How Airlines Can Turn Service Setbacks into Customer Connections that Propel Brand Loyalty

Countless things can go wrong at an airport regarding the customer experience, from waiting in long security lines to delayed flights and being stuck at the airport due to weather, just to finally arrive at your destination and wait even longer to find the luggage you checked in.

What’s worse, many of those issues aren’t even in the direct control of airports, making creating an outstanding customer experience even more difficult. But while it might not be possible to control every aspect of the customer journey to prevent any hiccups, it’s always possible to mitigate their negative impact by how you react to them.

In this article, we’ll discuss how airports can use these negative service experiences and turn them into enjoyable customer connections that build brand loyalty and help stand out from the competition in this ever-competitive industry.

The Impact of a Negative Customer Experience on Flyers

The negative experiences we mentioned above will frustrate almost any flyer. This additional annoyance can spoil their day even further when they have experienced unrelated hardships related to their trip or are faced with a long travel day.

Even though there are no alternatives for customers in many cases, and they will have to continue using the airport in the future despite negative experiences, these issues can still negatively impact the airport’s bottom line.

For example, negative online reviews can prevent new customers from using the airport, instead opting for an alternative. Additionally, it can prompt customers to spend as little time at the airport as possible to prevent potential issues, meaning that they won’t spend money on amenities such as lounges, depriving the airport of additional revenue opportunities.

Why Are Many Airport Experiences Subpar?

Airports face various problems that might make their customer experiences miss the mark. One of the main reasons is being short on staff, making it difficult to focus on critical areas of the airport and ensure a positive customer experience across all of them.

Budget constraints are another problem. Even though many airports would like to invest in improving their customer experience, the solutions available on the market are simply outside their budget, preventing them from using the latest technology and tools with the highest return on investment.

Lastly, airports might not know the gaps in their customer experience or they might be facing pushback from key stakeholders for various reasons, such as the available solutions being too cumbersome to use or the fear of harming brand consistency with unbranded terminals or tools that don’t align with the brand.

Creating an Outstanding Flyer Experience Despite Limitations

Despite the limitations, airports and airlines still have plenty of opportunities to create stellar customer experiences. While many factors influencing flyer experiences are outside their reach, they can still control what happens after the incident.

There are many things airports and airlines can do, but they should always focus on those that directly address flyer pain points and allow them to change their mind about the experience right after it happens. Among possible solutions, here are four that customers will appreciate the most:

1. Free Hotel Stays

One of the most popular solutions among airlines to mitigate the negative experience caused by delayed flights is offering free hotel stays to impacted flyers. These hotel stays aim to provide comfort during the prolonged wait time, which can often extend throughout an entire night, and offer them a place to rest and prepare for the continuation of their journey.

However, it shouldn’t stop at just a free hotel stay. Airlines should also include free meals during the visit to increase flyers’ comfort. While this usually has one or two meals, which isn’t a considerable expense for the airline, it can hugely impact the customer's experience.

2. Free Ticket for Future Travels

Another strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of a subpar flyer experience is to offer a free ticket for future travel. While companies can also simply reimburse the fee for the delayed flight, allowing customers to pick a ticket for free invites them to use the airline’s services again, creating an opportunity for a second, better impression.

Because of the value of the reimbursement and the freedom customers receive by being able to choose their location and date of travel, they’ll feel that their opinion matters, making them more likely to return and spend more.

3. Adding Frequent Flyer Miles

While not all flyers will be members of the Frequent Flyer Miles club, for those who are, you can multiply the number of miles they’ll receive for their delayed flight by a factor of 2, 3, or even 5.

This can also be an excellent argument to enroll in the program for flyers who aren’t members yet. When you offer them many points from the beginning, they’ll be enticed to become members, especially if they can already get something for the number of points they get, or at least get very close.

4. First Class Bump

For flyers particularly impacted by the delays, such as those who will miss their connecting flight, you can consider bumping them to first class. Of course, this solution won’t be available to all flyers because of the limited number of first-class seats, so you must be very selective when choosing who will get it.

You can choose from people who didn’t get any of the benefits discussed earlier or offer first-class bumps on other flights so more people can access it.

Mitigating Negative Experiences in Real Time

While mitigating negative experiences can help airports regain their lost reputation, ensuring such situations don’t occur is much better in the first place. And the best way to do that is to start by identifying gaps in the customer experience.

Technology helps airports use artificial intelligence and data analysis to collect feedback and alert them about changes, such as the overall satisfaction score below a set benchmark. This, combined with a specific point in time and place to which every piece of customer feedback is connected, allows for a comprehensive image of the customer journey and any bottlenecks within it.

How the Smiley Face Technology Works

While there are many different systems for collecting customer feedback, the smiley face technology is among the most intuitive. Unline star ratings, which require the customer to think more than necessary about their experience, often discourage them from participating in the feedback process. Smiley faces are intuitive and easy to use.

In addition, they require no long-form input or additional work on the customer’s end. All they need to do is press one of the two buttons, and their feedback will be saved for analysis. This low entry barrier ensures that everybody can leave feedback, no matter how much time and effort they’re willing to give the company.

Benefits of Data Analytics for Airports

While there are countless reasons why airports should consider implementing data analytics for their customer experience efforts, these are three that most often prompt companies to implement such solutions:

1.    Customer Loyalty: When flyers see their feedback matters, and the company not only collects it but also makes changes based on it and does everything it can to mitigate negative experiences, they’ll be much more likely to keep coming back more frequently, increasing the bottom line.

2.     Informed Decision-Making: Many businesses today, including airports, rely on gut feelings when making critical operational decisions. However, they can replace data analytics with actionable insights based on real-world data, meaning that the results they bring will be much more tangible.

3.     Employee Satisfaction: A positive customer experience translates into employee satisfaction, as staff knows which areas require more attention, and can decrease the number of negative customer interactions and increase their own well-being.

For airports, creating a positive customer experience is key, even though, in many cases, customers will still have to use their services regardless of how they make them feel. However, when the passenger experience is positive, customers are more likely to shop, eat, and spend money during their dwell time, which can have a significant impact to the airport’s bottom line.

While airports can implement various strategies to mitigate negative experiences, including offering free hotel stays or upgrades, what’s much better is preventing these experiences from ever occurring in the first place. And this is when artificial intelligence and data analytics come into the picture.

With real-time insights, these technologies allow airports and airlines to view their customer journey better, spot any issues and bottlenecks, and address them promptly to create a better experience for flyers.