Technology Leads to Memorable Customer Experience at Thanks Again

customer experenceTechnology is a crucial piece of the customer engagement puzzle at Thanks Again, which is touted as the world’s only airport-centric coalition loyalty program.

Thanks Again officials have seen from customers the need for several key technologies that will enhance their experiences.

Thanks Again is a finalist for the 2015 Loyalty360 Awards in the Technology & Trends category.

Awards will be handed out at the 8th annual Loyalty Expo presented by Loyalty360 – The Loyalty Marketers’ Association, which will be held April 27-29, 2015, at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida.

Ed Puckhaber, President and COO, Thanks Again participated in a compelling Q&A with Loyalty360 to discuss the company’s keen eye toward technologies that help make the customer experience more seamless and enjoyable.

Can you talk about Thanks Again’s approach to technology and trends, as far as what is involved, and why you think it resonates so well with your customers?

We are seeing a strong desire for a few key technologies in our chosen space, namely, global airports.

Frequent travelers (our target demographic) are looking for a better travel experience. We can address this by embracing (and being part of) the trend toward “the paperless airport.” Frequent travelers want to get rid of their paper. They want to do everything on (and with) their phone. This includes prepayments for airport parking, prepayments for food and beverage purchases, and prepayments for gifts/duty free items. And if it's not a prepayment, it will be with a paperless mechanism like Apple Pay or Google Wallet. What better place to incent people to embrace paperless mechanisms than at the airport?

Another way to enhance the traveler experience is to provide an enhanced app (e.g., Thanks Again 2.0) that shows the traveler – even before they leave their home – how long it will take to:

1) Get to the airport

2) Get to their prepaid, pre-designated parking spot (if not taking Uber)

3) Check in and get through security

4) Get to their gate. 

 

From that, we can:

a) Estimate the amount of "free time" the traveler will have to shop/dine/enjoy airport services

b) Provide a relevant, timely offer for the traveler the moment they exit the security line. 

Also, in the event of a delay or interruption in travel, we want to give the frequent traveler something valuable to offset the negative aspects of the delay (e.g., a free appetizer, discount at a retail concept, or free access to the airport lounge). These are just a few of the items that we have in mind.

At the same time, we don't want to embrace trends that are “here today, gone tomorrow.” We believe that beacon technology, for example, is something that is here to stay. We want to use beacons to delight the frequent traveler with timely, relevant offers, and access to real-time security wait times (for example) and best-of-breed airport maps and wayfinding (the exact path to the gate and the exact position of their plane – e.g., is it even at the gate yet? We will use loyalty, rewards, and offers also to incent frequent travelers to use paperless technologies at the airport, including pay by phone, prepayment, and paperless vehicles like expedited, app-based passport control, customs clearance, electronic boarding passes, self baggage check-in, etc.

What are your customer loyalty goals and how have the results matched or exceeded your expectations?

We believe that our members are a highly engaged jet setting, early adopting, tech-savvy group. We have the perfect venue (airports) to engage these early adopters to engage with our loyalty brand as we enhance the travel experience. Our goals are 30% or higher active members, extremely high levels of interaction with email promotions and push notifications/offers. We are just touching the tip of the iceberg. We believe that if we can bring a greatly enhanced loyalty/travel/consumer engagement app to the frequent traveler/airport industry, and connect travelers, airports, and communities across the globe (and establish a globally recognized loyalty brand along the way), we will meet our goals.

How do you define Customer Loyalty and how does Customer Feedback impact that theme?

Customer loyalty is driven by a satisfied traveler with a better and more rewarding travel experience than the non-Thanks Again member sitting next to him/her. Our most loyal members are those that travel and seek out Thanks Again participating locations whenever they travel. They transact with us on at least a weekly basis when they shop/dine/park at the airport (and beyond). The type of customer feedback is when a customer tells their friends/family/co-workers via social media or other channels that they are satisfied members of Thanks Again. We want to provide ways for members to tell their friends that they are loyal members. We are planning to enhance our social media interactions with members and may include aspects of gamification in our new app. What better way to brag about being a frequent traveler and loyal member of Thanks Again? When that happens, we have done our job and our constituent airports, merchants, and other stakeholders will greatly benefit from our loyalty program. 

With an abundance of technology solutions available in the marketplace, how do you know which ones best fit your customers and their expectations?

Any technology that allows the member to travel from Point A to Point B without using a paper-based, 20th-century mechanism is something that we want to be a part of. Technologies like Uber, prepaid airport parking, expedited security line access, prepaid airport purchases (including food and beverage), all in a "paperless" mode, are technologies that we want to embrace. Use your phone; no paper boarding pass, no receipts, no paper at all. We want people to be incentivized to use these technologies and a robust loyalty program for frequent travelers is the best way to encourage such behavior. Early adopters and frequent travelers that embrace new technologies should be rewarded for doing so. We want to be part of engendering loyalty and more spending by providing rewards and incentives for those members that use these technologies.

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