Member Article

In These Times of Lengthy Airport Queues, Is Online Check-in As Popular As It Should Be?

The days of standing in a huge queue at an airline check-in desk to kick start your holiday or travel experience should be becoming a thing of the past, but a recent survey by global customer experience expert, Webhelp, indicates that airlines still have a way to go to encourage UK consumers to ditch the desk altogether.

Webhelp’s survey of 500 UK adults revealed that 58% of people always or usually check-in online. That is only just more than half, and considering online check-in has been around for a long time and a number of airlines insist travellers check-in before they get to the airport or face stiff penalties, is this figure surprisingly low?

Once you start to split the answers by gender, age and income huge variances appear. Online check-in is more popular with men than women, with 63% of men saying they always or usually check-in online versus just 53% of women.

Almost half (44%) of people earning less than £10k a year said they never use online check-in, with a quarter (25%) of 45-54s and those earning between £10-20k pa claiming never to use it.

The most likely groups to check-in online are those earning more than £40k pa (72%) and the 25-34s (71%).

David Turner, CEO of Webhelp UK, India and SA, said: “What this clearly shows is that a one size fits all approach to customer experience from airlines is not going to work. Our survey data reveals huge swings – from almost half of one group never using online check-in to almost three quarters of other groups always or usually using it. Since the groups are so clearly defined this presents an opportunity for airlines to target the slow adopters of online check-in technology.

“Specialist customer experience solution designers like Webhelp can work with companies by harnessing our data analysis capabilities to identify ways to ensure customers are treated as individuals and communicated with via the channel and in the way they prefer.

“As airlines continue to drive customers towards online check-in as a way of reducing operating costs, the ability to identify and persuade those groups of people who are reluctant to embrace this way of travelling becomes ever more crucial.”

http://www.webhelp.com/en-gb/news-insights/news/why-dont-more-people-use-online-check-in/

ENDS

Press information: Heather Astbury, head of PR at Webhelp, on +44(0)7825 593242 heather.astbury@uk.webhelp.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Heather Astbury .