Mobile, social media, ancillary services, multichannel merchandising and frenetic change were themes that ran through the Amadeus Horizons 2010 airline conference in San Francisco.
Some semi-random tidbits from the second day of the Oct. 13-15, 2010, conference:
After describing the airline's recently launched Frequent Flyer iPhone app, John Lonergan, general manager of direct sales for Qantas, said the airline no longer thinks in terms of multiple channels, but considers it all one channel with multiple touch-points. This helps reduce internal turf battles between various divisions over revenue targets etc., he said.
Thus, the airline trains call center agents about the website so the customer experience is as seamless as possible, Lonergan said.
And, to assist customers, Qantas recently implemented a click-to-call feature on the website for site visitors who would rather speak with a customer service representative.
"A few years ago, we would have never done that because we wanted to keep things separate," Lonergan said.
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Numerous airline speakers and other panelists spoke of the need to get involved in various ways in social media.
In a breakout session on ancillary services and "the multichannel approach," Krista Pappas, Bing's global travel industry director, noted that Bing got 40,000 trials of the search engine from one tweet by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest about Bing.
"It's important to test these new mediums, but also to have measurements in place," Pappas said.
Pappas also talked about the expanded partnership between Bing and Facebook in which Facebook friends' "likes" will be incorporated into Bing's search results.
Pappas noted that the "lines are blurring" between search and social media, and this could have important implications for travel because you know which friend to turn to for a restaurant recommendation in San Francisco and which person in your social media network to consult for advice on a Caribbean hotel.
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In a breakout session on "The Dawn of a New Era: the Online Travel Agency Scene," PhocusWright President and CEO Philip Wolf talked about the current "chaos," which is characterized by disparate devices and platforms, the need to optimize beyond search, and the challenge to provide user experiences that go beyond reading and also incorporate tapping, hearing and seeing.
Wolf warned there will be no "new normal," given the current market chaos.
"You can't have chaos and normal," he said.
And, Wolf had a 2011 prediction -- tablet wars.
"Next year will be un -- you know what I mean -- believable for tablets," Wolf said.
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Glenn Wallace, vice president of technology strategy for Expedia Inc., didn't appear to be breaking any new ground when he described the value that Expedia provides to airlines in what the breakout session characterized as this "new era" for OTAs.
Wallace said Expedia provides an efficient global marketing platform for airlines, with its email and search engine marketing on behalf of airlines in global points of sale.
Wallace added that Expedia helps airlines spread the costs around as Expedia absorbs the costs of so many lookers who are searching for flights and not booking.
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In virtually every session at the Amadeus conference, Amadeus provided input about how its solutions and approach could help airlines and other sectors face their challenges.
In the OTA session, for instance, Philippe Chereque, executive vice president commercial at Amadeus, described how an Amadeus suite of tools can help OTAs manage the chaos by helping them optimize their advertising.
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The Amadeus conference is, after all, an Amadeus conference, with a heavy presence of Amadeus employees from around the world who are hoping to deepen ties with airline representatives in attendance.
Sometimes the commercial pitches seemed a bit overdone, however, as when Jean-Paul Hamon, Amadeus' executive vice president of development, in a session about "how the Amadeus development organization is supporting innovation today," mentioned several times how Amadeus will work on customer needs, will work closely with customers and will "do things with you."
Innovation, Hamon said, won't come top-down from Amadeus, but "those solutions have to be invented with you."
On the newsy side, Hamon noted that Amadeus is 90% finished in its initiative to transition off legacy systems and to "open systems," with the process expected to be 100% complete by 2012.
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In an interesting presentation, given the fact that it was made at an GDS/airline IT conference, Guylaine Lavoie, Air Canada's director of marketing innovations, outlined how the airline fought commoditization and brought "tangible benefits" to the airline and its customers when it introduced branded fares and unbundled products in 2006.
At the time, Air Canada triggered the wrath of Sabre, Galileo and Amadeus, when it withdrew its Tango fares from the GDSs over display and user experience issues.
In the interim, Air Canada has learned that 42% of customers will "buy up" when they could have purchased a lower fare, Lavoie said.
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One of the highlights of the conference's second day, Oct. 14, was a keynote speech by Tom Kelley, general manager of IDEO, on "Fostering creativity for continuous improvement."
Kelley argued that focusing on "the human factor" in the customer experience is where the greatest opportunities lie for airlines.
Kelley said airlines and other companies seeking to innovate should act as "anthropologists" when they evaluate their own products and processes.
In other words, Kelley said, companies should step back and analyze the customer experience as if they were outsiders and viewing the experience for the first time.
Doing so is key for innovation, Kelley said.
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Disclaimers: Amadeus paid for this writer's flight and hotel for the conference.
Philip Wolf is a Tnooz board member, and Dennis Schaal works with PhoCusWright as a research analyst.