Qantas Loyalty has ramped up its customer survey efforts as it leans more heavily on attitudinal data to adapt its products and communications throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Olivia Wirth, CEO of Qantas Loyalty, said her organisation has surveyed a segment of its members weekly since early February to determine their attitudes towards travel and what’s most important in their lives.
Speaking during a virtual event hosted by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle today, Wirth argued that access to customer data is even more important in times of crisis when people’s needs and values shift quickly.
“It's not just behavioural information [that’s important] either. Attitudinal [data] like how people are feeling will give you some real insights into what's important and what’s not,” Wirth said.
“We're doing [member surveys] on a weekly basis just to see the shifts in what's happening and how they're feeling about their lives, what's important for them and what role travel plays or may not play.
“It's the nuance that you need to be able to pick up because that's where you'll see there's opportunity or that's where you'll see there's failure.”
The insights gained have been used to inform changes in the business, to its products and how Qantas Loyalty communicates with its members.
“[Communication] is one of the first things that you can quite easily change to show your customers or your people that 'we hear you',” Wirth said.
More broadly, Wirth said the loyalty business has used its time with the majority of Qantas’ fleet is grounded to think creatively about the products and services it can offer.
“We’re an airline loyalty program without an airline. And so, let me tell you, we've considered lots of ideas about how we engage our members and our customers,” Wirth said.
“We've really been trying to challenge ourselves around what we do differently.”
Wirth emphasised the importance of encouraging creative thinking and risk taking to solve customer pain points and said that it is good practice to “showcase failures, not just successes”.
“If you try to solve for customer pain points there's no one answer because there can't be,” Wirth said.
“There's lots of different answers, and you've got to be prepared to take some risks along the way and test and learn.”
