Perhaps, in an effort to cut costs, airlines have started offering in-flight entertainment through an app that you can download on to your own device, rather than putting screens in the back of the seat in front of you. This would probably be fine, except that not everyone has a device, and you don’t necessarily find out ahead of time.
Recently, a friend of mine travelled to Arizona with her husband and two young children. It was only too late that she found out that in-flight entertainment would only be provided through an app that she would have to download onto her own device, for a five hour flight. This is also assumed that she had enough devices to go around. Some flights have iPads available, but they are limited in numbers, and they don’t usually provide headphone splitters, which means that where you could share a device, now you have to take up two.
Now, I’m not sure if you’ve had the pleasure of longer flights with children, but there is a point at which, unless otherwise occupied, they just want to explore. This was a perfect opportunity for the airline to engage in some service design, and provide the most positive flying experience possible with things that they could control.
For example, The airline could have sent an email a few days before the flight, letting her know of what she might need, and what is available. They could have gone one step further and maybe provided a discount coupon at a local electronics chain to purchase small items like headphones and splitters, or a small gift card to an online content provider to preload some content/apps before the flight.
Perhaps they could have given her an option to reserve devices ahead of time when she checked in online as well. This would allow the airline to plan in advance to make sure they had enough devices to meet the known demand, as well as extras for the unknown demand.
Instead, she found on the plane, was unable to download the app, and was unable to get headphone splitters or headphones for her kids, with a five hour flight ahead of them. She shared her story through social media, and what could have been a shout out the airline for making family travel so much easier, turned into a rant about how all they care about is money.
Businesses need to learn that like with any relationship we’re all willing to be brand ambassadors, as long as we feel that we’re being looked after, even in the smallest of ways. Engaging in some good service design may be able to turn a potential rant into a brand win that could go viral, boosting your brand in the face of competition.
It’s the little things that are so easy to overlook, but can make the biggest difference.
