British Airways’ “Know Me” Program Offers Personalized Service

A new system developed by British Airways will enable its staff to put a face to the name before the customer sets foot in the airport. The program, known as “Know Me,” has been developed over several years and is now beginning to be rolled out. Its purpose is to collate a wealth of data from every experience the customer has with the airline and translate that into meaningful service for that individual.

The program is able to send messages with information about specific customers to the iPads of customer service agents and senior cabin crew, or update check-in staff via the airline's computer system.

For example, they may be informed that a Silver Executive Club member is flying in business class for the first time, thereby enabling the crew member to welcome that customer and explain the benefits of the cabin.

Equally, if a regular traveler has experienced any issues on previous flights, such as a delay due to weather, the crew will be informed of that and will be able to go the extra mile, recognize the previous issue and thank the customer for their continued patronage.

The model also enables the crew to feed back useful information about the airline's most loyal customers, enabling the airline to further personalize the service they receive on their next trip. The personal recognition message is just a guide; it's the customer service staff and cabin crew that bring it to life, enabling them to be more intuitive and proactive.

The most recent advancement of the system enables the British Airways team to search Google Images for a photo of specific customers so they can recognize them as soon as they enter the airport or aircraft and proactively approach them.

The airline is aiming to send 4,500 of these personal recognition messages a day by the end of 2012 with even greater scope for growth in the future. As part of the program, a delivery lab has also been set up to analyze the way the airline communicates with customers so that only the most relevant and interesting messages are sent to them.

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