BSI: Teradata Case of the Misconnecting Passengers

Summary

The BSI team is tasked with improving Air London's rebooking engine to enhance customer satisfaction. They face a challenge at the Frankfurt hub where four passengers miss their connections and only two seats are available on the last flight. The team examines passenger data, including frequent flyer miles and booking channels, to make informed decisions. They propose a rules-based engine that incorporates real-time data and customer-centric displays for frontline staff. Additional insights from live contact center notes and operational factors are considered. The team suggests leveraging inflight internet for interactive customer engagement, potentially resolving rebooking issues proactively.

Takeaways

• 🛫 The BSI team is tasked with improving Air London's rebooking engine to address low customer satisfaction ratings due to misconnects at hubs.
• 👥 A specific scenario involves four passengers missing their connections at Frankfurt with only two seats available on the last flight, requiring a decision on who to prioritize.
• 🎯 The team aims to enhance the rebooking process by incorporating real-time data and analytics to make more informed decisions.
• 📊 They access passenger information, including frequent flyer miles, ticket prices, and travel history, to assess the value of each passenger.
• 💼 Financial contribution scores, lifetime value predictions, and current year revenues are added to the rebooking screen to better understand passenger value.
• 📈 The team considers the booking channels, costs, and operational factors like check-in with an infant or lost luggage to inform rebooking decisions.
• 🔍 Real-time factors such as live contact center notes and operational issues are integrated into the rebooking engine to enhance decision-making.
• 💡 A customer-centric display is proposed to give frontline staff a comprehensive view of each passenger's situation and value.
• 🌐 The idea of using inflight internet for interactive screens with passengers is suggested to gather information and provide rebooking options.
• 📈 The team identifies that by leveraging real-time data and interactive capabilities, they could have accommodated all passengers, including those with special circumstances like infants and lost luggage.

Q & A

What is the main issue Air London is facing?

Air London is facing issues with irregularities in passenger handling at their hubs, which is negatively impacting their customer satisfaction ratings.

What specific problem scenario is presented in the script?

A misconnect situation at the Frankfurt Hub where four passengers miss their original connections and only two seats are available on the last flight of the day.

What is the goal of the BSI team in this scenario?

The goal of the BSI team is to overhaul Air London's rebooking app using a better rules-based engine that includes more real-time factors and triggers.

What information does the impacted customer report contain?

The impacted customer report contains basic passenger information such as origin, destination, ticket class, frequent flyer miles, and other relevant data to aid in rebooking decisions.

Which passengers are considered in the decision-making process?

The passengers considered are Jason, who is flying from Cairo through Rome to Frankfurt; L, a first-time flyer from Japan; and Conrad, a high-value Cher One customer with significant lifetime miles.

What additional fields are added to the rebooking screen by Matt and Jodi?

Matt and Jodi add new fields to the rebooking screen that contain additional information about each passenger, including financial contribution scores, lifetime value predictions, and current year revenues.

How does the booking channel impact the rebooking decision?

The booking channel impacts the rebooking decision by providing information on the cost and usage of different channels, which can influence the airline's decision on who to prioritize for rebooking.

What operational real-time factors are considered for the rebooking engine?

Operational real-time factors include information such as passengers with infants, lost luggage, and delays from previous flights, which can affect the rebooking priority.

What is the proposed solution for better rebooking decisions?

The proposed solution is to load all relevant information into Air London's active data warehouse for real-time analytics, which would give them a competitive edge in making better rebooking decisions.

What is the idea for utilizing inflight internet seat capabilities?

The idea is to use popup screens to interact with impacted customers, giving them options and gathering information based on the rebooking scoring, which could help accommodate their needs more effectively.

How does the BSI team plan to improve customer satisfaction with the new rebooking system?

The BSI team plans to improve customer satisfaction by incorporating a variety of factors into the rebooking engine, such as customer lifetime value, booking history, and real-time operational data, to make more informed and customer-centric rebooking decisions.

Outlines

00:00

🛫 Reengineering Air London's Rebooking System

The BSI team is tasked with enhancing Air London's rebooking engine to address poor customer satisfaction ratings due to misconnects at hubs. A specific challenge involves four passengers missing their connections at the Frankfurt hub, with only two seats available on the last flight. The team must decide which two passengers to prioritize for the flight and which two to accommodate overnight or transfer at additional cost. The team is given access to Air London's information systems to develop a rules-based engine that incorporates real-time data for improved rebooking decisions. Initial passenger data includes frequent flyer miles and travel history, with the aim to create a more efficient and customer-centric rebooking process.

05:01

🔍 Enhancing Rebooking Decisions with Customer Insights

To improve rebooking decisions, the BSI team adds new fields to the rebooking screen, including financial contribution scores, lifetime value predictions, and current year revenues. They analyze booking channels, costs, and customer behavior to make informed choices. The team also considers operational real-time factors such as checked-in infants and lost luggage, which could influence rebooking priorities. The goal is to create a customer-centric display for frontline staff to have a comprehensive view of each passenger's situation and value. The team proposes incorporating inflight internet capabilities to interact with customers in real-time, allowing for more personalized and efficient rebooking solutions, ultimately aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Keywords

💡Rebooking Engine

A rebooking engine is a system used by airlines to automatically manage flight rebookings for passengers in case of flight disruptions. In the video, Air London is seeking to improve its rebooking engine to handle irregularities in passenger handling and enhance customer satisfaction. The script describes a scenario where a rebooking engine is crucial for deciding which passengers get seats on the last flight of the day when others have missed their connections.

💡Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction refers to the degree to which a product or service meets a customer's expectations. In the context of the video, Air London's low customer satisfaction ratings are a problem that the BSI team aims to resolve by improving the rebooking process, which is a critical aspect of customer service in the airline industry.

💡Misconnect Situation

A misconnect situation occurs when passengers miss their connecting flights. The script presents a scenario where four passengers miss their connections at Air London's Frankfurt Hub, and the rebooking engine must decide how to accommodate them, which is a common challenge for airlines.

💡Frequent Flyer Miles

Frequent flyer miles are a loyalty program offered by airlines to reward passengers for their travel with the airline. In the script, Jason's high number of frequent flyer miles indicates he is a loyal customer, which is a factor considered in the rebooking decision process to prioritize loyal customers.

💡Lifetime Value

Lifetime value (LTV) is a prediction of the net profit a company makes from a customer over the entire future relationship with that customer. The script mentions adding lifetime value predictions to the rebooking screen to help prioritize passengers based on their potential long-term value to the airline.

💡Real-time Factors

Real-time factors are data points that are updated or collected in the moment and can influence decision-making. The video discusses incorporating real-time factors into the rebooking engine, such as operational data and customer interactions, to make more informed and timely rebooking decisions.

💡Data Warehouse

A data warehouse is a system used to store and manage large amounts of data. The script suggests loading relevant data into Air London's active data warehouse to ensure that all the necessary information is in one place and can be analyzed in real-time for rebooking purposes.

💡Booking Channels

Booking channels refer to the various methods through which customers can make reservations, such as online, through a call center, or via a travel agent. The script analyzes different booking channels to understand the cost and service implications for Air London, which can affect rebooking strategies.

💡Operational Factors

Operational factors are the practical considerations that affect the day-to-day running of a business. In the script, operational factors like a passenger traveling with an infant or having lost luggage are considered in the rebooking process to ensure customer satisfaction.

💡Inflight Internet

Inflight internet is a service provided on aircraft that allows passengers to access the internet during a flight. The video script suggests using inflight internet to interact with passengers in real-time, offering them rebooking options and gathering information to improve the rebooking process.

💡Customer-Centric Display

A customer-centric display is an interface designed to provide a comprehensive view of customer information to help service providers make better decisions. The script describes creating a display that gives frontline staff a clear understanding of each passenger's value and recent issues to assist in rebooking.

Highlights

Air London's customer satisfaction is negatively impacted by irregularities in passenger handling.

The BSI team is tasked with improving Air London's rebooking engine to address misconnect situations.

A specific challenge involves rebooking four passengers who missed their connections at Frankfurt Hub with only two seats available.

The team examines passenger information to make data-driven rebooking decisions.

Passenger profiles include frequent flyer miles, ticket prices, and travel patterns.

Financial contribution scores and lifetime value predictions are introduced to assess passenger value.

The team considers the cost and usage of booking channels to inform rebooking decisions.

A customer-centric display is proposed to give frontline staff insights into passenger value and recent issues.

Operational real-time factors, such as checked-in infants and lost bags, are suggested for inclusion in the rebooking engine.

The team identifies additional factors like live contact center notes to enhance rebooking decisions.

The importance of considering the urgency and happiness of passengers is emphasized through call logs.

The team prepares a presentation to showcase the new rebooking factors and ideas.

Real-time analytics are proposed to give Air London a competitive edge in managing rebooking.

The idea of using inflight internet for interactive customer engagement during rebooking is introduced.

The potential for personalized customer options and gathering information through in-flight screens is discussed.

The team's innovative approach could lead to happier customers and more efficient rebooking processes.

The BSI team's work is highlighted through a case study on the BSI Teradata website.

Transcripts

the BSI team has been called in to help

build a better rebooking engine for air

London an airline that has been in

business for a little over 3 years in

this case you get to try out to be part

of the BSI team and help us make some

decisions based on data and analytics

good luck irregularities in passenger

handling at our hubs is hurting air

London's customer satisfaction ratings

in fact this past quarter we were rated

near the bottom of European based

Airlines can you give me an example of a

typical problem you'd like to resolve uh

yes here's one looks like we're going to

have another misconnect situation at our

Frankfurt Hub four passengers from

various locations connecting to our

London flight will be landing in the

next hour they've all missed their

original connections but there are only

two available seats on the last flight

today so you need to pick two to go and

two to stay overnight or transfer to

other Airlines at a higher cost to you

yeah except ours is the last flight of

the day so we're stuck sounds like it's

time to overhaul air London's rebooking

app using a better rules-based engine to

include more realtime factors and

triggers give us access to your

information systems and my team will

come up with some fresh ideas about how

to improve your re-bookings jodis turns

the project over toqi and Matt they

start by looking at passenger

information for the Frankfurt to London

misconnect situation the airline uses

cameras at checkin to capture passenger

photos

here's the impacted customer report I

just built to pull all the basic

passenger info air London uses today but

on a single screen to make our rebooking

analysis faster Jason is flying from

Cairo through Rome to Frankfurt and then

heading to London cheap ticket which I

guess accounts for all the stops he has

more than 4,000 frequent fly miles this

year 128k total looks like L does a

little bit of traveling too we don't

have any data about Stephy she must be a

first time flyer long trip for her from

Japan check out Conrad he's a big-time

traveler a Cher One customer with more

than 260,000 lifetime miles with our

London we need to keep an eye on him

based on this basic data which two

passengers would you send to

[Music]

London to create deeper customer

insights Matt and she add new fields to

the rebooking screen that contain

additional information about each

passenger from Finance I've added some

Financial contribution scores including

lifetime value predictions and current

year revenues and these fields on profit

and frequency of booking show Jason only

books the lowest margin flights L books

last minute but pays full fair so she's

very high margin plus she is booking

more frequently seems like Conrad isn't

a steady traveler but it looks like his

company's booking engine is forcing

lower margin choices on him H based on

this additional information who do you

think should go to

London would you like to revise your two

choices before we decide too quickly

it's important to consider some other

factors we can add which booking

channels people use their costs and

other information about the use of those

channels

for example Jason books on the web a

cheap Channel but we can see from the

notes that he also exits the air London

site to competitors so clearly he is

price sensitive well look at Lana she

only books through the contact center

never online the contact costs us more

to serve but we get additional info by

analyzing call center logs looks like

stepy booked via a travel agent and

Conrad he always uses his corporate web

Eng in the book that's low cost to air

London based on this additional Channel

report do you want to change your

selections here's something I worked on

last night while we need to put all the

factors into the rebooking engine we

also need to build a customer centry

display one that Frontline people like

gate a AG can use and to give them a

bird's eye view of what's happening for

each individual passenger as well as how

valuable the customer is here's a

mackup I like it several different

portlets of information customer

lifetime value booking history and

waited on how recently a passenger had

issues yes when I was building that

screen I realized that there are

operational real-time factors that we

could also add to the customer page good

thinking what other kinds of active

information goes into that part of the

screen well for starters there turns out

Lana checked in with an infant in arms

and look here's another negative factor

bags from Rome didn't make the Frankfurt

flight poor Lana maybe the rules engines

should give her a break a baby lost bags

at least she's going home to the UK If

we send her there as part of the top two

oops and here's another input from live

contact center notes adding in costs to

customer carable than rout stephie's

original flight from Japan was can

she waited 6 hours in Tokyo for her next

flight look at these call logs she is

not happy I think we have a good handle

on some factors for the new rule base

let's bring jod up to speed right away

based on these active factors it's time

to lock in your final

choices the team prepares their

presentation and factors in one more new

opportunity to do better rebooking

so what have you found there are a lot

of factors that air London can use to

make better rebooking decisions the good

news is most of the information is

readily accessible it's a matter of

loading it into their active data

warehouse so it's all in one place and

realtime analytics can be run the

realtime information should give them a

Competitive Edge since Airlines have a

lot of moving Parts speaking of real

time we thought of one more opportunity

we read in the times that air London is

adding inflight internet seat

capabilities our idea is to use popup

screens to interact with impacted

customers giving them options and

gathering information the system would

interact with them in priority order

based on the rebooking scoring for

example we might find out that our top

priority passenger Conrad would have

been happy to take the flight to London

around noon the next day that feed up a

on number two Choice Jason actually

lives in Frankfurt he'd be fine with

canceling the last leg so that iner

number three and four choices would have

made the last flight of the day right by

having interactive capabilities we would

have accommodated Lana with the baby and

stuffy looks like everybody'd be happy

great work I'll call in to describe how

the system could have handled this

Frankford scenario and see what he

thinks of the new rebooking ideas sure

no problem Chief and when do I get

promoted I'm tired of carry and Chi

thanks for watching another episode of

BSI Terra dat you can learn more about

the BSI team members and check out other

Case Files at BSI teradata tocom

including detailed screenshots of how we

did it see you next time with another

case

[Music]