Enhancement Of The Customer Relations Through E-commerce: A Case Study

Discuss about the Enhancement Of The Customer Relations.

Customer relation and customer behaviour has a significant role to play in the enhancement of business in any sector. With the advent of technology, online marketing needs to be incorporated, in order to gain the confidence and loyalty of the online customers. This assignment highlights the article by Al-Fadly (2016) that sheds light upon the increase of market share and customer loyalty, by using the Internet technology as well as e-commerce models. The findings of the article are summarized, along with the evaluation of two other relevant articles, focusing on the same sector of study. The Omani market is evaluated and the influence of e-commerce in customer retention and achieving customer loyalty has been mentioned. Conclusion along with few recommendations has been added for further enhancement of the customer relations. The significance of the customer relation and customer behavior has been evaluated in this assignment.   

The article by Al-Fadly (2016), aims to offer perspectives in the execution of e-business strategies, focusing on customer satisfaction and achievement of customer loyalty with the incorporation of e-commerce. The article focuses on the case study of Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways (Al-Fadly 2016). This article highlights that a good website and effective e-commerce is able to enhance the customer base of the Airlines companies. The sustainability of both these airlines is evaluating, thus highlighting the significance of the use of e-commerce in order to retain the loyal customers.

Kuwait Airways is the national airlines of Kuwait, which is heading towards privatization. With the increase in the competition from the local economic Airlines, the need for the use of e-commerce has increased, in order to retain the loyal customers, along with refraining them to chose the other Airlines (Al-Fadly 2016). In order to ensure that Kuwait Airlines remains in the strong competitive advantages, the Airlines have launched its own web portal. This initiative was an important one, helping the Airlines distinguish itself from the other websites. The website offered a wide range of services such as shipment tracking, baggage tracking, and flight schedules, providing promotions, follow-up on the holiday offers as well as access to the Oasis Club information (Al-Fadly 2016). These wide ranges of services ensure the company being distinguished from the other competitor airlines. One of the major goals of that is set by the Kuwait Airlines is to re-establish a network of attracting huge number of customers, with the facilities that are provided by the newly launched website of the Kuwait Airlines. The Airlines ensures the attraction of passengers from more than 46 countries, all over the world (Al-Fadly 2016). The information about the passengers, the rates of the air tickets, the market fluctuations, and delay in the flights are obtained from the website. Moreover, Kuwait Airways have outsourced the customer care to the call centers in order to handle interaction with the customers successfully (Al-Fadly 2016). Moreover, the facilities such as online ticket purchasing, online reservation system facilitates the passengers to book their tickets as per their convenience.  

Evaluation of the article using other articles

Effective e-commerce and online marketing have a key role to play in enhancing the customer base, along with attracting more customers. The facilities of optimised timings of booking the tickets and getting timely updates of any changes in the schedule of the flights, that are provided by website ensure customer loyalty (Al-Fadly 2016).  With the wide use of the Internet technology, the e-commerce sites have provided an excellent opportunity for the Airlines companies to remain strong in the competitive advantages. The customer relationship is also enhanced by the incorporation of the e-commerce sites. The customer service executives are able to track the concerns of the customers easily, thus resulting in prompt responses to the queries of the customers and frequent flyers (Al-Fadly 2016).

Along with Kuwait Airways, Jazeera Airways also experienced enhanced sale and customers with the incorporation of the online portal. Jazeera Airways is the only privately owned airlines in the Middle East. The low fare of the fight was designed to attract tourists and customers, along with the provision of high quality in-flight services (Al-Fadly 2016). The online system of Jazeera Airways enhanced the functionalities and customer accessibilities. The primary aim of the Cleartrip website of Jazeera Airways is to ensure the easy booking of the flights along with providing a single point of contact with the customers (Al-Fadly 2016). Hence, the customer service issues that the Airlines faced earlier were completely mitigated with the incorporation of e-commerce and the online reservation portals.   

The article mainly focused on the secondary type of research methods that focuses on analyzing the case studies of Kuwati and Jazeera Airways along with that of the online travel market. The secondary data has been collected as a part of the research methodology that has helped to understand the market value of the e-business models. The methods have been applied to the major airline industry that will help in understanding the level of customer satisfaction. The aspects of the customer relationship management are also analyzed with the help of the research methods. This is believed to be one of the prime aspects of the e-business model that is also one of the prime deciding factors of the level of customer satisfaction.

The main findings of the study are the factors within the airline industry that is affecting the business and competitive environment. The findings suggest about the factors like the features of the company’s website that is crucial in deciding upon the level of customer satisfaction. Development in the information economy is a crucial factor that has helped on to decide the factors of the business strategy. This is also one of the major concerns about the overall process of business development. One of the major concerns is also due to the lack of awareness among the business owners about the appropriate business model that can be applied to the web designs.

There is also one of the major concerns about the risk that exists due to competition between the suppliers. From the findings, it is clear that this can have major impact on the quality of service that is provided to the customers. There is also a growing concern about the uncertainty about the use of the technology that is related to the software used in the KAC website. The workers within the organization also lack the ability to work with the technology that is needed to operate the e-commerce forms of business. All these reasons that are the major findings of the research prevent the KAC to improve upon their level of customer service.

 From the findings that have highlighted the technical issues related to that lack of skills among the workers. Hence, it is recommended that the workers should be given proper training in the skills related to software learning ability. From the findings of the study, it is clear that well developed website can be one of the major advantages of all the process related to the business. Hence, it is highly recommended by the airline industry to focus on the technological infrastructure and thereby able to develop upon the e-commerce business sections.

The article by Effendi and Alfina (2014) is in support with the article by Al-Fadly (2016). This study highlights the case study of Air Asia and Lion Air websites. The Air Asia is dedicated to providing the customers with low-cost travel to the customers and frequent flyers (Laudon and Traver 2013). This airline operates mainly in Asia, providing the customers with good in-house facilities (Effendi and Alfina 2014). The website of Air Asia and Lion Air websites have resulted in the increase in the sale of the air tickets, along with helping the customers to get in touch with the Airlines officials (Ater and Orlov 2015). The e-commerce sites promote the airlines brands and help to attract more customers (Effendi and Alfina 2014). The business of the airline's companies increases, thus ensuring the success of the brands. Air Asia is one of the cheapest flying options that is provided to the customers especially for the business Travellers and the frequent flyers.  Even though the price of the tickets are low Expectations of the customers are same as that of the high priced Airlines (Effendi and Alfina 2014).  Hence it is important that Air Asia along with helping the Travellers to travel at a low price attract customers and ensure various services that are expected from an Airline (Effendi and Alfina 2014).  In order to ensure the same, a user friendly web portal is important.  The Travellers are able to check out the prices of the tickets, along with opting for meal and other services online.  This is helpful in promoting Air Asia and helping it to compete with the popular Airlines such as   Thai Airways Singapore Airlines and other private airlines.  

The article by Gasson (2013) highlights the various challenges that are faced by the Airlines industry. The major challenges include the lack of customer loyalty, customer dissatisfaction, and deflection of the customers to the competitor Airlines (Hanke 2016). These issues are mitigated by the incorporation of effective websites and e-commerce sites (Gasson 2013). The customer interactions are clarified, along with the effective management of the online customers. The customers are able to purchase the tickets, track their luggage, check their PNR status and remain informed of the changes in schedule or discounts and promotions (Gasson 2013). With the enhancement in the lifestyle of the people and lack of time, the need for online purchase of the tickets and e-commerce services has become essential (Gasson 2013). These services are time saving, along with ensuring remote tracking from geographically remote locations. The passengers are able to block the choice of the seats through web check-in and also chose the choice of food that they refer in-flight (Gasson 2013). Thus, the entire processes of customer services are enhanced, thus ensuring customer satisfaction. 

Hence, the chosen articles conclude that e-commerce has a key role to play in ensuring the success of the Airlines industry (Heizer 2016). Moreover, successful mitigation of the issues of customer services is also seen in the use of the e-commerce sites.  

The Omani market is a fast-growing marketplace with a large consumer base and high competition. The large consumer base refers to a variety of demands among the customers in order to fulfill the demands of each customer. Moreover, with high competition among the various Airlines operating in Oman, each of them tries to remain at the top of the competitive ladder (Akamavi et al. 2015). This leads to high competition among the various airlines ensuring the growth of each of them. The consumer behavior has to be influenced such that the customers could be retained successfully (Belobaba et al. 2015). Branding has a major role to play in business. The consumers are often brand conscious and tend to retain particular airlines (Chen et al. 2016). Thus, it is important that the Airlines companies are well equipped with various facilities to be provided to the customers. The in-flight luxury, along with catering to the needs of the customers has a major role to play in ensuring customer satisfaction and customer retention (Belobaba et al. 2015). The Omani market is highly competitive (Hapsari et al. 2017). Hence, it is important that the Airlines companies work diligently and incorporate the use of high technology in order to remain in competitive advantages in the highly competitive market. The Omani market provides a good opportunity for the development of business and ensures the success of business of various sectors. The Omani market provides strong competition among the various airline companies, thus ensuring business growth. Hence, it is important that the various Airlines companies operating in Oman upgrade the technology they use and equip themselves with highly efficient online reservation portals and websites, thus promoting e-commerce.    

Conclusion and recommendations

Thus, it could be concluded that the incorporation of e-commerce in the airline's industry is essential and important. The above articles highlight the importance of the use of e-commerce in the Airlines industry. With the advent of the Internet, it has become essential to incorporate e-commerce in the Airlines industry. The websites of the Airlines are important to ensure customer satisfaction and retain the customers. The e-commerce sites ensure that the customers are able to book their tickets, track the luggage, and check any changes in the schedule of the flight, with a click. Moreover, the customers stay updated with the use of the e-commerce in the airline's industry.  The use of e-commerce in the airline's industry has enhanced the sale of the tickets along with attracting customers.  With the launch of the web portal by Kuwait Airways, the airlines have experienced significant increase in the number of customers resulting from the ease of use online web portal.  Facilities provided by the website include web checking, luggage tracking using from a variety of meal and other in-flight services.

However, some recommendations need to be made in order to ensure that the entire airline industry is facilitated by the use of e-commerce.  The frequent flyers and customers should be made aware of the advantages that the web portals of the airline's company provide.  This will encourage them to use the services more often does promote website.  This is also a time saving process for the customers and the frequent flyers saving the effort of calling the customer care service of the airline industry. In order to promote the use of e-commerce, the airline companies could provide discount on the flight tickets and some complementary services for the passengers to book the tickets online and away the online services.  This will be a promotion as well as an encouragement for the customers to use the e-commerce sites of the airline's companies.  Moreover, discount could be offered to the frequent flyer does ensure that the fly with the luxury Airlines such as Kuwait Airways rather than choosing a cheaper option.  Hence it could be concluded that it is important to ensure successful e-commerce in order to remain in competitive advantage in the highly competitive market of airlines industry.  Moreover, with the growth and change in the lifestyle of the people, more Travellers avail the airline services every day.   With the switch over to the e-commerce,  the prices of the flight tickets are likely to decrease along with ensuring the same luxury service that the airlines is used to provide to the customers.  Thus, customer service is enhanced customer loyalty is achieved and customer retention is done successfully.

References

Akamavi, R.K., Mohamed, E., Pellmann, K. and Xu, Y., 2015. Key determinants of passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline business. Tourism management, 46, pp.528-545.

Al-Fadly, A., 2016. Development and Implementation of E-Business Strategies Managed and Applied by Kuwait Airways. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 8(9), p.41.

Ater, I. and Orlov, E., 2015. The effect of the Internet on performance and quality: Evidence from the airline industry. Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(1), pp.180-194.

Belobaba, P., Odoni, A. and Barnhart, C. eds., 2015. The global airline industry. John Wiley & Sons.

Chen, F.Y., Tu, S.L. and Wang, H.E., 2016. Green Market Segmentation: A Case of Airline Customers in Taiwan. Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(1), p.99.

Effendi, F.S. and Alfina, I., 2014. Quality evaluation of airline's e-commerce website, a case study of AirAsia and Lion Air websites. In Advanced Computer Science and Information Systems (ICACSIS), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 125-128). IEEE.

Gasson, S., 2013. The impact of e-commerce technology on the air travel industry. Annals Of Cases On Information Technology Applications And Management In Organizations, 5, pp.234-249.

Hanke, M., 2016. Airline e-Commerce: Log on. Take off. Routledge.

Hapsari, R., Clemes, M.D., and Dean, D., 2017. The impact of service quality, customer engagement and selected marketing constructs on airline passenger loyalty. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 9(1), pp.21-40.

Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.