Why an outside perspective is essential to successfully enhance passenger experience
A passenger is not a direct customer of an airport, but that does not mean he cannot become one. That is why an airport needs to take a passenger-centric approach and gather insights through the eyes of the passengers. To achieve this, an outside perspective is essential.
Airports that do not focus on their passengers are not only loosing opportunities, but also risk to waste a lot of cost due to pointless investments. In times were non aeronautical revenue is becoming an ever bigger share of an airports’ total revenue, taking a passenger-centric approach is essential to an airports’ success. The first step in this process is to view themselves through the eyes of their passengers in order to get an insight in their passengers and their experiences.
In order to get insights into the experience of passengers, an airport needs help from outside. In fact, it is impossible to evaluate yourself from the inside. It is a natural thing that organisations get a tunnel vision, which makes it impossible to see things clearly. To counteract this natural process, an outside perspective is needed, while it is objective and will counteract bias from the inside, from group thinking, or internal politics. It is easy to see that the view is often clearer from the outside than the inside.
It is verry important that airports select the right partner, which does not carry any internal baggage. These independent firms do not need to be experts in the airports’ day to day operations, but can bring more experience and a broader palette of specializations. Those specialists can serve as a bridge between the airport and its passengers, and will bring airports out of their comfort zone. Because let’s be honnest, nothing realy good has ever been created within our comfort zone.
Finally although an outside perspective is essential, it does not end there. Enhancing passenger experience shall be a joint effort between the airport, its passengers, and external partners.
