Service levels at airports soar with QR codes
Airports are no longer merely transport infrastructure providers. Rather, they are sophisticated businesses in which customer experience provides a strategic competitive edge. Bear in mind that a sizeable portion of international and national passengers select their flight route based on the reputation of the transfer airport.
QR codes have become the most effective way of measuring, managing and improving the customer experience at airports. This is considering the ease and speed at which they enable passengers and other visitors to these facilities to share important information with management on their experiences at airports. These so-called “moments of truth” are efficiently captured and used by airport management to constantly improve the quality of airport services and facilities. This is in addition to enhancing aviation and non-aviation services. In doing so, airports are able to safeguard and develop their reputations as, among others, important catalysts for travel growth and key facilitators of trade relations.
Simplifying customer experience monitoring in complex environments
QR codes have simplified the monitoring of customer experiences in notoriously complex environments. Bear in mind that customer experience in an airport setting comprises many different facets. These include the speed and ease of check-in; security; airports’ compliance with health and safety regulations; and the service delivered by airline operators. Add to this a host of other factors that also have a direct bearing on the overall passenger experience. They include the cleanliness of restroom facilities; availability of parking; the service received from retailers, bars and restaurants, duty-free stores, passport control, general enquiries and availability of WiFi, to name a few.
These, among others, are also delivered by a myriad of stakeholders, including airport management, numerous airline operators and outsourced providers of hard and soft services. This is in addition to the operators of the various hotels, bars, restaurants and retail outlets located on the property that play such a key role in providing an airport with its strategic competitive edge.
Over-and-above, airports cater to diverse passengers who have different profiles; reasons for travelling; and expectations as customers. Constant feedback from customers enables airports to improve their flexibility and adaptability so that they can respond effectively to these diverse needs.
Easy, quick and efficient
A big challenge for airports is that they generally do not know who their customers are. Unlike airlines that have full contact details for follow-up email surveys, airports must make it easy for passengers and visitors to provide feedback at multiple touchpoints while at the airport.
One of the main advantages of QR codes is that they provide customers with an easy, quick and efficient way of providing feedback on their experiences. The ability for them to report problems and for these to be acted on by the relevant airport stakeholders has long been exploited successfully by many other businesses to manage the customer experience.
Using branded signage with a call to action and the location of specific QR codes, customers just scan the QR codes using the camera scanner in their standard mobile phones and then start completing a survey or reporting a problem. QR codes should be strategically located at key touch points in the airport terminals, restaurants, retail outlets and restroom facilities, to name a few. The webforms must also be tailored to capture the relevant feedback at each touchpoint.
Instantaneous feedback
QR codes are especially relevant to airports as they are low cost and easy to deploy across the airport and facilitate in-the-moment feedback, as opposed to other common methods of undertaking surveys, such as kiosks and email. This enables customers to provide an accurate account of their experiences, as opposed to having to try to recall events exactly as they took place days or weeks after they happened. These “moments of truth” enable airports to precisely gauge the quality of passengers’ experience at various touchpoints along their journey and act upon them timeously.
By providing passengers a direct channel for feedback using QR codes also reduces the amount of negative chatter on social media channels that impacts the reputation of an airport. Problems can be “nipped-in-the-bud” and resolved before they become major issues that affect many customers and go viral.
An interesting example of QR codes is reporting disruptive passenger behaviour. Customers merely scan a QR code and complete an online form, which includes indicating where and when the incident took place. By providing a suitable channel for reporting these incidences, the correct airport personnel are alerted and are, therefore, able to respond quickly and efficiently.
Another example is using QR codes in restroom facilities. These enable passengers to report problems in real-time so that they can be resolved quickly and efficiently so that restrooms can be kept clean and stocked.
A promise of a good experience
QR codes enable an airport to gain an overall real-time view of problems being experienced by passengers and visitors across the airport. By implementing appropriate processes to act on this feedback, resolve problems and communicate with their customers, airports can meet and even exceed customers’ expectations. Providing smooth processes; comfortable and functional spaces; and high-quality, friendly and in-the-moment services, are among the many factors that ensure passengers keep returning. This in an increasingly competitive market in which airports have to constantly position themselves as the best at what they do to attract a discerning, unattached customer base.
