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Customer Case Study
American Airlines
Major airline streamlines consumer research
Situation At-a-glanceDallas-based AMR Corporation, the parent company of domestic and international Country: United Statescarrier American Airlines and regional carrier American Eagle, is a worldwide leader Industry: Air transportationin air transportation services. Date Founded: 1934Company Type: PublicCritical Issue Revenues: $1.5 billionIn an intensely competitive marketplace, knowledge is power. The more an airline Employees: 96,400can learn about what its customers like and don't like about its offerings, the moreeffective it can be at building customer loyalty and maximizing its revenues. Of Applicationcourse, the resource cost of obtaining and processing this information must be Customer survey researchcarefully controlled. Airlines need:? Volumes of rich, specialized market intelligence Solutions Used ®? Timely delivery to decision makers SPSS for Windows? Low-cost, high-value production of information
SolutionThe power and ease of use of SPSS for Windows enables the AMR Consumer Research department to perform more research than ever before and deliver timely reports whilemaintaining a small, dedicated staff.
Results? Increased productivity threefold and delivered more in-depth results? Achieved faster turnaround through dramatically improved ease of use? Maintained low costs while producing more and better informationCustomer Survey Research
In the intensely competitive world of air transportation, Increased productivity threefold and delivered more carriers are constantly searching for a differentiating edge. in-depth resultsIncreasingly, customer loyalty is proving to be one of the To analysts like Douglas, changes in data trends are a redmost vital factors in keeping seats filled and airline flag, and the more telltale changes he is able to uncoverrevenues high. and bring to the attention of senior managers, the more reliable, fact-based decisions they can make. How does AMR build loyalty? By learning more about itscustomers-what they like, and what they don't like. But "The Consumer Research department has tripled itswith more than 3,700 flights carrying some 250,000 productivity since adding SPSS for Windows to our officepassengers between 233 cities every day, there's a lot of systems," said Douglas. "We're able to do more trackingdata to digest. Making sense of it all is the responsibility surveys, and take on far more ad hoc research requestsof AMR's Consumer Research Department, and of Senior from our internal clients." This increased efficiency isAnalyst and Database Manager King Douglas. important, because demand for the department's servicesis higher than ever before."We are continuously scanning the environment and measuring our customer satisfaction in dozens of categories "Our internal clients are very interested in the informationagainst data from other airlines, as well as against our own we are generating, and they're even more excited when theypast performance," Douglas explained. "We're looking to can get answers in a matter of days, rather than weeks,"uncover any weaknesses early on, so we can address them said Douglas.before they can hurt us in the marketplace."
To get this information, Douglas "boards" more than a "... Our senior managers are alerted to potentialdozen different surveys-in nine different languages-on problems a lot more quickly and accurately. about 100 randomly-selected American and American That helps them take action, and ultimately, Eagle flights each day. The surveys range from general ensure more people are in our seats, rather tracking surveys to specific, ad hoc surveys customized for than those of our competitors." a particular AMR department. The Food and BeverageDepartment, for example, might want to know more about - King Douglasthe success of its new entree selections, or Inflight Services Senior Analystmight want to know if passengers enjoyed the new onboard AMR Corporationvideo games.
In addition, Douglas' group solicits feedback through focusgroups and telephone interviews. Information also flows inthrough flight attendant reports, letters, and other sources.And, of course, there are operational variables such as typeof aircraft, flight attendants and crew onboard, delay data,and passenger volume flowing in. In the drive to increasecustomer loyalty, AMR tracks all of these variables and moreand analyzes them usin... [download for more]
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