Classic Airlines Benchmarking

Generic Benchmarking Worksheet

Task A: Problem/Opportunity Statement

Instructions for Task A: In the Response row, write out the problem/opportunity statements for the scenario for each of the team members.

Response to Task A:

Classic Airlines will maintain its strategic position in the airline industry by creating customer confidence and loyalty, improving profitability, and aligning with its stakeholders.

When Classic Airlines successfully transforms their company into a company that has highly motivated employees and provides quality products and excellent service, they will be able to maintain this status by constantly improving their revenues and total market share.

Classic Airline will improve their customer relationship management process by aligning their customers’ value to their marketing strategy.

Classic Airlines will increase profitability and maximize revenue by ensuring that they effectively manage the CRM programs of the organization and formulate strategic business processes to ensure that the business achieves future business plans.

Generic BenchmarkingвЂ"The purpose of generic benchmarking is to identify potential solutions to the problem statements defined in Task A. You will do this by looking at how companies in other industries have dealt with similar issues.

Topic A: Identify Best Practices in Customer Relationship Management

Instructions for Topic A: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

п‚* In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

п‚* In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

п‚* In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Classic Airlines from each company researched.

Response to Topic A:

In the K. Bolt article from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, a few years ago, a field researcher for a rival retailer visited a Nordstrom store in California to check out what all the noise from the West Coast was about. Not surprisingly, the report focused on "service." To begin with, the researcher reported, Nordstrom's sales associates were outstanding, friendly, outgoing, caring people who clearly impressed their customers as knowing their merchandise inside and out, not just what was in stock in their department, but what was available throughout the store. Sales people were often heard to ask for customers' home phone numbers so they could call them as soon as something additional came in. Sometimes, long after a customer had left the department, a sales associate would still be looking for related items; and, on finding something, would page the recent customer, just in case he or she was still in the store and might want to come back.

This customer service is the epitome of "doing whatever it takes" to please and satisfy customers. It is very difficult to top the leadership and customer service of Nordstrom, but Classic Airlines must use this same customer service principle if they want to fix their problems and prosper. Classic Airlines must pay close attention to their customers, discover their needs, develop the services to satisfy their needs, and then do whatever it takes to make sure the customer is satisfied.

In his article Upgrade as CRM for Small Banks, Bills talks about the benefits of the CRM system used in small banks. This system would give small community banks an advantage over larger ones by having more usable information on each customer. In order to cross sell products to existing customers, banks can benefit from having information about their individual transactions. Open Solutions has been successful in implementing this system in several small banks throughout the Unites States. Classic Airlines can also benefit from the CRM system by being able to market specific promotions to existing frequent fliers.

Mark Darby and Giovanni Simone of Airlines Business, Volume 22 Issue 3 wrote this article, Good Relations, March 2006. This article explains some of the factors airline carriers are implementing in customer relationship management as a part of their strategy. It also provides how customer relations could generate additional incomes.

The article explains that many airline carriers try to balance cost reduction, the pressure from competitors, and generating more revenues. These changes develop a “customer-centric” core passenger solution.

There are several airline carriers that have begun using “customer-centric” core passenger solutions. Some include BMI, British Airways, Garuda, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and United Airlines. These companies are using CRM as a tool to better understand their customers. They are attempting to pool together a variety of information sources.

In 2005, Arab Air Carrier Organizations, AACO, hired Unisys Transportation Management Consulting in order to define a strategy and future requirements for core passenger solutions. The research found several key areas that could be applied to other airline carriers. These finding include:

1. There was limited support for interline services

2 There was a lack of real-time information on airline carriers websites

3 There were few workflow management functions

4 Integration between reservations, inventory, departure control systems, and frequent-flyers programs was complex

5 There was a lack of consistent customers information

6 Add on modules were expensive

Many host solution providers have upgraded to the new generation models based upon customer-centered database. These upgrades have included the concept of customers’ value as key feature and multi languages of Graphical User Interface.

Other upgrades include alliance capabilities and advance workflow features.

The new generation “customer-centric” core passenger should redefine the way airlines serve and interact with their customers. The new generation model will enable