Heike Birlenbach, SVP, sales, Lufthansa Group
Heike Birlenbach will take part in Keynote: Lufthansa ... Panel: Airline Distribution at the Tipping Point at Phocuswright Europe.
Ahead of the event, she discusses new technologies, ancillary sales and more.
What topic should we be discussing right now, and why?
It is an exciting time to be a part of the travel industry. The technological progress we are seeing right now is faster than ever before and has a major impact on our industry and the way we interact with our customers.
This creates opportunities for established players, be it agents, suppliers or tech companies, as well as new entrants. We are leveraging these new and innovative technologies like virtual reality, voice interaction, chatbots and biometric recognition along the whole travel chain, to constantly improve the experience for our customers and become more efficient.
If you could change one thing about how the travel industry functions, what would it be?
Especially with regards to the aviation industry, we have seen a commoditization of the flight product for quite a long time. Travelers ask for a wide range of options: They care for aspects such as price, convenience, short travel times, entertainment, food and beverage options or even all-inclusive luxury packages.
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We need to be able to provide offers that meet the individual preferences of our travelers, and for this we need modern means of travel distribution to create the offers, put them on the shopping shelves and provide travelers with a product experience already during the shopping process. This is why we are driving change in the travel industry by investing into new, modern ways of distribution.
What is the biggest opportunity in online travel in 2018?
We believe voice interaction is a promising opportunity, as it presents an even more personal/natural way to interact with our customers/guests, within the online ecosystem.
We want to offer faster, more convenient processes for our guests, along the whole travel chain.
Heike Birlenbach - Lufthansa Group
Sales and service processes in the travel industry are key areas for voice interaction. A complementary voice interaction “channel” will be necessary in the near future to fulfill customer needs such as checking flight status, searching and potentially booking flights, support in irregularity situations and more.
It will be key, however, to not lose the direct contact to your customer and manage the relationship with the potentially dominant “voice platforms in the middle.”
Also the use of chatbots is a great opportunity to provide customers with immediate assistance, where and whenever they need it. We just launched the MVP (minimum viable product) version of a chatbot for the LH Group Network-Airlines that currently provides our guests with rebooking options in irregularity situations and will be enhanced by further functionalities in the future.
What single piece of advice would you give a new business entering the travel industry?
Put yourself in the perspective of the customer and create value for them, by improving the customer experience or processes for current service providers, travel managers, etc.
There are still many legacy processes in place at various points along the travel chain which provide opportunities for new entrants, utilizing new technologies and innovative ideas.
How has Lufthansa leveraged ancillary sales as part of an overall distribution model?
In the last years we have realized an increased demand for ancillary products. Especially for online-driven customers we see a huge potential.
One important prerequisite is that ancillary products have to be very simple to buy for the customers. We strengthen our own online channel to create this enhanced shopping experience for our customers.
In addition, with the help of our NDC API, we offer this experience also to our sales partners in a very simple way. This new IATA standard NDC will help our sales partners to reduce technical complexity and integrate this shopping experience in their individual booking flow/ shop.
On the one hand this will help our sales partners to be competitive and offer additional products, on the other hand we have an extended reach to our customers. In other words: When we help our sales partners to enhance the shopping experience for their customers based on our distribution solutions, we finally fully leverage our ancillary sales.
You recently launched a biometric boarding pass at Los Angeles International Airport - how will this technology transform the customer experience?
We want to offer faster, more convenient processes for our guests, along the whole travel chain. Especially at the airport, there are still many points where travel is anything but frictionless. This technology will make the customer experience more seamless and overall more pleasant.
The biometric boarding at LAX, which we launched together with our longstanding IT partner, Amadeus, as well as US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Los Angeles World Airports Authority (LAWA), and Vision Box, is just a first step. This kind of technology can also be used for other processes such as check-in and baggage drop or lounge access.
With an expansion in all these areas, I believe it will truly transform the way that we move through an airport. Our goal is to enhance the customer experience by applying advanced technologies and innovative solutions, and this is a further step towards achieving that goal.