4 Simple Tips on How Airlines Can Provide a Better Online Experience to Customers
According to a study conducted by Berry and Jia in 2010, around 50-60 percent flights were booked online in the U.S alone. Now imagine this happening on a global level. According to Euro monitor International, global online travel and tourism sales are expected to reach 830 billion dollars in 2017. Having an online presence is no longer an issue as most of the airlines have running websites, the real need is to stay up to date with the latest trends and to make the entire online experience worthwhile for your customers. The digital age has created a whole new world of customer expectations. Therefore, it is important to enrich the customer experience at every level and create customer loyalty through this platform.
Create a Holistic Website Experience
The visitor’s experience with your airline begins from the time they land on your website and look for information or make a booking. Creating a great website is not as simple as it might appear. Making sure that your website is customer friendly should be your priority at all times. The website design should be minimalistic, easy to navigate and responsive. Keep the content relevant, precise and easy to understand. According to a report published by IATA, 82% travelers agree that booking a flight online is the easiest way to go about it. Therefore, make sure that you are catering to the needs of this 82% of customers.
Add Live Chat for Better Interaction and Customer Support
Customers feel more in control when they are able to talk to someone who can guide them on the website. This is where the live chat feature comes in handy. Live chat allows you to understand the issues your customers are facing and it also enables you to answer their questions in real time. A study conducted by ATG Global Consumer Trend revealed that 90% customers find live chat more helpful as compared to email or any other kind of social media presence.
To cater to customers from all over the world, providing multilingual customer service is an important factor to consider. It is also important to make the live chat service available 24/7.
Add Convenience to Booking
Technology has rapidly changed the world and the way people interact. Keeping this in mind, the airline industry can further enhance their online booking procedures. Make it easy and simple for customers to book. You should also offer loyalty programs on online bookings. Offering discounted rates would automatically make you more popular than your competitors and this can also be a great opportunity to make customers for life.
Seating is also a very important concern of the traveler and to show that you care, make sure that there is a 3D map available on your website which allows the customer to choose the seat he/she deems best.
Food menus should also be present on the website so that the passenger is able to notify in advance of any allergies or special needs that he/she has.
An App for Customers
In present times, it is vital to be accessible on all digital platforms. According to eMarketer, a total of 1.75 billion in the world are smartphone users, the same people prefer getting the information and help they require online instead of waiting on calls. Design an app for customers which is based on customer ease. Since smartphones have enabled customers to have easy access to the internet at all times, an app can do wonders for a business. By allowing travelers to check their flight schedules through their phones, you are making yourself even more accessible and that is the key to achieving success with today’s generation. A well designed app will save the time of an individual and improve customer experience.