To Improve Customer Experience, Airports Can Better Harness Existing Tech

This article was originally published on Skyfii.io on October 13, 2018. Written by: Wayne Arthur

I joined Natasia Malaihollo, CEO at Wyzerr, last week at the Airports Council International — North America conference in Nashville. The event brought together top-level decision makers and airport professionals to discuss key themes within the aviation industry.

Natasia and I were there to learn more about the pressing needs in the industry, as well as demonstrate how the recent integration of Wyzerr’s customer feedback survey into Skyfii’s location-based analytics and marketing platform could help with some of those challenges. Below is a quick recap of some of the common themes discussed at the conference.

Improving the Customer Experience is Top-of-Mind

Improving the customer experience was one of the key concerns brought up at the conference. Natasia also mentioned that while there was a lot of discussion around the customer experience, airports are struggling to gather the data they need to understand the impact of their initiatives.

“Airports have billion dollar-plus renovation budgets to improve the customer experience — but they could be better at identifying where the immediate needs are and whether those improvements actually made a difference.” — Natasia Malaihollo, CEO at Wyzerr

One common reason for wanting to optimize the customer experience was the tie-in to driving revenue. If airports can improve the visitor flow, find the right mix of retailers, and attract desirable food vendors, they can attract more travelers. At the same time, they can also increase the amount those travelers spend while at the airport.

Innovation in Data Analytics is the Key to Driving Change

While improving customer experiences was a major goal for airports, the consensus on how to get there was through technology and innovation — specifically, around data analytics. If airports want to expand the depth of data they’re able to capture, they’re going to have to innovate the ways in-which they capture it.

The good news is that most airports already have the technical infrastructure in place to capture these kinds of insights. However, they just need to get better at harnessing it. Existing hardware like WiFi and cameras can be powerful mediums for gathering data on how travelers are interacting with certain spaces, and what their experiences are like within those spaces.

How Do Skyfii and Wyzerr Fit into the Conversation?

Wyzerr is a survey tool that makes it easy to collect feedback that customers want to share. When that information is augmented with the behavioral data that Skyfii’s platform is able to capture through WiFi, the kinds of insights airports can gather become extremely rich.

For example, you might want to know how a new restaurant impacts the customer experience in a specific zone. Or you may want to see how well the retailers in a certain terminal meet the needs of those travelers.

With Wyzerr you can create engaging customer surveys to collect feedback on those questions, while Skyfii’s platform makes it easy to deliver only the most relevant questions to those customers based on their location within the airport. This means you get valuable, granular customer feedback without getting in the way of the customer WiFi experience.

Learn more:

• You can learn more about how Skyfii is working with airports here.
• To learn more about Skyfii and Wyzerr’s integrated solution, contact Skyfii.
• For a better way to capture customer feedback, head to Wyzerr’s website.