Customer Contact Points

Why Service Encounters Matter Motivations for an Enhanced Blueprint Traditionally, service blueprints have been done entirely with lines and text boxes to depict anything from user actions to support processes. Our research explores how to introduce new elements to the blueprint for capturing the meanings or emotional qualities that the customer experiences during key moments of the service. Our motivation is to augment the listing of customer-provider actions with some working form of a bellwether that could be used to temper the ups and downs of the customers relationship with the provider. Attending to this relationship is an important factor in maintaining and sustaining the customer base, as the customers emotional state during the service contributes to their overall perception of the service. There has been considerable research to support the connection between decision making and emotions. It seems that when designing, engineering, and managing services, one should consider these emotional values as well. Our decisions depend a lot on what we perceive, on what our brain samples in the world and the way in which it connects the objects it perceives with the past. The customer perceptions of the service may be established before they contact their service provider and certainly mature as the number of experiences they have with the service increases. In order to bring the offering closer to the actual customer need, while respecting their perceived needs, requires some consideration for their emotional state. To create visual elements for the expected various human states in the blueprint, we employed the talents of an interaction designer. Designers have an empathetic eye that allows them to recognize moments during the service engagement that require more customer care. Design is often an opportunity to go back to those assumptions that have become invisible and unnoticed A designer looks for the real thing we are trying to accomplish, unvarnished by the residue of years of organizational habit. Now, our abstract ideas about the importance of emotions and business relationships were made more concrete as she was able to conceive and formulate the relevant visualizations for the blueprint process.

Core Service
Being transported fast, safely and comfortably

Augmented service
Post-flight Customer care Frequent-flyer program Baggage handling On-board food On-board entertainment Reservation system website Airport desk Call-center Airport lounge On-board flight assistants.

AUGMENTED SERVICE
Air Blue is well known for the quality of the experience provided. In order to break down and study all the supplementary (enhancing and facilitating) services that the company provides in order to deliver the core service, that is the actual flight, and to differentiate itself from competitors. We will see that the company and its partners (the airport staff, the support vehicles, etc) have to put a lot of effort and resources in the supplementary services while the actual flight has a relatively small part in the process. These facilitating services, although necessary, are perceived by the customers mostly as hygienic factors that is, they dont provide additional value to the customer experience but if for some reason they fail, they will create a big dissatisfaction.
THE PRE FLIGHT

A lot of customers dont consciously realize that there is much more to a flight than bookin g and attending it. The price they pay for when purchasing a ticket includes all the supplementary services. The Core product is the transportation from airport A to airport B. but everything else which accompanies it is called supplementary service, and even if a lot of these services are expected by the customer, he/she doesnt consciously pay for it. The following are the necessary steps in the process of delivering the service before the customer gets into the plane.

AIR BLUE AIRLINE BLUE PRINT OF SERVICE

INFORMATION

The process starts off with the information gathering before attending the flight. In recent years, more and more people are searching for information and prices over the internet, so it is crucial to have a well-designed website that allows potential customer to get a feeling of what

experience the company is offering and not only to compare prices and routes. AIR BLUE has very effective website that provides all the information about the flights and fairs. Information can be gathering by internet, through agent and telephone.
CONSULTATION

Air blue tickets are also available by consulting with the agent but the price is higher as compared to buy ticket through internet. When booking through a travel agent, it is important whether the agent knows about the subject and is able to give the customer the information he/she needs. Prices in travel agencies are higher than online so the customer expects the service which he/she is additionally paying for. Even if the internet is a low-contact channel people may expect some form of consultation maybe via email or through a specialized online chat. The same applies to the call center, even though people might already know what they want, the operator needs to be prepared to answer any specific question about the flight or the before and after flight.
ORDER TAKING

An online booking procedure, which is pretty common in these days, is a convenient way for the customer to make a reservation. It saves time and money. By the way older or uneducated people still have some problem in booking through the internet, in fact, from our interviews panel it appears that most of the online bookers are young or middle aged and above average educated.(However the number of customers booking online increased significantly in the last years and the numbers are growing each day.)In case a problem appears while making an online booking or if the customer has a problem, the effectiveness of the call centre staff is crucial. The availability of the customer service can be an important factor when a situation like that appears.
HOSPITALITY

If there are any delays before the flight it is very important for the airline to provide hospitality to the customer. For shorter delays, B.A. gives the customers vouchers, so they can use these during the waiting times to eat or drink in the restaurants/bars at the airport. Furthermore if there are longer delays and the customer has an overnight stay, the Air blue usually provide for a suitable accommodation for the customer in a hall near the airport. Even if there arent delays we remember that the customer probably has to wait about one hour at the airport so it is important that the services cape is comfort-able in order to minimize the impact of the waiting time.
SAFE KEEPING

Travelling by plane is made inconvenient for the customer by the several safety procedures that people have to attend to before and after the flight.

Moreover, with recent years concern about terrorism the security procedures have become even stricter. This has an effect on the waiting times and customers, especially if frequent flyers, may be annoyed by this lengthy process. It is important that the ground staff is friendly and patient both with experienced and inexperienced customers. It is interesting to notice that for the company this stage is untouchable since it is imposed by law it gives very few room for improvement.
EXCEPTIONS

The air blue has prepared in case there are customers which constitute an exception. Exceptions may be handicapped customers, elderly people and babies who need special accommodation. Exceptions can be made with food. Individual references may be considered. I.e. Vegetarian food has to be provided for vegetarian customers. Furthermore there are exceptions which can be made with luggage.
BILLING

The billing procedure is clear and simple. The Online purchase of flights is very common lately. However a high number of customers are still skeptical with revealing their bank details online, so it is very important to design the billing procedures as clear and easy understandable as possible. As for the brick and mortar agencies the bill should be standardized in order to impose consistency among the different independent agencies. Being air blue traditional carrier the price of the ticket include almost all the extra like inboard food and entertainment while low-cost companies base their strategy on the separate bills where customers have to pay for each extra service they ask for.
PAYMENT

The payment for the ticket is usually done at the time of the reservation either via credit card or, if done in agency, through cash or check. Payment may be asked from the customer also after the ticket has been issued, for example when the luggage exceeds the allowance the customer has to pay a certain amount because of maintenance reasons. Every airline has restrictions when it comes to the luggage allowance. Furthermore there are certain items which can be purchased during the flight, such as duty free products. The customers also have the opportunity to purchase additional drinks. For all these in-flight payment it is important to give customers many options.

BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS

We are going to look now in detail at all the actions that are necessary to complete the process from the very beginning to the very end. Here, to simplify a bit we imagine a customer buying a ticket online.

First step from the consumer is to seek information about the flight over the inter-net. From the company side this implies that somebody has put together an IT sys-tem that can integrate the web-based applications with the internal booking system of the company. When the customer has decided which flight to buy he can pay with the credit card directly from the internet. This is made possible by the interactions of the IT systems of the airline company and the banks managing the transaction. At this point theres usually a time gap in the process. After some days the customer will go to the airport either by private car, public transport, or shuttle service. In this last case the company needs to organize, maintain and inform about this supplementary service that normally is a standalone service itself. When at the airport, the customer goes to the monitors to check out which check in desk to use. Of course there must be an informative system to allow that. At the check in desk he/she puts the luggage onto the scale while the employee checks out the documents, prints the boarding pass and the barcode tag for the luggage. This is made possible by the work of a lot of different people from the airline and from the airport. When the luggage is checked in it is transported to a sorting area where specialized employee loads the baggage on small trucks to be driven to the proper plane where the baggages are finally loaded. After check-in, the customer can go through the security control. Here the security personnel check the handbaggage, the person and the documents of the traveller. Previously these procedures have been formalized in order to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. Even at this stage it is crucial the contribution of the IT systems. After the security check the passenger can go to the gate where the airline employees check the boarding passes and lead passengers to a bus that is already waiting to get them to the actual plane. Until now the customer has already experienced a wide variety of locations, employees and services capes. We didnt focus on the airport supplementary services, although important to improve the overall customer experience. Imagine how it would be to travel from an airport without shops, and toilets. These are all extremely important but describing all of them would make this paper endless and by the way they are not strictly part of

the airline experience. When the passenger gets off the bus, the mobile stairs are already in place in front of the plane's door. People get on the plane while the last baggages are being loaded. From now on, its almost all about hospitality The passengers enter the plane and the crew is ready to welcome them and to help them find their place. In the business class, the crew takes care about the safekeeping of passengers coats and hand baggage. At any time the cabin crew must be ready to answer any question about the flight, the plane, the usage of cabin devices, etc. At this moment the audio system plays a soft classical track, the lights are on and the monitors are off so passengers can easily spot their place without being distracted. While people seat down, the pilot communicate with the control tower. The hostesses inform the passengers about the Security procedures. The pilot starts the engines, when the control tower gives permission to take off the pilot drives the plane to the runway, alert the flight assistants and takes off. After takeoff the monitors are turned on and start to display information about the flight. The flight assistants start to offer newspapers, head phones, food and drinks that were previously loaded into the plane. During the flight, the flight assistants start the movie and the music so the passenger can enjoy them. The lights may be turned off according to the time of the day. In the business class somebody may ask to make a phone call or to send a fax. This is an enhancing service that requires a lot of steps to be completed. The customer might need to be informed on how to operate the on-board phone. On the backstage, the IT and radio systems of the plane work to create a connection to the Earth in or-der to transmit the actual voice but also to connect to the credit card circuit. When the call is over, the billing and electronic payment procedures take place. During the flight the crew offers food and drinks. In the first class passengers are al-lowed to choose from a menu (that involves ordertaking by the flight attendants) while in the economy class the meal is the same for each customer but still, people are allowed to choose what to drink. In the B.A. case this process doesnt involve Billing and payment while low-cost carriers charge for this. When it comes to food, the flight assistants need to be able to answer questions about the ingredients or to give advices about specific alimentary needs expressed by customers. Exception Management is also important at this stage as some people may have special requirements about food and drinks. Especially in the first class, people expect to have the right to be picky because of the premium price. When the people are finished eating the flight assistants collect all the garbage while some passengers may ask for the toilet. When approaching the destination, the pilot gets information from the control tower about the weather, the estimated time of landing and the connecting flights and tells them to the passenger either via loudspeaker or on the monitors. When the control tower gives permission to land the pilot turns on the fasten seat belts signal, turns off the monitors and starts approaching the airport. In the mean-time the land crew is ready with a car to guide the plane to its parking position. After parking the plane, a mobile stair and bus come to take the passengers to the airport, meanwhile, the baggage are transferred

to a small truck and then to the belt at the airport. After flight experience that consumer receives should be well thought-out by Air Blue Airways as at this stage, evaluation of service performance and future intentions are considered as the Post purchase behavior of a customer is very significant. If the customer is satisfied with the service a positive WOF (Word of mouth) will take place. WOF is the most significant advertising tool and it shouldnt be underestimated. A bad worth of mouth can cause bad damages to the reputation of the company. Once the flight is completed the passengers is about to leave the plane. The customer should be satisfied with the service at this point. This can be achieved by providing a service which was expected by the customer or even better than expected. Since i.e. business class travelers are very sensitive and elective, the standards of on- board treatment and after all experience of traveling should fulfill their expectations for benefit of the company. It is important that the service experience the consumer gets differentiates from its competitors. The customer will know if he/she is satisfied for the most of the most part once the plane is landed. The after flight evaluation which we will talk about in the next chapter will complete his/her judgment. After the plane lands, the stairs are placed and ready, the travelers leave the plane the stewardesses makes sure that all passengers are organized and not bothering each other. Flight attendants and pilots biding passengers farewell, always smiling nicely and being polite, which also leaves an impression on the flight experience of the customer. It is important that the on board staff is well trained to react appropriate even though customers may be impolite. There are different reasons why customers may react in an unconventional way. The dissatisfaction of a passenger could lead to an unreasonable behavior. A lot of customers might know that there are complaint hot-lines which they can contact after their traveling, so in some situations they try and relief their anger on the on board staff, as in the eye of many customers every employee represents the company. The bus is usually waiting downstairs when the passengers arrive, in case the plane didnt arrive at a gate which is accessible by food. There should be enough space for all of the customers and if not another bus must be provided shortly or even be there already. After passengers have left the plane, the plane is being cleaned, refilled and checked if anything was forgotten by the travelers and if so, reported and returned to the owner shortly. Security procedures take place. The plane is refilled with gas and maintenance work by engineers takes place. The plane is being prepared for its next flight. When passengers arrive at the arrival gate of the airport they usually face the passport control queues leading to the passport control. If they are not well organized it takes a lot of time to pass through. An effective queue management is very important as customers can get irritated when they have to face long waiting times after their flight. When passport control is passed its important that the baggage is transferred to the belt fast enough and safely. In case there is a loss of baggage customer service

is available and willing to help. How fast and how efficient this service will be, proportionally will affect the image of the company. Usually there are customer service assistants which can be contact right away in case of lost baggage. In case there is no one around, there are BA offices which deal with lost luggage. Usually after reported at the airport the luggage is delivered to the address which is left at the office by the customer. This may take up to 2 days, depending on where the final destination of the passenger is. When filling out the form, the customer has to describe the content of the luggage, and also tick boxed to describe the bags, so they can be recognized, the right luggage will be delivered and further delays will be avoided. This case would fall into the failure recovery process. In theory this means that if the recovery is well managed, the customer may be more satisfied, and at the end he/she doesnt mind the failure of a service provided. Furthermore BA offers frequent fliers program. Every customer has the opportunity to sign up for this program. It is voluntarily, and if the customer decides to sign up, he/she receives monthly account statements and additional information concerning the program. The account statements include the archived miles, depending on the amount of miles the customer flies. These miles are collected and can be used to receive free gifts/ flights once achieved the required amount. The miles and more programs build customer loyalty and at the same time it gives the airline the opportunity to use their customer data for research purposes.

IMPROVEMENT OF SERVICE DELIVERY

As we can see from the blueprint there is much more than the actual flying that must be done in order to offer the transport service thats the reason why people are paying. Before and after the flight people have to go through a lot of procedures and to move across many locations. These are all time-consuming tasks that take away value from the flying experience. Even if we like to think that flying is already part of our daily life, travelling by plane is not really as immediate as getting into the metro or the bus in our town. (Dont forget the time needed to get to and from the airports). We suggest using many small airports instead of a few big ones. (Get the service delivery closer to the customer) In this way we can reduce the amount of time thats required to get to and from the airport. Odds are that if there are more airports available, probably the customers wont have to spend so much time going to and from the airport. To improve the flying experience on the short distances it would be necessary to streamline the entire process but unfortunately this is easier said than done. For ex-ample, people could go directly to the plane without the need to check in the bag-gage but this may slow down the boarding procedure and for some people it may be difficult to carry the baggage up the stairs to the plane. Also, a lot of time gaps are due to the security procedures that are necessary when flying but not when travelling on the earth. One of the tasks that carriers are struggling to improve is the boarding of passengers. This takes a lot

of time because people dont know exactly where their seat is and they dont know which entrance to use. And even when they know which entrance they should use they not always collaborate. There is a psychological effect. People who waited to be served are less likely to collaborate. Its like if they internalize the pace at which the service is being offered. When they have the control of the pace they rather move slow even if five minutes before they were pushing to get into the plane. If the boarding procedures are slow with many controls and queues its likely that people will move slowly also when they could speed up the entire process at their advantage. Our suggestion is to arrange the flights on the time when there is not many other flights, so it could be easier to pass and avoid stress resulted by waiting. Or else, pro- vide a service that will allow travelers that have arrived even on the peak time to avoid all the formal interactions that has to do with passport control. This includes sorting the passenger after arrival straight to the lounge where the client is resting and could have a drink while the service group is dealing with all necessary migration tasks. Then the passenger is guided to the place of receiving the luggage, later to the luggage check and lastly to the meeting room.