The essence of airline loyalty?

Just what is it that cements a frequent flyer to a given airline? A new study by Carlson Marketing Worldwide and Peppers & Rogers Group concludes there are four key factors that determine the strength of a customer’s relationship with an airline:

- One-to-one communications;
- A positive customer experience, from ticket purchase to in-flight care, to luggage handling;
- Keeping the brand promise in all marketing communications and employer behavior, and;
- Executing frequent-flyer programs well.

One of the biggest complaints from flyers is that they can’t get a frequent flyer awards seat when they want one. To that end, here’s what the study found in terms of the factors that influence the quality of a frequent flyer program:

- How well the program is executed. A key example: how easy it is to redeem miles for airline seats;
- How well the program encourages and supports customer engagement, such as updating their profile on the airline Web site;
- Just how well customer communications are fashioned to be both customized and relevant.

Luc Bondar, Carlson Marketing Vice President of Loyalty, says, “No one factor alone is responsible for building…strong customer relationships”.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler