Understanding Customers

To understand the nuances of customer trajectories at airports requires the recognition of the wide array of needs and expectations of travellers.

From business trips to a family holiday, each experience presents unique challenges and opportunities for engagement, with digital platforms playing an especially crucial role in this.

Digital platforms such as bespoke websites play a crucial role in this interaction, serving as the primary touch point for travellers by providing them with access to services such as flight updates, bookings, and airport amenities. 

The idea of customer conversion in this context does fall outside the traditional scope of this area, but for airports, it involves strategies that enhance the passenger experience. Effective digital platforms can prompt users towards desirable actions such as booking a premium lounge, reserving a parking space, or looking at retailer options. These actions benefit the customer as they serve their immediate needs, but also contribute towards the airport’s additional revenue.

What Are Airports and Airlines Doing?

Over the last few years we have seen the rise of subscription models and personalised loyalty programs. Airlines such as Emirates have introduced a paid subscription service within their loyalty programs, such as Skywards+, which offers various levels of additional benefits such as increased lounge visits, bonus miles, and better rates.

These subscription models create additional revenue for the airline but also provide great benefits to passengers, especially frequent flyers.

By offering lounge access and other benefits as part of a paid subscription, airlines are able to attract customers who may not normally qualify for these benefits through traditional/standard flight tickets. This approach by airlines mirrors the strategies of airports by providing value-added services and creating a personalised experience.

The seamless integration of these multiple services via digital platforms ensures that both airlines and airports can effectively convert flyers from casual visitors into loyal customers, thus, increasing revenue streams.

However, a well-crafted and thought-out website is key to facilitating these conversions. Integrating real-time data can significantly improve the quality of the user experience by providing information such as live flight statuses, gate changes, and waiting times. This helps to build customer trust and encourages them to rely more on the airport’s digital services, which can then lead to conversions for other purchases and conveniences.

Investing in Your Business and Your Customers

By analysing user behaviour and preferences, airports can offer customised personal recommendations for goods and services. This can include suggestions of ideal shopping deals based on previous purchases, recommending fast track options for frequent flyers, and more, improving the customer experience and driving higher conversion rates.

Mobile-responsive web design plays a substantial role, especially considering the majority of travellers will have their mobile devices with them. A mobile-first approach to web design ensures that the digital services of the airport can be easily and quickly accessed, allowing for seamless interactions with the airport’s digital touchpoints at every stage of the journey.

Organisations can look to encourage customers to download a dedicated app and use the airport Wi-Fi to deliver more personalised content, which further-increases the chances of converting customers in other areas of the airport’s revenue streams. 

Analytics and data also play a foundational role in optimising these digital platforms, helping airports to understand the paths travellers take on the websites, and therefore helping to further-refine user interfaces, streamlining processes, and eliminating any friction in the customer journey. 

Integrating digital solutions into customer user experiences is not just about making things more operationally seamless for airports; it’s about creating memorable and useful experiences for travellers. These experiences not only provide financial gains for airports and airlines but also build long-term loyalty, which helps to secure further revenue streams in future and repeated use of airport facilities and services.

As we look towards 2030 and beyond, the significance of digital technologies in sustaining revenue streams will only continue to grow. By focusing on user-centric digital strategies, airports will be able to accommodate both the predicted surges in passenger numbers and maximising the economic potential of every person that passes through their halls.