Improving Passenger Experience

Passenger Experience © Robert Wilson, Fotolia

Improving Passenger Experience

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Challenge

With millions of passengers passing through a major European airport, providing good customer service, while maintaining full  regulatory security compliance was increasingly challenging.
Customers wanted to spend less time in queues and more time shopping, so Alexion Partners was brought in to help change the operational culture. The primary objective of the client engagement was to increase customer satisfaction without increasing costs and instill a more customer focused culture across the business.

Approach

Alexion Partners senior team and client project team identified 3 areas:
Lack of transparency between departments: Everyone had to understand the value of a complete service experience, so Alexion Partners team interviewed over 100 employees to get a bottom-up view of key processes and identify metrics that would increase visibility into real day to day performance.
Processes not fully supporting business objectives: A key issue in security is the number of stakeholders. Police,Customs, screening and site control all have to be coordinated. With the client group acting as a key influencer, Alexion Partners deployed a concentrated improvement  program to create a culture of ownership among the personnel involved.
Improved productivity to increase passenger satisfaction: Alexion Partners analyzed and improved passenger handling and the layout of security lanes. Agents now continuously measure process times in their own lane, supported by supervisors focused on performance improvement.

Results

Alexion Partners  delivered a range of sustainable operational, cultural and financial benefits.
In addition, the client group now has the in-house knowledge of Continuous Improvement: Interdepartmental cooperation has been greatly improved with decision-making linked to overall vision and strategy.

  • Processes: All key processes now have measurements, targets and specifications defining performance. A KPI structure based on direct reporting lines between process owners has been established and a Lean organizational structure supports Continuous Improvement.
  • Productivity: Process time has been improved by 25%, with time spent on passenger and luggage checks reduced by 10%. New security regulations and a 9% passenger increase have been successfully absorbed without additional cost.