The age of customer experience
"Companies that prioritise investment in customer experience (CX) have better revenue growth and are more profitable than companies where CX is not a priority."
The Economist
Any airline with an objective of growth must focus on customer experience (CX) as it is considered one of the most critical factors in determining brand loyalty, reputational value and business performance.
Customer experience is more than positive sentiment – it contributes to the bottom line. And personalisation is a huge part of this. McKinsey refers to personalisation as a “hygiene factor” because it’s something customers take for granted, but if a business gets it wrong, they are more likely to go to a competitor in future.
A customer that is completely satisfied contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a customer that is somewhat satisfied and 14 times as much as a customer that is somewhat dissatisfied.
In 2017, the value of United Airlines’ shares dropped by $1.4 billion after a recording of a passenger’s poor experience on board one of its flights went viral on social media.
Investing in customer experience has the potential to
double a company’s revenue within three years.
The price premium for excellent customer experience now stands at 16% for products and services, with 52% of people willing to pay more for speedy and efficient service from a brand.
Contextual, relevant and helpful personalisation is the key to elevating customer experience today.
Experience Management firm Qualtrics describes two types of data that a business can use to offer the ultimate personalised experience:
Source: Qualtrics
X-Data
Short for ‘experience data’, is the beliefs, emotions, and sentiments of your customers. Qualtrics describes it as “the human feedback that points to the gaps between what you think is happening and what’s really happening.” Without this insight, you cannot provide the human touch that makes personalisation so powerful.
O-Data
Short for ‘operational data’, is qualitative insights associated with your customers’ activities. Accessing this data will give you a perspective on the value of each customer, how loyal they are, and whether they’ve been impacted by disruption before (and how it was managed).
