Flair Airlines, a charter carrier based in the western province of British Columbia that is taking a run at the ultra-low-cost market, is bringing in some big-name help to get it right.
The company selected Salesforce Service Cloud to deliver enhanced customer service experiences.
Salesforce, widely considered a leader in CRM, will be central to Flair’s service workforce.
That begs the question of how Flair sees its future direction.
The carrier’s stated goal is to set a new standard for customer experience, responsiveness and quality – concepts not always associated with ultra-low-cost operations.
Service Cloud will provide Flair's airport operations personnel and customer service representatives with connected, 360-degree views of every customer, enabling them to provide faster, smarter and more personalized service.
Data from Flair’s reservations system, social media networks and other contact points will be routed through Service Cloud, allowing service representatives to respond to potential issues more quickly.
Flair got a brief taste of ULCC service during its stint flying for NewLeaf Travel, one of many companies that tried its luck in Canada, which has a well-deserved reputation as a vast graveyard for low-cost carriers.
The country has a low population relative to its size, and airlines must compete over its three urban centers – Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Among Canadian LCCs, only WestJet has avoided the graveyard, and it did so by evolving into a hybrid carrier, complete with its upscale Mint product.
NewLeaf, led by former Spirit Airlines chief Ben Baldanza and travel industry veteran Jim Young, sought to crack the market by offering low-fare flights on another company’s planes – Flair Airlines’.
That allowed it to skirt some of Canada’s more onerous airline regulations.
But the approach didn’t work out any better than the more straightforward method, and NewLeaf sold its assets, comprised largely of the marketing side of the operation, to Flair in June.