ATA Airlines and Aerolineas Argentinas Leverage New Customer Care Features to Personalize Service to Individual Passengers and Provide Real-Time Marketing Opportunities
SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 30, 2004–Sabre Airline Solutions (NYSE:TSG), the industry leader in airline operations technology, has successfully launched new customer care features for airline travelers. Recently launched Customer Insight and Customer Data Delivery offerings have been implemented by several airlines, including ATA Airlines, Aerolineas Argentinas and Jet Airways. The new features are part of the new generation passenger management suite, SabreSonic, and provide airlines new ways to enhance the customer experience and build customer loyalty.
As consumers have become savvier about shopping for travel, many industry observers have indicated that airline travel is becoming a commodity. A unique customer care and service program, however, is one area that can distinguish an airline. A McKinsey study noted that effective implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) program can increase an airline’s revenues by as much as 2.4 percent a year, representing a bottom-line annual impact of $100 million to $250 million for a large carrier. Jupiter Research also found that consumers in the travel category, particularly among the airlines’ high value travelers, rate customer service as a key to their next purchasing decision in a 2003 survey.
The new customer care options for SabreSonic are customer-centric and provide a holistic view of the customer at every customer touch point – including the airline’s website or check-in kiosk – that is updated in real time, including the day of travel.
As an example, Customer Insight can store complete information about customers, including destination, service, seat preferences as well as historical customer experience data. This information is available at all customer service points, enabling airline staff to better understand and serve customers as well as acknowledge and respond to service experiences.
“With Customer Insight, all of our call center personnel now have access to the Aerolineas PLUS frequent flyer information. The call center personnel have all the information needed to make a reservation, provide account balances, exchange points for tickets and issue tickets all without having to transfer the customer to another area,” said Claudia Toldeo, Call Center manager for Aerolineas Argentinas.
While many companies and airlines have tacked on services they call CRM, until now there has not been a way to truly integrate and disseminate critical passenger information to all the touch points in the service cycle. Historically, customer information has been fragmented in various airline departments and systems, making a holistic view of the customer difficult. In addition, most systems today are transaction-centric, meaning that they are optimized for each transaction and revolve around the passenger’s individual trips.
The technology that delivers the customer care integration for SabreSonic is provided through two key options:
-- Customer Insight, the industry's first true operational
customer care program, provides technology for an airline to
create, update and share customer information in real time
across an entire airline enterprise through a centralized
customer database that is shared through the many disparate
airline operational systems. This customer centric approach
allows airlines to shift focus from merely processing
passengers to providing travelers personalized customer
service. Customer Insight, a feature of SabreSonic Res, will
provide the first true flow of passenger information
throughout the entire journey. Web service access allows
authorized airline employees to easily access, create,
retrieve and modify the customer information at any customer
service point.
-- Customer Data Delivery provides detailed travel pattern
information for hosted airlines through passenger trip data
(PNR) in both near real time and scheduled timeframes. The
data includes advance booking information on all active
bookings made by the airline, including airline ticket
offices, web site, and call centers as well as bookings made
by travel agencies and other airlines. The Customer Data
Delivery option provides the best source of advance booking
information for a specific hosted carrier, sending only data
elements relevant to the carrier's business needs and at a
frequency determined by an airline. This customized delivery
of travel patterns and behavior can be used to improve
customer service, optimize revenues, and provide the
foundation for additional marketing opportunities.
Sabre Airline Solutions’ customer care options leverage and enhance the entire SabreSonic portfolio. The data from Customer Insight can be used to complement the trip data provided by the Customer Data Delivery product. Together, these products support creation of a 360-degree view of a traveler.
“At Sabre Airline Solutions we believe a customer care program is a business strategy, not a solution. Therefore, we have made a significant investment in customer-focused open systems platforms to provide an integrated view of the traveler,” said Gianni Marostica, president, Airline Passenger Solutions at Sabre Airline Solutions. “Our competitors have come to market with point solutions or parts and pieces of a CRM infrastructure, but to our knowledge, Sabre Airline Solutions is the only one to provide a complete infrastructure that serves both operational as well as analytical customer care business needs.”
Both Frontier Airlines and Aeroflot included the customer care options as part of their recent selection of SabreSonic for their passenger management solutions.
“One of the key reasons we chose the SabreSonic solution over other competitors was for the ability it will give us to distinguish ourselves through service,” said Sean Menke, Frontier’s senior vice president of Marketing.
About Sabre Airline Solutions
Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE:TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at Sabre Airline Solutions, a Sabre Holdings company, is the world’s largest provider of software products, reservation and departure control systems and consulting services to help airlines simplify operations and lower costs. Over 200 airlines worldwide use Sabre Airline Solution’s broad portfolio of software solutions for decision-support tools to increase revenues and improve operations. Over 100 airlines worldwide rely on Sabre Airline Solutions for passenger management solutions, with 15 new carriers added and nine carriers renewals for SabreSonic Res advanced reservations and departure control systems in 2003. In addition, more than 100 clients worldwide have turned to Sabre Airline Solutions consulting group for strategic, commercial and operational consulting. More than 500 contracts worldwide were signed in 2003 within Sabre Airline Solutions.
Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com/.
Sabre Airline Solutions, the Sabre Airline Solutions logo and SabreSonic, SabreSonic Res, Customer Insight and Customer Data Delivery are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Sabre Airline Solutions
Kathryn Hayden, 682-605-2252
kathryn.hayden@sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Airline Solutions
