dc.description.abstract |
Responding to the escalating competition sparked by the 1980s, liberalization of the aviation regulations in the U.S., and exploiting the opportunities brought by the development of information technologies, U.S. airlines started to implement the concept of “relationship marketing” through “frequent flyer programs,” hoping to switch one-time customers to repeated frequent customers. It has since become a standard program offered by almost all airlines in the world to their customers today. The underlying concept is to pay more attentions to the more valuable customers, with better services.
Airline C is a major commercial airline in Taiwan. It started its frequent flyer program in 1993, with four courtesy levels. A normal member can accumulate mileage to enjoy free journeys or flight upgrades. Members of a higher level can enjoy more services and benefits at the airports. Most members obtain their level of memberships based on their accrued mileages. However, to attract potential customers with high values, managers of business or marketing units in Airlines C are given the responsibilities to recommend customers with higher courtesy levels. It can potentially increase and maintain their loyalty to Airline C. Unfortunately, the recommendation today is based on a manual application system, where some of the applications are not processed in a timely manner, or even falls through the cracks. These alienate many potential customers.
This study attempts to analyze the current application processes of frequent flyer membership upgrade applications, pinpoint and solve the problems. The result is a reengineered process, with coupling electronic form system supports, integrating to the existing workflow system, minimizing errors and expediting processing cycle times. A simulated analysis of the 2016 settings shows that with the new process, the 4% missing cases will be diminished, and all the 98% approved can be processed in time within 7 days, up from 84%. It is evident that the proposed process can be effective in reducing customer alienation. In addition, business net income around 5 million NTD can be realized. Feasibility analysis shows that the proposal is workable. | en_US |