Data and airport experiences

Real-time customer research data can make airports even better for every stakeholder.

The Easter holidays are here and all over the world passengers are arriving at airports to jet off. They will pass through check-in and security, enjoy a drink and perhaps a meal before their flight and, at journey’s end, gather around the baggage belt to wonder when their bag will appear. For most the process will be time-consuming but easy.

But unfortunately sometimes things go wrong. Security snarls, mislaid bags and long waits leading to missed flights can and do happen. Running a busy airport is tough work – in addition to the passenger experience, managers need to worry about safety, security and operational disruptions. Fortunately a data revolution promises to make things a little easier.

Surveyapp supplies tablet-powered consumer survey kiosks to airports so that people moving through the process can supply instant feedback. The kiosks can be placed anywhere, from check-in and security through to the departures lounge and the gate, and from car parks to immigration.

Airports all over the world enable speedy, reliable and safe air travel for their passengers. Our mission at Surveyapp is to help every airport use real-time data to make the passenger experience even better.

As part of our work with airports we are building an open-to-all community of interested stakeholders, colleagues and observers. The community’s goal is to discuss and learn how to use real-time customer feedback data to develop the airport experience for the benefit of every stakeholder.

We see eight groups of people who will benefit from making air travel even better.

The passengers:

The people using airports to catch planes have a lot to gain from improvements at airports. They will be less likely to lose a bag, wait a long time or miss a flight.

The airport itself:

Happy passengers will make operations easier. Data can help show where in the airport people get lost, confused or stressed so the airport can focus on making those areas better. The end result will be people moving through to catch their flights more smoothly and quickly.

The handling agents & the security specialists:

Airports and their agents need to have important service-level agreements in place, covering everything from how long it takes 95% of passengers to check in and pass through security to equipment being in order. Real-time survey data from Surveyapp Surveykiosks help airport managers identify issues across landside and airside before they impact the operation.

Immigration & customs:

It is easy to tell how many people are likely to arrive at immigration at a given time by looking at airline schedules. However it is much harder to gauge how immigration is used at a more granular level, such as whether people who are not native-speakers of the language have a harder time than others. Surveyapp uses boarding pass scanning technology to match experiences against other passenger attributes, such as where they arrived from and which cabin they travelled in.

The airlines which fly to & from the airport:

Airlines have a deep understanding of how their tickets are bought and priced, achieved with the help of whizzy revenue management algorithms. But their understanding of the people who are behind the tickets is limited. Often a passenger’s arrival at the airport is the first time an airline meets them in person. We believe that there is a lot of potential for airlines and airports to work together to share data generated by data collection platforms like Surveyapp which generate rich content.

The retailers:

It is no secret that airports are retail spaces as well as regional entry and exit points. Great retailers know that how you design your shop floor has a big impact on consumer footfall and ultimately spend. Surveyapp provides data that airports can use in retail geography analysis so that each brand renting space can be sure of the most customers possible.

The caterers:

When food is thrown away, is it because it did not taste nice or it arrived late so the passengers did not have time to finish a meal before catching a flight. Surveyapp can. deliver surveys directly to passengers on their own device by scanning a QR code. Place these on menus or tables and airport catering outlets will learn how their business can improve in real-time.

This community is brand new, effective today. We will start by posting blogs just like this to keep you up to date with what we learn. As the community develops there will be more things happening – audio and video content, virtual roundtables and even, eventually, live events.

So join up, stay tuned and get involved. These blog articles will be available to all, but please be sure to sign up with your official travel industry email to have access to the roundtables and live events that will help the industry develop in this exciting space.

What do you want to learn about your passengers that you do not know today? Get in touch and let us know!

oliver AT surveyapp DOT io

savio AT surveyapp DOT io