As any business leader knows, customer experience is vital to business success. A good customer experience increases customer satisfaction with your product or service and helps drive loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion, ensuring longer-term business success.
As a regular interstate traveller, I can tell you that Australia’s aviation industry clearly has some work to do in this regard.
In releasing the Federal Government’s Aviation White Paper1 last week, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King noted: “It was clear throughout our consultation process that the aviation customer experience has deteriorated post-COVID, with an urgent need to better protect the rights of the travelling public.”
The white paper sets out the government’s aviation policy agenda through 2050. Among the planned actions was the establishment of an independent Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme specifically designed to address customer complaints.
According to the latest 2023 Airline Customer Advocate annual report, according to the latest 2023 Airline Customer Advocate annual report2 1,408 eligible complaints were received in 2023, an increase of 9% on the previous year, and across the four participating Australian Airlines – Qantas, Virgin, Rex and Jetstar – took an average of 37 days to resolve.
The highest number of complaints related to refund requests (38%) and flight delays or cancellations (35%).
Obtaining refunds in a quick, easy-to-use, and appropriate form has long been one of airline customers’ greatest sources of frustration.
At BHN, we work with a range of partners in a variety of industry sectors to deliver refunds or reimbursements for customers and we recognise the importance of seamless and timely resolution of remediation and it’s impact on NPS and customer sentiment more broadly.
According to our research3, after direct payment into a bank account, the next most favoured form of receiving a refund is in the form of a pre-paid Visa or Mastercard. Given the PII data landscape in Australia, consumers do not want to give Bank Account information through portals that are not part of their existing relationship with a brand.
As part of our global survey, we found that 70% of Australian customers prefer prepaid cards, in either digital or physical forms. Merchant credit, a form of reimbursement favoured by many airlines, was only preferred by 43% of survey respondents.
The benefits of refunding or reimbursing customers through pre-paid cards are many. They offer enormous flexibility and convenience for the customer, being able to be used virtually anywhere, in person or online, for any type of goods or services.
They can also be dispatched quickly and efficiently, especially in digital form, where they can be easily added to a mobile wallet for added convenience.
And the research shows that customers regularly spend over the value of any pre-paid or gift card by as much as 76%, depending on the value of the card.
Airlines may decry the potential that the revenue they would earn from a return flight to Bali is now going to spent on a new television, but our research suggests this is not necessarily the case with 50% of Australian customers saying they would spend their disbursement or refund with the merchant or company that provided it.
And even if it’s not an immediate spend, by providing a refund or reimbursement, in a timely manner, in the form that your customer needs and wants, all translates into a positive customer experience.
And at the end of the day, it is that customer experience that is likely to bring them – and maybe their friends or family – back to you, when they do want that return flight to Bali.
1 https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/aviation-white-paper-towards-2050
2 https://www.airlinecustomeradvocate.com.au/General/AnnualReports.aspx
Written by: Blackhawk Network RVP Incentives AU Will Feutrill
