“Today’s airlines are challenged with maximizing revenue in the face of unpredictable booking patterns, widespread industry disruptions, and evolving traveller expectations. To stay competitive, they need to reconsider the travel retailing experience through the eyes of their customers and overcome limitations at key stages of the travel journey.” - Sabre, 2022
Airlines consistently strive to maximize revenue, meet changing passenger expectations, and deliver flawless customer experiences in the fast-paced world of flying. Airlines must rethink the travel retailing experience from the standpoint of their customers in order to remain competitive. Customer experience (CX), which affects customer loyalty and total income, is the cornerstone of success in the airline sector. Unexpectedly, the neglect of CX has led to yearly losses of approximate $1.4b in the example of US airlines. Understanding their clients is crucial for airlines not only for their core operations but also for ancillary services like travel, lodging, and entertainment. Digital touchpoints are becoming more and more significant as a result of customer interactions that extend to social media and review sites. Enter Digital Twins of Customers (DToCs) – an innovative concept that holds the key to unlocking unparalleled insights and personalization in the airline industry. Although still in their infancy, Gartner experts believe that DToCs will alter enterprises within the next five to 10 years.
Digital Twins of Customers (DToCs)
Let's examine the idea of Digital Twins (DT) for physical objects before delving into DToCs. A DT is a digital representation of its physical counterpart that incorporates real-time data for efficient data management and processing. It serves as a link between the digital and physical worlds, enabling items and systems to be designed, used, and maintained in the most efficient way possible.
Now, consider DToC as a dynamic digital representation of a consumer, which mimics, learns, and predicts behavior. Unlike Digital Twins (DTs), which are an already established concept, DToCs bring a new idea to the table that has the potential to completely transform several sectors, including aviation. Let’s also consider how DToCs differ from the conventional 360-degree views of clients. While the 360-degree view provides a comprehensive overview of customer interactions and touchpoints, DToCs take personalization to a new level. DToCs produce dynamic, changing digital representations of individual customers, in contrast to the 360-degree view, which only compiles and analyzes data from numerous sources. Businesses will be able to provide highly customized experiences that are catered to the interests and demands of every client or customer group.
By utilizing DToCs, airlines may achieve unprecedented levels of consumer awareness and provide individualized, sympathetic experiences that appeal to contemporary travelers. DToCs have a wide range of possible applications in the customer experience as they create comprehensive virtual profiles of customers by gathering wide-spread, live data about consumer interactions. This concept, once fully implemented, will improve judgment, tailors services, and boosts client happiness. Additionally, DToCs may coordinate simulated customer experiences using virtual interactions and contextual variables, improving CX design and creating innovative data-driven business models.
To realize the full potential of DToCs, businesses must embrace the future of technology and invest in machine learning skills. Early MVP adoption will pave the road for effective deployment, allowing companies to clearly explain the advantages to end customers. With this exciting concept comes the issue of juggling the demands of business, those of customers, and data security. A key factor in the aviation industry's effective implementation of DToCs will be ensuring privacy and cybersecurity. Coherently addressing these issues is a must for a wider adoption of this promising concept. Building trust with customers is key, empowering them to access and manage their data within the DToC is, therefore, a must. Future use cases in the aviation sector contain incredible potential. For instance, enhancing pre-purchase encounters to foresee traveler desires or putting technology-enabled loyalty tactics into practice to cultivate long-lasting connections. These are only a few of the many ways that DToCs have the potential to change the aviation sector.
Conclusion
In the ever-evolving landscape of the airline industry, customer experience reigns supreme as a critical differentiator. Digital Twins of Customers offer an unprecedented opportunity for airlines to delve into the minds of their customers, paving the way for personalized, empathetic experiences that resonate deeply. As we journey into this realm of innovation, we must prioritize data security, ensuring that customer trust remains unwavering.
The insights gained from DToCs will be transformative, allowing tech-savvy leaders and decision-makers to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior, optimize service offerings, and drive revenue growth. By embracing this cutting-edge technology, airlines can unlock a future where every interaction with customers becomes a seamless and memorable journey.
But our exploration has just begun. In the next edition of this series, we will delve deeper into real-world use cases of DToCs in the airline industry, envisioning a future where pre-purchase experiences anticipate traveler needs and loyalty strategies forge lasting connections. Stay tuned as we unlock the potential of DToCs, revolutionizing the aviation industry one DToC at a time.
