A technical view on personalization – Part 2 – The crew

To implement hyper-personalization and seamless travel inside an aircraft, specific aspects need to be taken into account :

• Identify the traveler
• Know the traveler
• Adapt the aircraft
• Update the knowledge

Crew and passenger are traveler, but the environment to consider are different so the following talk will separate the two use cases (see Part 1 – The passenger)

Like the passenger, the crew member is a temporary traveler in the aircraft, but his focus is of course to perform services to other passenger. As highlighted in Human at the center,  the efficiency of the system personalization for the crew will have an overall impact on the quality of the service.

The 4 aspects of the experience will play a role on this efficiency, but, as we will discuss, the approach will be fairly different

Identify the traveler

As the crew member is on duty,  his identification will be performed based on the company database.

Two approaches are possible :

• A pattern similar to the passenger
• A pattern similar to an office.

If the airline system is able to dynamically track the identity of the crew members assigned to an aircraft (taking into account team schedule, employee replacement and other changes), the information of the crew can be uploaded to the aircraft before the flight. 

This behavior has the advantage to give an opportunity for passenger hyper-personalization to provide initial virtual contact with traveler (like the public team information (picture, name, awards) displayed in the lobby of a restaurant)

If the airline system is not ready for this behavior, a security database can be uploaded as part of the aircraft content on less frequent occurrence.  However, to preserve aircraft security, the database needs to be updated in relation with employee movement (being hired or leaving the company)

Know the traveler

As mentioned in Human at the center,  the knowledge of the crew profile can optimize the operation by improving the communication inside the team.

We will find the same constraints than the passenger, but the impact will be different as we are looking for operational efficiency

• The traveler is not frequently in the aircraft
• The aircraft does not always have a connection
• The travel goal will affect the behavior
• The traveler is moving from one aircraft to another
• Each aircraft does not have the same system
• Each aircraft is not provided by the same company

The traveler is not frequently in the aircraft

Unlike the passenger, the crew member is often in an aircraft.
So often, that their life style is adapted to the high mobility, with usage of mobility tools on their personal device, live chat and other solutions.
For the service, the crew received dedicated training for each aircraft type and can operate on several aircraft at the same time.

However, even if there is company procedures for operation, the ability to support the team member affinity in the use of the system (like personal shortcut) will reduce both learning time and service time.

The aircraft does not always have a connection

Despite the fact that operations are happening in the cabin, the crew will need to have interaction with the ground for both passenger and operation
information (for example failure of a sub-system).

If the connectivity is not available when the request is performed, the system must be able to queue the message, send the information when connectivity is back and, also be able to bring back the context of the request to the crew (as they have probably  have addressed other needs in the meantime).

The travel goal will affect the behavior

Most of the time, the service performed to the passenger has to be adapted to the known purpose of the trip (see Is the passenger coming to or with an aircraft). Also, the nature of the flight (short range or long range) will affect the time allocated for each operation.

The contextual information to the crew of both operation schedule and passenger context will be a good help to optimize the order and the choice of priorities.

The traveler is moving from one aircraft to another

Like passenger, the crew will, most of the time, switch from one aircraft to another.

Even if they are more familiar to the aircraft and airports that they visit, the travelling service are also valuable for them (gate to gate, airport information …).

Some companies extend the service of the crew inside the airport by the use of crew companions on mobile devices.

In this case, the same device can be used to provide information to the crew on the operation time of the next flight (and possible shift in schedule)

Each aircraft does not have the same system

During operation, especially at the boarding, the crew needs to be able to quickly acquire the information of the specific configuration of the aircraft, capabilities and services that should be available.

As representative of the company, the crew needs also to be able to answer to the support question of the passenger related to usage of either IFE or connectivity.

For this, the system should facilitate this support by providing easy access to either quick training material (for seat or system control) that the crew can bookmark or improve (collaborative documentation).

Each aircraft is not provided by the same company

As it can seems funny to mention this point as a crew only operate on the aircraft of their company,  they also need to be able to provide information for passenger that have connecting flight with other companies.

As this subject is rarely addressed by airline, the ability to support those customers that have cross-airlines connections will limit the anxiety of the passenger affected by a flight delay and reduce the tension that can occur during a flight impact (like a long waiting time on the taxiway)

Adapt the aircraft

Like for passenger, the system need to evolve to limit the friction on the operation coming from the aircraft

Mobile devices

Mobile devices are more and more used in operation as it allow the crew to be mobile in the cabin and to have the passenger information available while operating.

For mobile device, the assumption is that, most of the time, the device will be a professional device provided by the company for the service.

As it is a professional device, the management can be centralized with an EMM (Enterprise Mobile Management)  system that will secure and update the device.

The management logic can be one of the following :

• the device is assigned to the airline
• the device is assigned to an aircraft
• the device is assigned to a crew member

Independent from this logic, the device need to be associated with the aircraft system and, in case of lost, have the ability to be remotely wipe out to avoid unauthorized access to the aircraft

During the operation in the aircraft (and sometimes also at the gate and in the airport), the devices will be a good helper but will need some crew adaptation to keep the human experience at the center

Adapt to the flight type

Usually mentioned as short range/long range flight, the length and the context of the flight will influence the behavior and expectation of the passenger.

If the flight  is a shuttle between towns, majority of the passengers will be workers preparing for their day of meetings. The habit of the passenger will often be to have a carry on luggage (that will saturate the storage on board),  looking to have a last look at their presentations with a laptop or large personal device (even during the boarding, take off and landing), and be impatient to get off the aircraft 

On long flight, passenger will first look to set up, search in their carry on bags personal belonging to put around them for the rest of the flight (headset, pillow,  extra-battery,  food)

Another parameter that will influence the overall operation on board is the time of the day.

During day time, passengers are more active, asking for beverage, looking for news or information on the connecting flights.

During night time, passenger will look more for comfort, control of air conditioning, have larger period of similar activities (movies, lecture …)

For all those cabin activity variations, the system needs to propose an adaptive support to the crew to allow, while running schedules operations, be more organized in the passenger service  

Adapt to the passengers

One of the primary adaptation to the passenger is person needing special assistance. Young mother with baby,  need for a wheelchair or specific medical assistance are example of needs to have to addressed in the cabin. If we want to provide a seamless experience, the support need to originate from the airport and end at the next airport. If the system is open enough, the ability to also help the passenger beyond the airport (like transportation) will provide a subtantial value to the customer.

Aside from this first category, several type of groups will benefits from a specific approach  : family, friend, association, ….

To be able to have initial information (or information created on the fly with tags), can help the team organization on the service and improve the passenger relation (and for big groups, cabin ambiance)

Flight impediments

Even if the crew is trained for emergency or management of important flight impediment (like hours of delay), the system can have a positive impact in the management of the crisis by providing information just in time, information of next action to be performed and any other form (like crisis overview) to limit the adrenaline rush of the crew member and ensure a good management of the rest of the cabin

As management of such impediments is using many personal information from the traveler, the system has to be designed to provide this help in very controlled close proximity to the crew ensure the privacy of the data in regards to the public environment of the cabin  

Engage

As highlighted in this techtalk, the system need to help the team engage with the passenger.

The classic touch point to the frequent flyer or returning customer is one part of the engagement that take benefits from the historical records.

But engagement that have almost the same importance is the the first contact with the passenger (even higher looking at the probability to really be the first contact). 

Human are more sensible to the first impression and first engagement needs to avoid obvious use of the personal data of the user.

However, if the system can highlight to the crew (if they are not already aware) touch points like : international events (like soccer world final), local events (like convention at the destination) or information related to some major group of the cabin (a hockey team or a public association).

Like your news feed that is adapting to your habits and recent interests, the system can be optimized overtime as the interest of travelers are maybe different from their interest outside the aircraft for the time of the flight

Update the knowledge

Like the passenger, the update of the knowledge apply to 3 areas

• The crew preferences
• The service history
• The system profile update

Crew preferences

As mentioned before, even if the crew is trained for the aircraft, the personal preference to better serve the passenger needs to follow the crew profile.

As the crew team is not a permanent structure, the preference needs to be stored associated with the crew profile.

However, as affinities and domain of excellence are an important part of the team work, the system need to allow contextual preference.

For example, if their is a bilingual team member, some interactions will be more easy with passenger by taking full benefits of this expertise 

Service history

Like the passenger experience, the service history encompass the historical data of the service time, travel impediments, adjustments due to the flight conditions (like weather) …

But the service history needs also to include the feedback of the crew on the system operation, specific issues and others operation events

For this, the system needs to have the ability to propose a pre-canned summary that will reduce the time needed from the crew, but also allow dynamic change before validation to be sure to capture an accurate feedback

System profile update

The system profile is the sum of information that can be collected on the flight by the crew and that can improve the usage of the system and its operation

Even if there is probably organized sessions by the airline on a recurrent basis, the amount of information collected at each flight has a significant value.

From there, the procedure adjustment can be organized based on a collaborative mode (Wiki for example) or centralized mode (proposed agenda for next group session).

The main goal is to insure the best usage of the system for the passenger and the crew, which is one of the driving factor for a good return of investment