Virgin America to deploy Customer Data and Experience solutions and industry-first Sabre Dynamic Retailer
SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Feb. 24, 2015 – Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a leading technology provider to the global travel and tourism industry, today announced the launch of three new, powerful data-driven, personalization solutions, further solidifying the company’s role as a leader in shaping the future of the airline industry.
The three new solutions, Sabre’s Customer Data Hub and Customer Experience Manager, and industry first, Dynamic Retailer, source insights on customers from multiple touch points and then use that data to create personalized, meaningful engagements with travelers.
Dynamic Retailer promotes ancillary growth by dynamically creating flight and ancillary offers using personalized customer insights to generate incremental revenue. It also enables an airline to identify and offer the most relevant services and product bundles to travelers.
Virgin America, ranked the Top Domestic Airline seven years in a row by readers of Travel + Leisure magazine, is the first carrier to deploy Sabre’s Customer Data Hub, Customer Experience Manager, and Dynamic Retailer in combination.
“We wanted technology that would help us better understand our guests’ needs, focus on their individual priorities, and create an experience they can’t get with any other airline,” said David Cush, president and chief executive officer of Virgin America. “These new solutions give us invaluable insights into our guests to create tailored experiences that drive loyalty, and support our mission to make flying good again.”
In a Sabre survey of airline executives, nearly all – 97 percent – indicated they would be making investments in technology to improve the customer experience. IBM did a study modeling the top-20 airlines’ investments in multi-channel sales and services. The study predicted that a large carrier investing $34 million in a customer experience project would recoup that investment in just 16 months. After five years, the total benefit is an estimated $582 million.
These solutions are designed to bridge the gap between passenger perceptions of an airline’s customer service delivery and the efforts of that airline to create a differentiated customer experience. That divide was highlighted in a survey commissioned by Sabre in which 81 percent of airline executives said they believe airline customer experience has improved, while 66 percent of travelers said they believe airline experience has been unchanged or gotten worse.
“Airline customers today expect more and more from carriers, and Sabre has identified ways airlines can improve the customer experience using established technologies that are already working in other service industries,” said Hugh Jones, president of Sabre Airline Solutions. “Sabre’s data-driven personalization vision further enhances reservations and airline retailing systems, giving airlines the ability to understand their customers at an individual level and deliver personalized products and services that customers most value.”
Sabre’s personalization solutions allow airlines to identify their highest-value customers, and target those travelers with offers based on their past travel habits.
“Our new customer experience solutions are designed to optimize incremental revenue, reduce acquisition and service costs through long-term customer loyalty, automate a consistent customer experience, and differentiate an airline’s brand from the many options from which travelers can choose,” said Jones. “Using Sabre technology, an airline can create that truly personalized, dynamic customer experience, without the customer even asking.”
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Sabre Corporation is a leading technology provider to the global travel and tourism industry. Sabre’s software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more than $110 billion of estimated travel spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre operates offices in approximately 60 countries around the world.
About Virgin America: Known for its mood-lit cabins, three beautifully designed classes of service and innovative fleetwide amenities — like touch-screen personal entertainment, WiFi and power outlets at every seat, Virgin America has built a loyal following of flyers and earned a host of awards since launching in 2007 — including being named both the “Best U.S. Airline” in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards and “Best Domestic Airline” in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards for the past seven consecutive years. For more:www.virginamerica.com
Editor’s Note: Virgin America is a U.S.-controlled, owned and operated airline. It is an entirely separate company from Virgin Atlantic. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is a minority share investor in Virgin America.