{"id":4974,"date":"2020-05-28T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T14:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/?p=4974"},"modified":"2020-05-28T15:31:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T14:31:01","slug":"listening-to-your-frequent-travellers-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/listening-to-your-frequent-travellers-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to your frequent travellers – now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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28 May 2020<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus groups are a common tool for airlines and hotels to test new product elements to ensure that the ideas correspond to the needs of their best customers. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to remember these focus groups now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While the\nuse of focus groups might be debatable from the pure perspective of statistic science,\nmany companies regularly gather small groups of their best clients to test new\nservice features before rolling them out. They usually consist of top elite\nmembers of their loyalty programs, applying the logic that it is critical to\nsecure the buy-in of these customers for any new service features (and avoid\nthat they potentially even turn away from the company otherwise) and, secondly,\nthat these customers usually represent the most relevant external view on the\ncompany one can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while\nthe average customer may wonder why airlines change all of a sudden an in-flight\nservice element or hotels change their blankets, this is often the direct\nresult of the opinions expressed by a handful of top customers having validated\na suggestion by the management of the company or have even inspired the company\nfor such a step. That average customer might consider the choice strange, but\nit has been \u00ab\u00a0approved\u00a0\u00bb by customers being more relevant to the company’s\nbottom line. Such practice makes hence perfect business sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nthough strange that airlines and hotels seem to have forgotten about these\nfocus groups in this current critical time, where the industry might be to\nchange for many years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without any\nstatistically viable evidence, it appears that top customers have only limited comprehension\nfor some common measures being put in place now, such as wearing masks along an\nentire journey from arriving to the airport until destination (imagine that on\na 10-hour overnight flight\u2026), limited in-flight service, closed lounges etc.\nThe comment I read from some frequent traveller on social media the other day\nmight be symptomatic, saying in a nutshell \u00ab\u00a0I don’t want any new normal,\njust the normal.\u00a0\u00bb My gut feeling is that such sentiment is shared by many\nfrequent travellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there\nis no doubt that the mass of population worldwide got scared by media etc. and\nis still in fear, is it really wise to try to reassure those people by such\nmeasures – who might not return immediately nevertheless (since such measures\nmight also send out the unwanted message that there is indeed a risk!)? And if\never they return, they will basically be one-off customers at low yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wouldn’t it\nbe wiser for the industry to stand up and say, yes, we are safe (air\nfiltration, cleaning processes etc.), but we cannot be held liable for the individual\nhealth of millions of clients? And if a client really insists on social distancing\nto feel safe, fair enough. We have a product for him, called Business\/First\nClass or in-room dining. So, looking at social distancing just as another added\nbenefit of premium cabins? You pay less, you get less. Less in-flight service,\nless baggage allowance, less miles and less social distancing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gamble\nto try to cater for the mass of customers with a more than uncertain response\nfrom them might be too risky if this comes at a price of alienating the best\ncustomers, those ready to return to the skies and hotels as quickly as possible\nand give their money to companies. My personal decision set to choose an\nairline has so far been similar to those of many others: Frequent Flyer benefits\/membership,\nprice, schedule. But now there is one going to be added, by avoiding <\/em>any\nairline implementing measures I personally judge too harsh\/not adapted to the\nreal risk. And yes, this will probably even become my first criterion before\nanything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airlines,\nhotels, airports and others might be well advised to remember who they financially\nrely on. While it is unlikely that you lose many customers by introducing a\n\u00ab\u00a0wrong\u00a0\u00bb blanket, there is a high risk here for something like that to\nhappen by going beyond acceptable limits. And the industry really doesn’t need\nanything in addition right now to complicate their lives further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\nabout remembering all the virtues of focus groups you’ve explained so often to\nyour CEO? And especially remembering them now at that critical crossroads of\nthe industry?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 May 2020 Focus groups are a common tool for airlines and hotels to test new product elements to ensure that the ideas correspond to the needs of their best customers. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to remember these focus groups now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4976,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974\/revisions\/4976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalflight.net\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}