Taking Off on SMS

Mobility is beginning to catch up among Indian enterprises with companies

warming up to the concept of mobile applications. In certain sectors such as the

airlines industry, mobility, or more specifically, SMS as an enterprise platform

is already a given norm

You

were just about to leave office to catch the 13:35 hrs Spicejet flight from

Delhi to Bangalore and 'beep...beep...' goes the phone. You've got SMS.

The flight has been delayed by 45 minutes. You may not be very happy about it,

but at least you can attend to some pressing matters in the office rather than

wiling away time at the airport.

It's

December and the upcoming fog season is going to be a tough time ahead. While

properly co-ordinating the back-end to manage constant delays and changes in

flight schedules is an operational must-have, interfacing with the customers is

an equally strong business must-have. A robust customer interface for delivering

more efficient services in the airlines industry is today not only restricted to

specific emergencies, but a given for all times. Hence, when Spicejet started

out its operations there were no two-ways about leveraging the mobile technology

to help improve customer satisfaction as well as drive operational efficiencies.

According

to Nisheeth Mishra, general manager-IT, Spicejet, once having set up the core

IT applications and infrastructure in May this year, the next step was to look

at ways of enhancing the features and customer experience.

The

company operates 40 flights a day with 150-160 passengers per flight, which

makes for an average of 3,000-3,500 customers on a daily basis. Delivering more

streamlined and timely communication to the customers ultimately aimed at

driving more customer satisfaction with the airline's services.       

The

airlines industry has its own specific dynamics such as possible changes in

flight schedules, delays, itinerary, and PNR details (which is to be carried

along while checking in). These are some of the examples of the communication

that the airline needs to send to its customers besides promotional schemes,

etc. Spicejet recognized SMS as a viable platform to inform customers in a more

cost effective manner. 

The

process prior to the use of the SMS application was to individually call up the

customers (passengers) and inform them of any changes in the flight schedules,

plans, etc. Additionally, when the customer books a flight either through tele-booking

or online booking, an email is sent to him/her along with the confirmation

number, detailed itinerary, etc.

While

these traditional processes were serving the purpose, they had their respective

shortcomings. For instance, when Spicejet call center calls up to inform the

passengers of some change in the flight schedule some people might not be able

to take the call or might not like to be disturbed. Furthermore, while

individually calling up the passengers required a one-to-one communication,

which was not very cost-effective. For people doing online and tele-booking,

when they receive an email with the itinerary they need to get it printed and

carry it along to the airport. For some people who are doing the booking from

home, they might not be able to take a print-out of the email.   

The

airlines realized that the traditional processes could be complimented with an

SMS system to make the entire communication process more optimal and cost

effective. According to Mishra, when the company was looking at enhancing the

systems and building value-add over the existing systems, the SMS application

came across as the only solution considering its unique features. One of the key

reasons for adopting the SMS application was the reachability factor considering

the growing mobile phone penetration. It also allowed for the company to

communicate the necessary information to the passengers without being intrusive. 

SMS Application



Spicejet has SMS-enabled its web-based applications and services using the
messaging platform from ValueFirst, called VelocityPlus. The SMS gateway has

been provided by Airtel and front-ended by ValueFirst. While at present it is

using only push-based applications, it will be extending the system to

pull-based applications as well in the next few months. Here are some of the

types of SMS services that Spicejet currently uses to improve business

performance. 

The

SMS system is linked with the airline's booking system for the exchange of

relevant data. However, the system has not been provided a direct access to the

main server. While the main server hosting all the core applications of Spicejet

is located in London, various files are dumped at the HO in India as and when a

change occurs on a real-time basis. The SMS gateway inter-links with these files

to extract the relevant data required for sending the information out to the

customers.  

Push Information



The push-based applications largely comprises providing flight related
information to the passengers. Presently, this includes information such as

delay or change in the status of the flight schedules, in which case an

automated message goes out to all the passengers of the particular flight. As

part of the push-based services the airlines also provides the PNR number and

the flight details to its passengers over SMS when the booking is done. This

contains some of the basic details that are required and hence, the passenger

does not need to carry the itinerary along when travelling. According to Mishra,

this saves a lot of hassles for their customers as some of them are booking from

home and sometimes at home they don't have access to the printer. However, the

email communication still continues. The customers are also sent a pre-flight

checklist couple of days before departure, which contains information on

itinerary, weather forecast as well as other useful information.

Key Benefits



In the proposed business case prepared for the adoption of SMS application, the
payback period was proposed at around seven months. The company is already right

on its way to achieve that successfully. In fact, the company expects the

payback period to reduce than the initially proposed seven months. According to

Mishra, this time period was derived, while taking into account the three

aircrafts that were being operated by the airlines at that time. With the

airlines recently adding another two aircrafts to its fleet, the payback period

is likely to reduce than the earlier estimated time frame. The SMS application

has also helped the airline in brining down its communication costs.

In

qualitative terms the application has already started showing results in terms

of improving internal efficiencies. While prior to the usage of SMS there was a

one-to-one communication going out from the agent to the customer, now it is

one-to-many communication. This has allowed reachability to a much wider

spectrum of audience in reduced time with lesser pressure on the resources.

Mishra explains that the number of agents is limited and a one-to-many

communication through SMS has freed up a lot of the agent time and resources to

handle the customer cell and do additional activities. Thereby, leading to more

optimal utilization of the agent resources. On the other hand, there has also

been an improvement in the success rate in terms of the information reaching out

to the customers as compared to calling up, wherein there were chances of the

user being busy and hence, the call not taken. 

Pull Information



After having stabilized on the push-based applications, Spicejet is now planning
to further enhance the SMS system to allow pull-based information services as

well to its customers over the SMS in the next one month. This essentially means

that apart from receiving specific modules of information, the customers can

also ask for specific information by sending requests through SMS.Â

The passengers, customers or prospects will be able to use the pull

application for some of the flight information services like:

• Check
  
  flight schedule: Passenger/customer can know flight schedule by sending an
  
  SMS to a pre-defined number.

• Check
  
  Availability: A person who wishes to buy tickets will be able to know the
  
  availability between specified origin and destination over the SMS.

• Check
  
  Flight Status: One can check the departure and arrival timings on real-time
  
  basis.

• Set
  
  Alerts: One can set alerts for flight delays, diversions, and cancellations. 

• Ask
  
  for any other information (helpdesk): Free text based query.

Future Spurt in SMS Traffic|



Starting with one lakh SMS per month, the SMS traffic has presently

reached to around five lakh per month. The airlines have added five stations to

its existing six in November this year and this will give a significant spurt to

the SMS traffic. Taking into account the expansion plans-the SMS volumes are

likely to double every three months. In terms of sheer volume, the push-based

applications will outnumber the pull-based applications.

Backed

by the SMS application, Spicejet has not only been able to improve internal

efficiencies, but has also been able to better position itself to help deliver

greater customer satisfaction through improved efficiencies. With the upcoming

foggy season, requiring frequent changes in flight schedules, the airlines will

be relying on simple tools such as SMS to ensure a robust and cost effective

communication link with the passengers.

-Shipra

Arora



shipraa@cybermedia.co.in