inside the Flixbus system. On the other hand, if the drivers do not have adequate knowledge or
equipment it may be voidness of the income for the Flixbus.
Our extension from the basic process model would be making of annual premium subscription. In this way
we would be able to offer and reward the regular customers with some discounts, but also in the same way,
we would get more customers in one hand and in the other hand, some of the irregular customers would just
spend money on the subscription. In any case, this model of subscriptions would generate an additional
income to the company and raise the happiness of the customers, as they would feel more premium.
2. Organizational chart:
It shows the structure of Flixbus company. Transportation management´s job is to handle all the
transportation in a way to set up lines of the companies that are being paid by Flixbus and to develop that
relationship further. IT job is to work on the app and on the potential database of the subscribers. Marketing
should focus on the standard marketing activities and before the launch of the new subscription program, it
should launch a campaign targeting potential and current customers of the company. Controlling and
Finance should be support activities that keep the company in place and keep an eye on it´s financial
aspects.

3. Process landscape
The process start from setting up the routes. The company does that together with outsourced bus
companies. Then customers want to order a ticket of a route, they use the app. When they do there will be an
option that we think might be lucrative- to offer them a subscription. In any way, they look for the route,
while the system offers only available ones. If they find what they are looking for, the payment process
starts. After that marketing hits up, so the customer stays the customer and maybe uses the services more
often.
4. Functioning trees