Guest article: Finnair invests in data, fluidity and memorability in customer experience development

Some air travellers want to immerse themselves in planning their upcoming trip, while others are interested in fast and efficient transactions. Families heading for a holiday or business travellers heading to a conference or client meeting may be on the same flight. Thus, Finnair serves a rather wide range of passengers. Therefore, we are developing the customer experience through long-term, systematic work.

Customer centricity includes much more than good service delivery – it is a mindset that guides both day-to-day operations and strategic choices. Expectations of both a seamless transaction and a smooth travel experience unite Finnair's diverse customer base. That’s why it is important to develop services particularly based on the challenges that customers face.

Customer experience in the digital age is generated from an omni-channel interplay

Travelling, as a whole, consists of dozens of touchpoints, each met with different expectations. Nevertheless, all of our channels are united by a simple expectation from the passengers: they want to get ahead smoothly with their journey. Hence, the somewhat outdated division into digital and analogue channels does not serve an environment such as Finnair's sufficiently enough.

Finnair's mobile app is a key tool for passengers to manage various aspects of their journey, as booking information, documents, and additional services are all conveniently located in one place. The mobile app complements the airport experience, while the in-flight entertainment system serves as a communication channel on long flights. If we know that a passenger has a connecting flight from a different terminal, we can alert them to this information during the flight via the in-flight entertainment system.

The Travel Ready feature of the app helps customers prepare for their trip by taking into account, for example, the travel documents required upon arrival in the destination country. This ensures the airport experience goes smoothly, avoiding unnecessary delays.  

The traveller's experience is thus the result of the interplay of different, complementary channels.

Therefore, the omni-channel customer experience should be viewed from the perspective of self-service and assisted service. Many people prefer our self-service solutions because they speed up processes and give the traveller a greater sense of control. However, passengers are not black and white here either: those who typically prefer self-service may still need assistance in a particular situation.

On a practical level, it does not primarily matter to the customer whether they get help over the phone or digitally through the chat in our app – the most important thing is getting help and for things to move forward smoothly.

Increasingly often, the need for an assisted service is being met by a skilled, problem-solving AI bot. The focus on developing a digital customer experience differs depending on whether it offers self-service or assisted help.

Plumbing before poetry

At Finnair, we actively utilise data to drive the development of our customer experience, both in operations and strategic planning. This requires a solid data foundation to ensure that the information is accurate and that the insights derived from it can be trusted. Yet, data becomes valuable only after it is translated into insights and concrete actions – data cannot only be a tool for reporting the current situation.

It is easy to think that the most critical measure of a successful customer experience is the number of times a customer experiences a wow sensation – the sheer poetry of exceeding expectations, taking the basic customer experience to a higher level.

But poetry cannot flourish without plumbing. Like plumbing in any building, the basic services must run smoothly and with consistent quality for the customer to focus on the journey itself. Success is measured by how predictable and smooth the passenger's experience is during the journey.

For example, to ensure success, we always send a personalised customer survey to each passenger within 24 hours after the flight. The results are segmented and linked to other data sources, including flight delays and customer service contacts. This gives us an accurate picture of what the passenger experienced, why the experience was good or bad, and what we can focus on improving.  

The wow experiences passengers expect resemble a moving target, and therefore, the basic service must be in order first. Change happens at a rapid pace nowadays – yesterday's poetry quickly becomes today's plumbing, the basic requirements for customer experience. A few years ago, passenger expectations could be exceeded simply by offering in-flight Wi-Fi. In today's digital society, seamless connectivity is part of everyday flying.

Thus, prediction plays a crucial role in improving our customer experience. To proactively develop services in the right direction, we need to be able to predict passengers' evolving needs, expectations, and desires.

Foresight is also an advantage in customer experience when it comes to plumbing. With data on flight predictability, we can plan airport service resources around peak rush hours. In this way, more staff can be placed at points where unnecessary queuing has the most significant impact on the customer experience.

When the foundation of the customer experience is in place, there is room for a sense of play

Taking care of the basic travel experience and developing quality consistently throughout the organisation will allow magical moments of differentiation to shine. While we at Finnair rely heavily on data to guide us, we also believe the best experiences come from individual, situational encounters.

Giving staff the power and freedom to work within agreed-upon boundaries allows them to utilise their experience in making the right choices that delight customers. For example, a small gesture on an anniversary is guaranteed to be remembered. A customer-centric culture and psychological safety enable many things that data alone cannot achieve.