Long queues at check-in, flight delays, cancellations and lost baggage characterised the journeys of many passengers in 2022. This was accompanied by a record number of complaints against airlines – a test of endurance for customers, employees and decision-makers. It is assumed that in 2023, air travel will still not run smoothly in many cases. Due to the sharp increase in the volume of complaints, feedback management is a permanent topic in top management meetings. In times of high backlogs, it is important to use the momentum to push through investments for a fundamental renewal of feedback management.
The following shows the starting points for innovative feedback management in airlines and how to proceed with implementation. The focus is on negative feedback and complaints after the trip. The complainant can be the end customer submitting feedback for themselves or others. Or it can be a lawyer representing the interests of end customers. Complainants can also be travel agents, such as travel agencies or passenger portals.
Steps to implement an innovative feedback management system
1. Claims assessment in self-service
In the first step towards increasing the efficiency of feedback management, an attempt should be made to provide complainants with help to help themselves. This includes, for example, designing the website to be informative. Proactive information about the legal situation or compensation entitlements saves unnecessary enquiries for which there is no entitlement. Intelligent FAQs that already contain links to more information in the proposed solution avoid follow-up questions from complainants. This not only keeps the workload for feedback management low, but also increases customer satisfaction by providing a quick response to the enquiry.
2. Structured feedback collection
If the complainant contacts the airline directly, this should be done via the contact channel that the airline can process most quickly and effectively for the complainant. In most cases, this is a dynamic contact form. Dynamic means that the contact form displays different further queries depending on the input in order to obtain all relevant information for the specific topic. The complainant is only asked the questions that are important for his case. This increases motivation when filling it out. It also avoids the need to ask the complainant questions during the processing stage, which costs more time and effort. The queries as to who the complainant is, how many and which people are affected, simplify the process of creating the case. If it is initially clarified whether this is an initial feedback or a follow-up letter, the next step can be better routed and prioritised. Intelligent FAQs (e.g. with information on compensation guidelines, further links) or a claim check can also be integrated into the contact form. In addition, interfaces to backend systems can be set up to check the data entered (e.g. flight number exists on this date). Such interfaces enable, among other things, the establishment of the autocomplete function.
3. Fully automated processing through structured contact forms
If the contact form is structured holistically and connected to the necessary third-party systems, requests can be processed fully automatically. This is possible for clear cases of compensation claims, such as the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation 261/2004.
4. Partially automated processing through structured contact form
If fully automated processing is not possible, the aim is to automate as many individual process steps as possible. As soon as feedback is received, the system should check whether a process already exists for this concern (duplicate) or whether it is a follow-up to an existing process and merge the respective processes.
The dynamic contact form can be used to set up an automated categorisation of the processes. The entries in the contact form determine which category of enquiry is involved and the category is automatically stored in the process. This enables an automated bundling of similar enquiries, which the employee can process more quickly and routinely one after the other. The categorisation can also be used to prioritise urgent topics.
Another decisive advantage of a clean categorisation of incoming feedback is that it allows the processes to be routed automatically. Depending on the topic, the process can be routed to the most qualified employee. This routing allows employees to get started with their operational activities more quickly. A short training session is sufficient to enable new employees or temporary staff to process simple categories on a case-by-case basis.
The system can also use the flight data entered and the categorisation to determine whether and which data from the airline’s back-end systems still needs to be added so that the employees have all the information they need to make a decision on how to resolve the request. Interfaces to the feedback management tool can be used to automatically enrich data during the process.
Based on the categorisation of the process, the system can generate automated response and compensation suggestions. This saves the employee from having to manually search for text modules for the response letter and to manually check lists that show the amount and type of compensation determined for each case.
Automation approaches should be introduced step by step. After each step, it is possible to analyse whether the automation has actually increased the efficiency of the process and improved customer satisfaction. Compensation for clear-cut cases that occur frequently should be addressed first. The aim should be to achieve fully automated processing of certain feedback categories step by step.
5. Tracking and tracing: view complaint status
To increase customer satisfaction during the processing of a complaint, setting up an automatic status update for the complainant can help. At the same time, it avoids interim questions from the complainant and thus reduces the volume of inquiries.
This update on the current processing status of a request can either be implemented by email or by setting up a portal where the status can be queried (see below: the future of feedback management at airlines).
6. Customer choice between compensation alternatives
Giving the complainant the choice of the type of compensation they would like (e.g. a cash payment or a voucher) increases customer satisfaction because the customer is involved in the decision-making process regarding the matter. They feel as though they have had a say in the solution. The choice of
can be designed, for example, via a link that is sent in the reply and leads to a website. On this website, the customer can indicate which type of compensation they would like. If, for example, they opt for a cash payment, it is only necessary to request the bank details in this step of the feedback process. If the customer is asked for this information on the contact form, there is a risk that it will no longer be up to date by the time the compensation is carried out. Furthermore, asking for bank details without already knowing that they will be needed later is problematic for data protection reasons.
7. Reporting of feedback
In principle, every airline is concerned with avoiding negative feedback and complaints. This is where feedback management can make a decisive contribution. Comprehensive feedback reporting, which shows the reasons and causes for complaints, can be forwarded to the relevant other areas of the company. After implementing the improvement measures, it is possible to track whether and how much less negative feedback is received on the relevant topic. This is how an airline can gradually improve.
The future of feedback management in airlines
In the long term, a customer feedback platform offers a highly customer-centric way to process feedback. On such a platform, the complainant can submit their feedback, view the data they have entered and the airline’s response(s), and submit further information if necessary. The status of the processing is always visible.
If a decision is made regarding the compensation claim, the customer can select the desired type of compensation via the portal. Finally, an assessment of the feedback process can also be obtained.
The future of feedback management, in which requests are processed efficiently and in a customer-oriented manner even in times of crisis, is primarily automated. Some airlines process feedback in their in-house CRM systems, which they have configured for the relevant feedback management processes. Other airlines use specialised feedback management software. Whichever technology is used, it is important that new contact channels for receiving feedback can be implemented in the system. This is because the topic of omni-channel is also present in the feedback area and airlines repeatedly have to adapt to new channels and portals such as social media. It is also recommended that the software used is linked to third-party systems in order to integrate information from the internal system environment quickly and easily. This speeds up the processing without the need for manual requests from other departments
Conclusion
The past year has shown how important scalable feedback management is for airlines. A structured, (partially) automated process is critical to success in order to minimise processing backlogs in crisis situations in the future and thus reduce the burden on customers, employees and the company. To achieve this, processes must now be rethought, changes introduced and investments made in technology.
Tip: Read this blog post to find out how to master the flood of complaints through intelligent processing.