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