Customer Relationship Management in the airline industry

Abstract

In the last few decades the concept of Customer Relationship Management has assumed a major role within certain firms which did not want to renounce to the opportunities deriving from the right understanding of customers’ needs and priorities. The choice to analyse the CRM concept applied to the airline industry has been dictated by the awareness that, in today’s fiercely competitive market, a strategy based mainly on price reductions is no longer a reliable source of competitive advantage for airlines. Rather, a customer-centric strategy on consumer attention is nowadays considered an essential element for airlines companies to differentiate their own offering from that of competitors. The analysis, furthermore, will demonstrate that such a customer-oriented approach, through CRM systems, if properly structured and implemented, can lead to concrete benefits both for airlines, in terms of process efficiency and revenue improvement, and for passengers, in terms of customer satisfaction.