Flying high with Natural Language Understanding at Flight Centre

When global travel brand Flight Centre Travel Group wanted to address common customer pain points and enhance customer centricity through AI, it turned to Natural Language Understanding (NLU), a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows computers to understand and respond to human language.

Central to the transformation was the creation of the Voice of Customer function, which gathers and analyses customer feedback to drive improvements. Initially, the program focused on foundational feedback collection, but as the initiative gained traction, Flight Centre selected Qualtrics as its preferred technology partner, facilitating the transition to a more advanced, data-driven setup.

The project was headed by Ashley Taylor, Flight Centre’s voice of the customer (VoC) specialist. Speaking at All Access: Data Analytics and Insights APAC 2024, Taylor shared insights on how Qualtrics technology allowed Flight Centre to seamlessly transition from basic feedback collection to sophisticated analysis, a process that she suggests could benefit other companies aiming to better understand and address customer needs.

According to Taylor, the implementation of Qualtrics enabled Flight Centre to evolve from capturing merely structured feedback to collecting both structured and unstructured data across multiple channels, including surveys, web forms, phone calls, chat boxes and even social media.

Using solicited and unsolicited VoC

With Qualtrics as the backbone, Flight Centre’s feedback collection evolved to encompass both solicited and unsolicited customer input. They employed NLU to analyze this diverse data, unlocking insights that would be impossible with traditional methods. Taylor described how the company designed a bespoke AI model tailored specifically to Flight Centre, which captures and analyses customer experiences and correlates them with operational data.

During All Access: Data Analytics and Insights APAC 2024, Taylor emphasized the value of AI in processing massive volumes of data, identifying actionable insights and providing a holistic understanding of customer sentiment.

The use of conversation analytics and predictive drivers has been instrumental in pinpointing areas where Flight Centre can make impactful improvements. For instance, Taylor noted that Flight Centre's customer satisfaction, reflected in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 71, underscores the importance of listening to customer feedback and using it to inform business decisions.

The CX insights generated by NLU

An example of the insights generated by Flight Centre’s new system is the identification of issues in the flight seat allocation process. Taylor explained that a defect in the booking process was causing problems with seat assignments for online customers, primarily due to a glitch in automatic confirmation with certain airlines.

This issue, identified through NLU, was leading to dissatisfaction and significant financial losses each year. Thanks to AI-driven analytics, the problem was quickly recognized and resolved by the online servicing team, who are now continuing to work with the AI to prevent similar issues from arising.

Delivering results through NLU

The improvements have extended beyond defect management. For instance, Flight Centre has seen a 60 percent reduction in customer complaints related to specific issues, resulting in substantial cost savings. The power of AI has also allowed the company to respond swiftly to changes in customer sentiment, enabling them to identify and address trends in real time.

Looking forward, Taylor emphasized Flight Centre’s commitment to further enhancing the VoC program by leveraging AI and NLU.

With Qualtrics, Flight Centre can refine its customer personas and ensure that each feedback comment is routed to the appropriate team for action. Taylor also shared how Flight Centre is closing the loop with customers by providing personalized responses and follow-ups to feedback, thereby fostering a stronger, more responsive relationship with their clients.

Catch up with Ashley’s session on CX Replay here. The discussion illustrates how Qualtrics technology and NLU enabled Flight Centre Travel Group to transform its approach to customer service, evolving from basic feedback collection to a comprehensive, AI-driven VoC program.

Quick links

• AI transforms VoC analysis for Flight Centre
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