Do you remember the last time you went to the airport?
Whether your destination was about business or pleasure, your trip can be described as a journey in itself. And that journey is subject to trends in mobility and retail, driven by new technologies. But while the technological side is well understood, little research has been done from the consumer perspective.
That’s why CCV and Erasmus University Rotterdam teamed up to study key emerging trends to discover unexplored opportunities in the customer journey of people who travel to airports. This study presents empirical evidence of how these opportunities may connect with customer needs, based on an analysis of the airport customer journey at Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTHA).
You might wonder what the results are – so I would like to share a brief summary:
#1 We have identified 3 key challenges and opportunities regarding the future of airport experience:
- Digitization: the number of transaction through physical terminals is decreasing, being replaced by digitized and mobile transactions that are more open to innovation and premium features.
- Integration: Provision of travel information, making product and service offerings, and carrying out reservation and payment can take place in a single app.
- Relevance: Increasing access to travelers over an increasing share of the customer journey means that more relevant offers can be made that are specific to the time and place in the customer journey.
#2 As a result of our study we have identified 5 different types of people with specific needs: Business Travellers, Luxury Travellers, Budget Travellers, Senior Travellers and Non-Travelling people (bring & pick-up).
#3 We have also studied how these people experience their customer journey. Our study shows 10 different stages with a variety of stress levels and connected each stage to opportunities for digitization and commercial offerings.
At the end of our analysis, we described two different paths towards a future-proof airport customer journey. The first one is about process optimization and helping partners optimize their performance and customer satisfaction. The second one is about a digitized and integrated ‘Mobility as a Service scenario’. In this scenario, multiple payment actors are partnering to set up complex payment and transaction systems at lower cost, wider scope and higher stakeholder acceptance.
In the short term, process optimization is the most feasible way to go. However – since the customer journey is constantly changing -it’s up to all parties involvoded to choose their role in that ever evolving journey.
Would you like to know more about our findings? Click here to contact us.