Mobile won’t stop until it completely erodes desktop. With 54.28% global market share, it’s on the fast track to becoming a prime spot for innovation and competitive advantage.
Especially in airlines.
We all have smartphones. They’re absolutely everywhere. From toddlers to old-timers, they act as an extension of ourselves, bringing both comfort and convenience.
They allow for seamless communication and the ability to purchase anything virtually anywhere, at any time.
Yet, the majority of businesses still place heavy reliance on desktop (and are missing out on the opportunity).
If you stand any chance of being successful, once you digitally transform, you need to be thinking mobile.
Your Mobile Experience is (ano)the(r) Key to Success
A common mistake among organisations is the tendency to believe that digital transformation is a one-size-fits-all solution.
The idea that a simple infrastructure upgrade, or hiring the “right” talent will miraculously render your business AI-ready is utopian at best.
It takes planning, foresight, agility and a complete realignment of beliefs, roles and responsibilities to make a successful transformation.
And there are many elements to get right.
From Cloud migration to Data Engineering, through to Machine Learning and even User Experience (UX) design, digital transformation is far more than a quick and easy IT update.
But what it does is it gives you a headstart and a platform to be able to compete in a global market.
You’ve got the choice to be serverless and more efficient with the cloud. You have a potential wealth of data begging to be accessed through robust pipelines. You have the untapped ability to process data and simplify tasks for powerful user journeys.
Let’s look at it from the perspective of an airline.
Whether it’s a family or an individual travelling, some portion of the time that they engage with you will be spent on booking tickets.
With the increasing amount of mobile users, they’re most likely sitting on their phone to book those tickets.
Why?
Booking tickets through mobile phones are better, because:
- It’s faster. Passengers don’t have to wait for emails or 20 minutes for a confirmation. With mobile, they can book their tickets in seconds.
- It’s convenient. Passengers can book anywhere without the need for a laptop or desktop. It also gives easy access to booking details (ref no, gate, etc.) and notifications.
- It’s contactless. With health and safety regulations it provides a smoother and safer experience by facilitating processes with minimal contact.
Your Mobile Experience Needs a Facelift
While mobile is certainly dominating the market, desktop still accounts for 43.26% of the global market.
Where flight booking tickets is concerned, however, the amount of desktop purchases is nearly double that of mobile.
And a big reason for that is due to poor user experiences on mobile.
According to EveryMundo, there are two primary reasons for the low rate of mobile bookings:
- “A large portion of flights are booked from work, where desktop devices are the norm (including working from home)”.
- “Airline mobile booking flows are much more complicated and uncertain to complete for the average traveler”.
Airlines haven’t exactly been the paragon of excellence in the mobile space.
Whether it’s delays in communication, poorly engineered interfaces or the fact that some apps simply don’t work, there remains plenty of room for innovation.
It’s simple. As soon as you enable a comfortable (and remarkable) user experience on mobile, you will see a huge shift in traffic.
Start Imagining Your Perfect Airline App
Everyone wants to either book through an app, or at the very least, a browser on their phone.
We’re even seeing this ever-increasing trend of booking through a chatbot by simply sparking up a chat on your device.
Think about it. Being mobile-first is massive, because if only a fraction of time is spent booking a ticket, there is ample opportunity to create engagement with your brand.
Also, just imagine the convenience of a functional mobile app.
Instead of rushing to sit in front of their desktops to make a booking, check emails for boarding information and even delays, they could have it all in the palm of their hands.
The check-in process should be mobile, too. It will inevitably cut costs and make an environmental difference by taking a paperless route.
Passengers are also continuously looking for ancillary flight service that could all be sold during this engagement.
This is a missed opportunity to be offering a variety of deep partnerships during the process of flying. Learning more about how to manage queues, how to distribute passenger resources across airports, how to ensure airlines or planes are not delayed because of passenger behavior.
All of this can be managed through a mobile device.
The most important strategy that an airline can take is to ensure that they are mobile first.
Because it is the experience that dominates the flying journey.
