This week in IFExpress, we have two interesting stories, one on Guestlogix and their view of onboard sales/selling, and the other on one of the two hideous computer hardware vulnerabilities, Spectre and Meltdown. Lets get started with the IFEC focused one.

GUESTLOGIX

For starters, we should start by telling our readers that a few years back, we wrote an article on Guestlogix’s approach to onboard retailing and the use of special technology in the cabin. Quite a bit has changed at the company since then, and a recent note from one of their strategy folks caught our eye: “Guestlogix has undergone quite a few changes – new management team, new product roadmap, new vision for the airline industry.” Whoa, that’s a lot of “new”! We thought we had better take a look into the changes and Guestlogix’s new approach to selling merchandise onboard a commercial aircraft.

First, to set the stage, we should mention that Guestlogix is a global company that develops (and provides) airline commerce technology and solutions that help carriers generate ancillary revenue.

Recently, Guestlogix published a report that makes the connection between passenger experience and the psychological phenomenon of “learned helplessness.” What is learned helplessness? It’s a behavior pattern where passengers experience a lack of control from check-in to landing. This feeling leads to frustration (with the airline) and general apathy toward air travel. And this experience makes passengers less inclined to spend and more inclined to view air travel negatively.

For airlines, the first step to satisfying passengers and increasing revenue is to make them feel in control by empowering them to use their mobile devices at every touchpoint. The question is how will empowered passengers improve the airline’s bottom line?

Ever since the airline industry was deregulated, airlines have been “unbundling” fares and charging for ancillary services, which has helped drive down the cost of air travel. Passengers want low fares, but they don’t like the resultant trade-off where they are forced to sacrifice quality of service in exchange for low fares. They have accepted the trade-off – begrudgingly – but the result has been a long deterioration of passenger experience as passengers come to see air travel as an experience to be endured rather than enjoyed.

After decades of learned helplessness, passengers have reached their breaking point and are demanding change from airlines – and they are taking to social media to voice their frustration. Consequently, airlines have been forced to make changes. Guestlogix notes in its report that 20% of consumers are more likely to switch brands after just one negative experience, and 25% are more likely to complain about the company. The opposite is also true – just one memorable customer experience leads to a significant increase in purchases and recommendations. With airlines depending more than ever on ancillary revenue (which has increased some three-fold over the last few years), the problem of “learned helplessness” has to be solved if airlines hope to reduce the financial impact of negative passenger experience, and maximize ancillary revenue opportunities.

The important message here is that Guestlogix has identified and solved the connection between negative passenger experience and airline revenue, and have developed a technology platform that solves both problems at the same time, which will help the airline industry finally realize the unfulfilled promise of deregulation for better air travel. The report is available and free to download here at the Guestlogix website.

We spoke with Guestlogix about their new airline commerce platform, but before we go into more detail, here is a brief summary of the solution: “The new airline commerce platform from Guestlogix is built on the rails of the best on-the-ground e-commerce technologies which include passenger analytics and product mix optimization, data-driven sales and marketing tools and comprehensive payment functionality. Guestlogix delivers more opportunities for onboard ancillary revenues than any other alternative, while improving today’s typical passenger experience. For passengers, that means having control, comfort and choice.”

Here are some more detail: “The data-driven platform connects selling with passenger psychology – making customers feel like the airline knows them and can anticipate their needs and desires. Airlines that can execute on a personalized, ‘consumerized’ and mobile passenger experience will have tremendous advantage over competitors who can’t – or won’t – deviate from entrenched, legacy approaches.”

Furthermore: “The airline commerce platform is built around the combined power of a flight attendant POS and a consumer-facing passenger app. The passenger mobile app serves as a personal concierge allowing the user to browse the onboard catalog, make completely friction-less payments with multiple methods and currencies and take control of their comfort with personalized, relevant merchandise. Flight attendants can access the platform through the POS app on the airline’s device of choice, open and close ordering with a single touch, quickly review passenger orders (including pre-orders) and monitor inventory.”

So, we see that Guestlogix has developed a software solution (actually an entire full-suite platform) to improve passenger experience and onboard selling. You can get more detail (and pictures of the solution) at their website: www.guestlogix.com. For now, let’s dig a little deeper without getting too technical. The Guestlogix platform has three main components: Management Console, Flight Attendant POS, Passenger Experience App.

Management Console

The management console makes it easy for flight crews and sales and marketing teams to monitor sales performance across flights and run personalized, data-driven campaigns based on predictive analytics – giving them deep business intelligence on what individual passengers want or may need. From the management console, airlines can add any kind of ancillary merchandise, both physical goods (such as food and beverage) as well as non-physical merchandise (upgrades, media, destination activities). The management console also streamlines inventory management and uses data analytics to help airlines stock inventory more intelligently and reduce waste. The strength of the management console is its ability to synthesize multiple data streams and provide actionable business intelligence for improving onboard selling and significantly increasing revenue, while providing passengers with the quality of personalized retail they have come to expect from brands such as Starbucks and Uber. “Insights” is the tool group within the management console that enables airlines to manage their operations and build campaigns all in one platform, including reports, snapshots, performance, and forecasting (for example, to compare high-performing and low-performing routes). Above all, the software is easy to use and intuitive, making data analytics quick and easy.

Flight Attendant POS

The flight attendant POS is key to connecting operations and revenue management at the passenger (purchases) level, including the ability to make payments in multiple forms and currencies (including cash + loyalty points, cross-border payments), and the ability to up-sell and cross-sell with personalized, data-driven campaigns targeted to each individual passenger. The platform works on Apple or Android devices. With the flight attendant app, crews can open and close orders easily, keep track of sales, process payments and much more. The flight attendant app is tightly integrated with the passenger app for easy communication and order fulfillment that makes onboard selling easier and faster.

Passenger Experience App

The passenger experience app serves as a “digital concierge” that makes it easy for passengers to browse inventory, place orders and make payments. By creating a seamless, friction-less and personalized retail experience, the airline not only ensures higher revenue but increases satisfaction and builds loyalty. Airlines can add any kind of inventory to the catalog (not just food and beverage) and passengers can make purchases before, during or after the flight (seat upgrades, “jump the line” privileges, destination activities). Order tracking makes it easy for passengers and flight attendants to view, edit or cancel an order. The passenger app can also store a customer’s preferred payment method as well as mileage/loyalty points, making it easy for airlines to integrate loyalty programs with ancillary merchandising. Overall, the passenger app creates a personalized passenger experience where the passenger is in control and can take direct action when they feel frustrated, stressed or just feel like spending.

Currently, onboard sales and service are still largely dependent on legacy POS devices that were built to process orders and payments, but largely disconnected from any passenger systems. This is backward and inconvenient for both passengers and flight attendants increasingly accustomed to doing everything – from hailing an Uber to ordering pizza – on a mobile app or voice-controlled device. Guestlogix’s platform was built to make service faster and easier for flight attendants, improve passenger experience (and break the cycle of learned helplessness), and use powerful data analytics for more personalized, targeted selling and significantly higher revenue.

Check out the Guestlogix website and see how they have solved the “big picture” problem of improving passenger experience while increasing revenue at the same time. Good Stuff!

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* Editor’s Note: The BUZZ backgrounder!

If you don’t know Max Lingua (G.U.E. Tech – CEO), well, you should. Why? Because, as a gaming genius, he always has something to say about virtually everything. We asked for a short BUZZ, and what he said (Play. Life is a game) is short and to the point – but what he sent was the BUZZ and More – a description and meaning of the short phrase. We thought you might like to read it!

“Most players are currently indulging in casual and RPG on the ground, with a ratio movie-watcher to game players of 2:1 in the sky, when we compare top-watched with top-played. We have scenarios where the top-played game is getting as many eyes as a blockbuster that has been flying for few weeks. Games generally age better, you can keep playing them, but you hardly watch the same movie twice (unless you have a very short memory span…) when you catch the next flight. When IFE is done right, travel is a continuation of your ludic [ you can see I studied Latin 🙂 ] experience, a homey comfort above the clouds. We all do. Play, I mean. We wear a suit or shorts. On our own or in a group. For fun or serious business. We adjust our role as we go. We win and we lose. A promotion, a lost love, a new car. What we play on a computer screen is just one of the many games and roles we play every day, an escape or a reflection. No wonder casual games (an evasion) and role-play games (an identity) are so popular. That’s all we do. Play. Life is a game of games.”