Two-way SMS helps gather post-flight feedback on customer satisfaction

British Airways is a leading global airline brand with signifi­cant commercial value. Erosion of the brand, through either a single or series of events, may adversely impact their leadership position with customers and ultimately affect future revenue and profi­tability.

Business Requirement

The management team regularly monitors customer satisfaction though the global monthly “Think Customer Survey”, alongside ongoing research and development of the BA product to mitigate the risk of brand devaluation.

A solution was required to allow BA to survey customers as soon as possible post-flight. The survey needed to be delivered in a timely fashion and provide the traveler with an easy route to feedback on service and grade their experience.

SMS was chosen as a convenient and immediate channel. The user journey involves four messages offering easy service grading and the ability to give individual feedback. This is triggered from the BA operational platform, with messages sent automatically at a period shortly following arrival.

The two-way SMS survey is conducted in over 40 countries worldwide that are major territories for BA. Each country is provided with localized two-way functionality to minimize cost to the customer.

Solution delivery

• Exact international outbound and inbound requirements were understood from an in-depth scoping session. Local numbers were acquired for each geographical region and operational tier one routes configured.
• Based on real-time updates from BA’s flight control system, initial outbound messages are triggered via the Comapi platform API, using the HTTP services method, to traveler during flight time.

• SMS messages are received to handset immediately, at the point of reconnection to the local telco network on arrival at destination and powering on of handset.

• Interactive replies are received at the Comapi platform. They are forwarded via the HTTP forwarding method to BA’s survey engine to provide content and trigger the next survey question. All transactions are conducted in real-time.

• Two-way SMS conversations are controlled via a rule-based engine. The survey structure facilitates a mix of numerical ratings, yes or no responses and contextual comment.

• Portal access is provided to the client for storing delivery receipts and records of both in- and outbound messaging in the archive as an historical backup

Functionality overview

• Global outbound network coverage with full sender ID support
• Seamless integration into multiple systems with secure APIs for outbound and inbound traffic
• API calls using the client’s choice of HTTP batch and single submission
• HTTP forwarding for inbound responses, allowing survey answers to be processed and collated in real time
• Total local network coverage reliably delivering SMS within five seconds of API call
• Indestructible messaging archive with data stored for 13 months