Ai Editorial: In-flight analytics - can I have my favorite chocolate mousse on-board?
In-flight analytics - can I have my favorite chocolate mousse on-board?
This case study is about overcoming the disconnect between what travellers expect and the effort behind data, analytics and personalisation. Ai’s Ritesh Gupta explores the same with his recent flying experience
I love chocolate mousse. In the recent years, as an economy class passenger, when I have travelled to the U. S, be it for via Air France KLM or British Airways, I have had mousse as part of the in-flight meal. Taking two or even three back-to-back flights over a period of 24-30 hours is no fun. But whenever I had mousse it did refresh me, helping me remaining afloat for few hours at least. The hiccup here is that I am not too sure on which sector I would be served my favourite dessert.
And the worst part– the airline crew having it and not knowing I want it.
Moment of magic @ in-flight: I recently flew four long-haul flights in one trip via British Airways.
Outward: New Delhi to London to Fort Worth.
Inward: San Diego to London to New Delhi.
The chocolate mousse was served as part of my in-flight meal on the following sectors: London To Forth Worth and London to New Delhi sectors. The brand was same. On my last flight, I asked the air-hostess about the brand of the particular chocolate mousse. She didn’t know it, but she served me one more. It delighted me no end.
One way to feel happy when you are flying two back-to-back nine-hour flights.
So before we hear from experts about what can pave way for this not just being a co-incidence, let me share relevant details:
Trip planning, booking and journey
Booking was done by my company, Ai, via BA website. As for indications that I wanted chocolate mousse, I searched for all the sectors on Google and typed “Chocolate Mousse on BA flights”. This was done via my PC at home and my iPhone. This was done over a period of 2 weeks before my first flight. Other touch-points: I used web check-in for all flights via my PC at home and laptop while on the road, and I also reserved my seat (aisle). I also accessed my in-flight email (Gmail), scanned check-in image via my iPhone for all the trips.
Profile: I am a laid-back traveller, and I don’t think of accruing points/ miles for any loyalty program. As for BA, I travelled after eight years (email id was same).
Points to consider:
- Understanding my intent as per my usage of devices, Gmail and airline website: Predictive analytics is all about behaviour in context, says Boxever’s VP – Sales, Ultan O Brien. There is a need to understand whether you are in inspiration mode, shopping mode, buying mode or travelling mode, and what different devices you use in those modes. So, an example might be that you tend to search for possible destinations at lunchtime on your office desktop (Mac) or laptop (Macbook), shop in the evening on your (iPad) tablet, book on your home desktop (Windows PC) and travel on your iPhone.
The context may be derived from external factors - such as looking for sunny destinations in Spain when it’s raining in Dublin, or internal factors - such as searching is generally done on a large screen when time to concentrate is available but firm decisions are made concrete with family members in the evening in a casual manner perhaps sitting on a couch with a mobile tablet device!
These are all things that can be correlated from analytics and understanding the internal and external factors that drive behaviour makes irrational behaviour predictable.
- Is Google in a position to offer me something through any of services to connect the dots between my search and Gmail (since dates of travel/ flight itinerary were in Gmail and I searched for BA on Google as well): Google has long been commercialising this data, says O Brien. He says they are more adept at stitching together the information they have on your profile (travel intent) than anyone else on the planet. However, Google’s primary business model is advertising, so they are always using this information to sell onto the travel service providers. He says if one compares the cost of acquiring customer from Google between travel and financial services - travel is twice as expensive per acquisition and the conversion rate in travel is around 6% rather than almost 30% in financial services.
- Is there any way BA could have ascertained that I like chocolate mousse and I was looking for it on-board?: Linking the in-flight ePOS device or seatback ordering system linked to the seat allocation number in the PSS cross referenced with the PNR details in the booking engine (which all exist in the single view of the customer) captures the specific preferences of meals, or products (food preferences such as the specific chocolate mousse, drinking beverage preference such as beer, spirit or wine, or service preference such as an additional blanket/ pillow). “Not only could this be predicted but it could be pre-ordered into the standard packing list for that flight,” said O Brien. It is possible to plan dynamic catering automation, and the next natural step is to focus on prediction of food/ beverage/ service preferences onboard.
Rachel Besant, marketing manager, 15below (the company focuses on data sources which the airline subscribes to - i.e. the FFP, reservations systems, other third party providers including merchandising etc.) says if BA has a system which logs the food options available on their flights, then it is possible to integrate with this data source (whichever system - third party or internal solution the airline chooses) and offer/ pre-order chocolate mousse, should BA intend to offer this service. Airlines will be asking if this is a significant enough differentiator for the additional logistical complexity this adds.
How would it work?
15below, for example as a notifications and workflow provider, could directly hook into this data source and proactively send notification to traveller with option to pre-order their meal. They would then record this action back into the PNR (and other system such as CRM, depending on how BA want this to work). The tailored workflows would continue to record and extract traveller preferences in order to send very targeted, personalised and timely offers.
- Empowering in-flight attendant: The flight attendant didn’t know the brand, but served me mousse. So the question in this case is - can the in-flight attendant be empowered in advance to offer me an option to buy mousse or have it complimentary (which she offered me anyway)? Airlines need to work out both the options. O Brien said the item should have been added to the packing list as there was a clear demand – as I indicated a preference towards it on a number of occasions and this was acknowledged. In fact this should almost be self serve - like a digital menu - where you are given preferences to choose to have these options on-board and whether you might be willing to pay for them.
The actual decision to charge or to provide as complimentary should be based on a couple of items bubbling up from the analytics - loyalty status and potential lifetime value to the brand, what’s your recency frequency metric, your average order value, your service recovery score (have the airline messed up with you previously – e. g lost bag, cancelled flight, spilt coffee) , and your social influence score (how likely you are to tweet (or write an article) about the experience?
“So the analytics should be able to predict you want a mousse on the next flight - the decision or option to charge you based on your profile - inform the flight attendant that you are important to the brand and not to charge you for the pleasure,” shared O Brien.
Another executive told me: Realistically it probably wouldn’t be feasible to do any of this without pre-booking your meal (beyond just selecting ‘VGML’, for example). In-flight staff don’t have the ability to record what meal you selected, the source mentioned.
- Crafting an offer around chocolate mousse: I liked the complimentary part so much that I shared this with my daughter and told her it was better than what is served on other European flights. Can I be offered a package around this to enjoy with my family whenever I fly again (with any airline)?
There are airlines that allow one to add chocolates / champagne for any wedding couples on their honeymoon as a pre-order component, to get a fillet steak in economy on transatlantic flights. Also, as per the feedback that I gathered, say if you’re sitting in economy but you’d like a First Class meal, you can now order this (at a cost). A specialist then arranges all the logistics and supply of these meals ready for the flight take-off. This is just one way for airlines to offer a more personalised service whilst making some additional revenues.
The key restriction right now is:
- Capturing these preferences organically
- Linking the preferences to the delivery capability (last mile operator like the caterer and their systems) and,
- Execution - deliver of the order at the right time in the right manner (the last three feet - training crew to manage the information in a relevant rather than intrusive manner)
Future
The future of in-flight analytics should be able to offer you the rest of the movie you watched (and didn’t finish) on the last flight - recommendations of movies based on what I have watched - this could be applied to food, drink, duty free products, gifts and home delivery products.
This is the same outside the cabin - offer me a specific coffee as I am entering the airport to have it available in lounge - (Air NZ are already doing this with a Barista type service), baggage location, transfers if I like it with an understanding of my destination (such as office or home locations).
As O Brien says, analytics will re-define the shopping and travel experience over the coming years and make it frictionless to offer and consume preferred products.
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