E-commerce has become a solution to many. It has capitalised the market by spreading its usefulness, which is benefitting both the end user and the business companies. E-commerce in particular has benefitted the airline industry by enriching the customer service standard with the help of various such services those were never possible with the traditional mode of airline ticket booking system (Laudon and Traver 2013). This is the first chapter of this dissertation, which would focus on various things; however, in particular this section would emphasize on the research objectives and the research questions. These two elements actually form and shape the research work. It is indeed necessary for the researcher that it align its entire research by keeping in minds the research objectives and the research questions. Research objectives indeed needed to be aligned with the research findings in order to justify the set research objectives. Research rationale, study background, research aims, problem statement are also the parts of this section.
This particular study is on the effect of e-commerce on the customer service delivery of airline industry in particular on the Virgin Airline in UK. With the growing popularity of e-commerce, the airline industry is getting hugely benefitted both in terms of customer service and the business. Virgin Airline has also considered the concept as they have already made a confirmation regarding the same. The company has admitted that there is no point of being away from such a potential concept, which is not only benefitting the customers but it is also benefitting their business as well (Budd and Vorley 2013). It is happening because it is helping the airline industry in cutting down their indirect cost expenses such as using various distribution channels for offering different airline services like ticket booking service. The use of e-commerce website has sophisticated the business experience for both the passengers and the business companies. Passengers can now book tickets on the personal website of their selected airline. They can also compare the ticket prices of other airlines. There are not limited to these offers only but they can also avail some other services as well such as booking of cabs and rooms. It has helped passengers plan according to their needs. It is like educating customers on their needs. It is also like influencing the desire of customers by offering them several additional offers such as hotel booking, cab services etc (Brilliant and Achyar 2013).
The aim of the research is to identify the impact of e-commerce on the customer service delivery in Virgin Airline UK.
The research topic is not a problem in particular; however, in other words it might attract some fraudsters who can play with customers and can encourage them to pay a huge amount for nothing. These scammers are using the online booking system for wrong purposes. On the other hand, it is benefitting the airline companies who have considered the use of e-commerce. The purchasing of e-commerce is not bearable to SMEs as it is costlier. However, reputed and big size organisations are taking full benefits of e-commerce. Airline industry in particular has found solutions for cutting down on the expenses and thereby increasing the revenues. Moreover, it is helping them raise their customer service standard (Hannak et al. 2014).
The logic behind selecting the topic for the research is the growing usefulness of the e-commerce in the airline industry. E-commerce has build up a platform where different airline companies can explore wide range of services to the passengers. Nevertheless, this has become a good resource to enhance the customer service standard in the airline industry. The growing usage of e-commerce in the airline industry has attracted the researcher for analysing the usefulness of the concept for both the airline companies and the passengers (Elkhani, Soltani and Jamshidi 2014).
Virgin Airline is a British airline that started its operation from 1984. E-commerce has emerged as one of the main factors that have influenced the growth of airline industry in US bound shipments. The US bound lane is the world’s largest lane for pharmaceutical trade. This has also encouraged the interests of Virgin Airlines to invest significantly to boost its performance in the mentioned lane. The growing involvement of airline industry in the usage of e-commerce and the rising concern for using the advantage of US-bound shipments have both attracted the interest of researcher towards the chosen topic. The researcher has viewed these two changes as the two most effective steps, which the Virgin Airline UK has now realised (Cottier et al. 2014).
This chapter is on the structure of the entire research work, which the research has used in while researching on the chosen research topic. It consists of six chapters, which are as follows:
The first chapter introduces the readers with the overall view of the research topic. The first chapter most importantly contains the research objectives and the research questions. Research objectives are one of the most important elements of a research work. Additionally, this also contains an overview of the subject study, which gives its readers a brief idea of the selected research topic. This chapter also addresses the problem statement for the chosen research. Moreover, this also gives the rationale behind selecting the research topic.
The second chapter is literature review section that covers the research topic by researching the various secondary resources such as journals, books and authentic websites. In this section, the researcher has drawn a conceptual framework, which has helped the researcher in conducting a thorough research on the various identified secondary resources.
The third chapter is on research methodology section, which is one of the most important segments of the entire research work. It covers all the necessary research guidelines such as the research approach, research method etc. This section is indeed very important because one wrong selection of any element can deviate from the actual result.
The fourth chapter is on the data analysis section in which the researcher has analysed the collected data. This is another very important chapter of the entire research work. Nevertheless, any faulty analysis of the collected data can lead to otherwise results.
The fifth chapter is on the discussion, which discusses the findings of the data analysis section. This is again very important as it helps to reach to an exact conclusion of the entire research work.
The sixth chapter is the last chapter of this research work that covers the conclusions and the recommendations part. Additionally, this also covers the linking of findings with the set research objectives. Additionally, this covers the limitation of this study and the future scope of the study.
The chapter contains a good research on the selected research topic in the light of various available secondary resources such as websites, books and journals as well as the theories that governs the factuality of the topic. The research topic is on the e-commerce and its impact on the customers. In specific, the research is confined to the airline industry specifically to the Virgin Airline UK. The researcher has taken help of some theories and model whenever it was required. It is indeed better to understand few theories relevant to the research topic. This helps in analysing the customer service standard of the target industry. This is because it gives a comparative analysis in between the theoretical beliefs and the factual things of the target industry and the company.
A theoretical perspective of the e-commerce can be understood with the help of either theories or models. For this research, the researcher has selected to go with the E-commerce models. There are various models on e-commerce; however, the researcher has selected the most frequently used model that is B2C (business to consumer) (Chiu et al. 2014). Business to consumer is further divided into two sections such as C2C (consumer to consumer) and C2B (consumer to business) (Leonard 2012). In consumer-to-consumer e-commerce model, the platform links one consumer with another. This means that the e-commerce platform provides an opportunity to its consumers to interact with the other consumers where they can exchange the each other’s products. Such transaction of products facilitates the movement of goods in between the two consumers. The movement of goods happens on an agreed price for the respective product. The platform is actually establishing a connective link in between the two customers at one time (Tian et al. 2012). In consumer-to-business e-commerce model, it states that different consumers can take cart part at this platform and take advantage of the opportunities available at the platform. Furthermore, it means that customers can upload their own products to make it available for sale on the e-commerce platform. Such transaction is advantageous for both the users and the e-commerce service provider. The provider would be benefitted for the fact that it is experiencing an elevating transaction. On the other hand, customer at both the end would be benefitted. One customer would be able to get products at the most competitive price whereas the other customer would be able to sell even such products that are not worth for sale by physically approaching the random customers (Chou et al. 2014).
There are many theoretical perspectives of customer service as well; however, the researcher has selected the Customer Satisfaction Model as its theoretical model to understand the central of the topic. The selected model has guided the researcher towards two most important factors that influence the customer service standard in any industry (Jhandir 2012). The model has put lights on two determinants, which according to the model influence the customer service standard in most cases. Such two determinants are price and service quality (Malik, Ghafoor and Hafiz 2012).
According to the model, the value of the price is not just limited to the purchasing cost but it includes other associated expenses as well such as the labour costs (Rahman, Khan and Haque 2012). According to some researchers, there are three components of price such as value, benefit and cost (Ryu, Lee and Gon Kim 2012). To them, service provider must label the value perceived pricing to the products or the services. A product, which is high in quality would supply benefit to the customer in terms of quality. If that happens it would then be understood that the particular product has provided vales and benefits to the customers. Pricing according to those researchers should be done in accordance to providing maximum values to the service quality. They believed that customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the perceived value from the product pricing and the service quality (Nguyen 2012).
Customers have their own perceptions for the customer service. Different customers have different expectations from the different service provider. According to the customer’s perception if the product is below than their expectation with the product or the service, they are dissatisfied with the service provider. On the other hand, if the product is as per their expectations, they are satisfied. Additionally, if the offered products or the services have exceeded their perceptions for the particular product or the service then they are overwhelmed with the service. In such situations, they develop a feeling of being loyal with the service provider (Zhao et al. 2012).
The above-discussed theoretical facts produced some interesting findings regarding the e-commerce and the customer service. According to the discussed theories on e-commerce, it is important that the e-commerce service provider offer valuable outcomes to the consumers (Jahanshani et al. 2014). Consumers are satisfied with the customer service if the products or the services are priced appropriately to provide a maximum benefit to the consumers (Chen 2012). According to the discussed theories, it is evident that customer satisfaction relies heavily on the values that the offered product or the service provides to the customers. Furthermore, the quality of service and a competitive pricing for it are the two factors that consumers expect from a service provider (Khan 2012).
The advent of e-commerce has brought many benefits to the customers, which they had never received from any traditional booking system (Mouakket and Al-hawari 2012). The advent of e-commerce has provided numerous benefits to the customers, which include but are not limited to such as option to compare the ticket prices of different airline companies, knowing the seat availability, booking the hotels & other modes of lodging etc (Ater and Orlov 2015). This has benefitted the consumers because the different airline companies have competition in them to offer the cheapest air ticket pricing. However, they should also bear into their mind that it is not feasible to offer the cheapest pricing while hampering their actual revenues (de Wit and Zuidberg 2012). Security is the other issue, which has hampered the customer service standard of the different e-commerce service providing airline companies (Niranjanamurthy and Chahar 2013). There is no such surveillance on fraudsters, which could retard the incrementing threats of such group. Many people keep themselves away from purchasing anything online because they have fear in them to lose their private data (Moshrefjavadi et al. 2012). The absence of a legal surveillance mean the transaction on the e-commerce platform provided by the different worldwide-based airline companies might entertain fraudulent works, which is not beneficial for either the customer or the service provider. Customers might lose their important data while service provider might lose the loyalty level, which they have received from their customers on providing the relative service (Nazir et al. 2012).
Virgin Airline UK has identified the potentialities of e-commerce for its growing relations with the pharmaceutical consumers. The growing shipments of pharmaceuticals have produced a strong link in between the company and its customers. To respond the requirements of pharmaceuticals customers, it is necessary that the company have adequate e-commerce development to take care of the rising trends (Lavorgna 2015). The rising trend is also associated with the challenges that e-commerce have produced to the airline industry and to the Virgin Airline UK as well. Cart abandonment is the one challenge, which the e-commerce platform of Virgin Airline UK has produced (Mzoughi, Negra and Habacha 2012). The challenge is common to the airline industry itself. However, it is more severe to the Virgin Airline UK as it can affect the growing business opportunity for the company. The cancellation of tickets before confirming the reservation has enhanced to a higher level. This is because of many reasons of which poor internet connectivity, offered price for the tickets, changing minds of consumers are some notable causes (Tolpa 2012).
The phenomenon has worsened the situation because large numbers of people are cancelling the tickets before making the reservation. They have many reasons with them to cancel the tickets; however, such reasons might not justify the business of Virgin Airline UK. The e-commerce platform for Virgin Airline UK is a bright prospect for their future business. However, this is only possible if they have higher conversion of customers from cancelling the tickets to rebooking. It is a challenge for the airline industry and for the Virgin Airline UK as well. Virgin Airline in particular needs a quick repairing of the identified challenges in the form of cancellation of the tickets in the midway of the booking process. Such tendency of customers is a potential reason that could hamper the profitability of the platform. The probable cause could be many such as poor internet connection that disturbs the booking system during the payment stage, volatile nature of customers that encourages them to experiment with numerous available options, competitive pricings offered by other airline service providing companies and few more like this. Limitless of the reasons behind the rising cases of booking cancellation during the reservation process, it is necessary that Virgin Airline identify the counter action for the problem. Virgin Airline has initiated one such counter action remarketing. Airline companies might use remarketing option during the reservation process by prompting a clear message on the website screen visible to the customers. Such message might drive them to his or her mailbox where they can get the required assistance (Close, Kukar-Kinney and Benusa 2012).
Research methodology is the set of techniques that help a researcher to collect and accumulate data for conducting the research. Research methodology helps to collect the data in a uniform way that assists in contextualise findings of the research. Research methodology impacts on the result of the research. Researchers follow some basic steps to improve the collection of data to overcome the barriers of gathering the data. Different research methods help to determine the findings and validity of the information. In this chapter, the methods of data collection and analysis procedures have been discussed with the proper framework.
Research onion is a layered approach to conduct the research in a systematic way. Research onion concept was developed by Saunders and others that provided the concept of research stages. This research onion helps the researchers in developing a research strategy. In this research onion, there are mainly three stages, ontology, axiology and epistemology (Saunders et al. 2015). Research onion gives effective progression about the research and most importantly, it provides the framework of the research process to formulate the data collection and process of data analysis. In the first step, research method describes definition and it helps to take appropriate research approach. In the final step, the time horizon of the research is described.
Research philosophy is the first stage in methodology as it sets the definition of research method. As stated by Friend and Jessop (2013), it is a belief in research about which data should be collected and analysed. This phenomenon is termed as epistemology. There are mainly four types of research philosophy, positivism, interpretivism, realism and post positivism. Positivism philosophy is about gaining information about research in a scientific way. In addition, in realism philosophy, the researcher takes the data of human mind and this is mainly depended on assumption. In interpretivism opposes positivism and it opposes the natural science.
In this research, the researcher has selected positivism philosophy as it helps in conducting the research in a scientific way. There is certain knowledge in the fact of business management that is based on phenomena. The concept of e-commerce and customer service in the airline industry can be interpreted logically and in a reasonable way. The relation between e-commerce and customer service can be discussed with the help of positivism philosophy.
The research approach is a plan and assumption of which a research can be done. Research approach describes the detail methods through which data can be collected, the analysis procedure and interpretation technique (Sullivan-Bolyai 2014). There are two main types of research approach, inductive and deductive approach. In an inductive approach, known premises are used and it is used to create an untested conclusion about a research topic. Inductive approach generalises from specific perspective to the general concept and it helps to explore the phenomena in a research topic. On the other side, deductive approach, the premises must be true and the conclusion is known. It goes from general to specific.
In this research topic, deductive approach has been chosen as the deductive approach is helpful to collect the data based on existing theories and concepts of e-commerce and customer service. Moreover, deductive approach evaluated the research questions. A Huge amount of information is available on the impact of e-commerce and customer service on airline industry; researcher has highlighted these theories and verifies the concept. On the contrary, the inductive approach has not been taken as inductive approach creates a conceptual framework of the topic that helps in theory building. In this research, the researcher has discussed and analysed the theories and has drawn conclusion from these comparing with practical demonstration.
Research design helps the researcher to identify the research problems carefully in order to generalize the concept. Research design also helps to obtain the information in the correct way and evaluates the information correctly (Panneerselvam 2014). Justifying the selection of problems is a necessary step that can review and synthesise the information in a specific way. The research design is mainly of three types, exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research design. In exploratory research, researcher chooses a topic that has not been clearly analysed. In explanatory research, the researcher selects a topic that has cause and effect relation with connecting ideas. In descriptive research design, the researcher tries to identify the characteristics of basic features of the variables.
In this research, descriptive research design has been chosen by the researcher as descriptive research design analyses the information in observational methods. E-commerce technique of marketing is new in the airline industry; however, in-depth analysis can be done on the topic with collected information. The concept of e-commerce and customer service is not the experimental research and the researcher has been done the naturalistic observational study. Descriptive research design has been perfect for this topic as a researcher has done a literature review in this topic and systematic review was helpful.
There are two types of data collection through which researchers can collect the data. Primary data are raw data that are collected from individuals who are primarily associated with the research topic. In case of secondary data, the researchers collect the data from secondary sources of information, like books, journals, websites, magazines and government reports.
In this research of the impact of e-commerce on customer service in the airline industry, the researcher has conducted a secondary data collection method. In conducting the collection of data, the researcher mainly collected the data from websites; Virgin Atlantic published reports, credible journals and websites. Some of the published case studies based on Virgin Atlantic were big sources of information. Secondary data are mainly pre-established and reliability and validity of the information are needed not to be tested again (Mackey and Gass 2015). The researcher has re-used these data to establish the point of view. In this topic primary sources have not been selected as collecting data from Virgin Atlantic management was not be easy. Sometimes, the perception about managers’ own company gets judgmental or it may lack critical sense.
In order to collect the data, researchers use various methods and instruments that help the researcher to have accurate data. In case of primary research, the researchers can use instruments of interview questions, survey questionnaire and observational study (Taylor et al. 2015). However, in case of secondary sources, researchers can use various published documents as instruments. In this research, the researcher used government publication, earlier research papers, personal records and Virgin Atlantic histories through published reports as instruments. In inclusion criterion, the researcher included the journals which were published after 2010. However, in exclusion criterion, the researcher excluded the journals, articles and books, which were published before 2010.
Secondary data are mainly empirical study by renowned researchers that can be applied in fulfilling research objectives and principles. In case of primary data, the researcher can use qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques (Flick 2015). In addition, in secondary data collection technique, in this research, thematic data analysis technique has been conducted. Thematic analysis helps the researcher to segregate the subjects of research in specific themes (Vaismoradi et al. 2013). These theme selections should be done based on research objectives and questions. The researcher has examined the research aim, pinpointed the research objectives and recorded some points in the literature review in order to conduct thematic analysis on e-commerce and customer service in the airline industry.
The researcher has faced the accessibility issues as this research is based on secondary sources. All the sources were credible and premium versions of reports and pdf were downloaded. Most importantly, accessing premium versions of the reports was an issue for the researcher. In order to get journals and books, the researcher took the help of the librarian. Accessing all the secondary sources was not an easy task as e-commerce in the airline industry was not prevalent. However, in case of Virgin Atlantic, the information was scarce.
The researcher followed all the ethics in doing the research. Most significantly, the privacy of the secondary sources has not been broken. No kind of unethical measure has been taken during the research. The sources of information have been collected from credible and authentic sources. All the journals are latest and peer reviewed. The researcher has collected original data and any kind of misinterpretation has not been done during the data analysis. All the data that have been collected, the researcher tried to re-identify this.
In conducting the research, the researcher has faced two major limitations that are time constraint and budgetary issues. As the researcher does not have enough time to accumulate a large number of data in the tight schedule, some of the information might get overlooked. In addition, in accessing the premium versions of the journal article, the researcher faced an issue of budgetary limitation. As it is secondary research, the researcher faced an issue in handling a large amount of information through secondary sources.
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Activities |
Week 1 |
Week 3 |
Week 5 |
Week 7 |
Week 9 |
Week 11 |
Week 12 |
|
Selection of research topic |
? |
||||||
|
Reviewing of literature |
? |
||||||
|
Setting of research methods |
? |
||||||
|
Collecting of secondary data through journals and websites |
? |
||||||
|
Analysis of data |
? |
||||||
|
Discussions of secondary data comparing with literature |
? |
||||||
|
Drawing conclusion and recommendations |
? |
||||||
|
Final submission |
? |
Table: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by researcher)
In this chapter, gathered data has been analysed with the help of thematic analysis. Data that have been collected from the secondary sources are segregated into a few themes. In each of the theme, the sources have been analysed with graphs and tables. Moreover, Virgin Atlantic is the main focus of thematic analysis; however, the overall condition of the airline industry has been described. In the thematic analysis, the sources of information are secondary and the data has been analysed with the help of visual presentation and findings.
Theme 1: Use of e-commerce by Virgin Atlantic
In today’s world, most of the passengers use online platform to reserve their seats in the airline industry and they seek the quick response from the host airline. In this light, Virgin Atlantic is one of the leading airline companies that mostly operate on long haul routes and the destinations are mostly the Far East, North America and Caribbean islands. The passengers visit the websites of the airline and customers book their tickets through the website. This company uses reliable e-commerce site that can be used for reservation of the customers. Moreover, the organisation wants to provide long ranges of services to the customers and customers can purchase these services through e-commerce. Virgin Atlantic has many combo offers that are available on the e-commerce websites. The main benefit of the e-commerce for the organisation is that Virgin Atlantic is visible to the customers and they can buy the services (Misopoulos et al. 2014). Virgin Atlantic in this way can remain competitive. Virgin Atlantic organisation wants to recognise the customers’ needs and they want to give the services based on the amounts, services and satisfaction of the customers.
Virgin Atlantic organisation paired up with iQuest and they worked together to implement dynamic e-commerce services to the customers. The platform is flexible and it can provide customers best online booking services. This e-commerce platform delivers a variety of booking services and related combo offers. If one customer books a ticket earlier, the customer gets a large discount. Moreover, iQuest provides a complex solution to secure payment option from any country as Virgin Atlantic services worldwide basis. This payment system provides security protocol and authentication for the customers and the customers can avail online check-in services and submit of boarding-pass (Paparoidamis et al. 2015). inquest provides dynamic e-commerce content and these need to be updated on a daily basis. Virgin Atlantic provides best content management system with integration of several system managements.
|
Benefits |
Increased by percentage |
|
Increased of server availability |
By 10% |
|
Decrease of solution time |
By 15% |
|
Increased the profit as well as conversion rates |
By 12% |
|
Increased number of e-commerce booking |
By 5% |
Table: Key benefits of Virgin Atlantic through e-commerce
(Source: Iqbal 2017)
The e-commerce platform of Virgin Atlantic enables the customers to have fight data caching, frequent flyer data, insurance, reservation, boarding, tracking and online payment. iQuest and Virgin Atlantic both try to improve the architecture of the e-commerce website to build the flexibility of the system (Customer service.ae 2017). This e-commerce website is now providing the majority services to the customers across the world which had to be done over the counter in previous time. In previous time, these services may also be done through call-centres, however, Virgin Atlantic enjoy the sound online market through e-commerce.
Theme: 2: Customer service strategies of Virgin Atlantic
As stated by Richard Branson, the flamboyant owner of Virgin Atlantic, customer service is the first commitment to the passengers of the airline. Passengers’ services and their good have been the driving commitment and force for the organisation since the beginning. In case, in the rare moment, the airline organisation is not able to provide right services, they have customer service contact number; customers can call over this number to speak out their grievance. Virgin Atlantic offers 12 sections of customer services. First customer service strategy Virgin Atlantic takes is the lowest fare in the industry. The customers can book ticket through e-commerce, airline ticket desks or from customer service centre (Virginatlantic.com 2017). However, it differs from time-to-time that the tickets fare change and the lowest fare has low flexibility. In case of any delay of flights, Virgin Atlantic notifies the customers about the time of delaying and in case of cancellation. Customers can also have flight status on e-commerce portal, record flight information and can contact ground staffs or cabin crew. Most importantly, the customers can have the baggage delivery on time and in case of late arrival of baggage, the customers can contact to representatives who are present at that spot. Most importantly, Virgin Atlantic has PIR (Property Irregularity Report) on e-commerce portal; customers can file a report over there (Effendi and Alfina 2014).
In addition, Virgin Atlantic gives the provision of reservation of seats for 24 hours of the flight through e-commerce and customers can cancel a flight before 24 hours also. E-commerce portal allows the customers to cancel the website booking without gets any penalty (Iqbal 2017). In case of any booking cancellation, the customers can have refunds with having assistance from the staffs. Customer service provision can enable the customers to have essential needs in case of a tarmac delay. Virgin Atlantic allows the customers to overbook the seats in flexible prices, in case any customer does not turn up, the seats are given to the other passengers. This handling of flight over-sales system is done ethically.
Theme 3: Impact of e-commerce on customer service in airline industry
In the airline industry, the use of e-commerce is a new trend and it allows the airline companies to reach a maximum number of customers. On a particular e-commerce portal, it allows the customers to compare the prices of tickets and other essential services. Day-by-day the availability of the low-cost communication over the internet is getting higher and the airline companies understand consumer-supply and demand cycle; the airline companies are now practising dynamic pricing strategies that are most of the time low-price strategies. As stated by Chiu (2014), American Airline was the first to use the e-commerce with making a tie up with Sabre reservation system.
|
Year |
Total online air ticket |
Percentage of total airline bookings |
|
2010 |
201.3 m |
12% |
|
2011 |
271.2 m |
19% |
|
2012 |
301.3 m |
24% |
|
2013 |
400.2 m |
36% |
Table: Online booking of air tickets in airline industry
(Source: Statista.com 2017)
In case of Virgin Atlantic, iQuest global IT Company provides the full range of services to Virgin Atlantic to make a solid and flexible presence in e-commerce platform that can enable the organisation to have the foothold in the online market and in giving the better customer service. Virgin Atlantic enables the customers to serve more than 36 destinations and the customers can book tickets through e-commerce. In addition, Virgin Atlantic reduces the supplier response time in order to increase e-business platform and the organisation also increases the effectiveness of e-commerce system. Virgin Atlantic airline reduced 14% operating cost of tickets booking over the counter and they employ more e-commerce services (Keiningham et al. 2014).
Most significantly, in the travel industry, the graph of online booking is increasing over the time. From the perspective of management of Virgin Atlantic, the productivity of the organisation increased by 4%. Through the e-commerce, Virgin Atlantic airline discloses the cancellation procedure to the customers and they do not hide anything. Moreover, the airline notifies the time of flight and in case of changes to travel itineraries to the customers. In addition to this, through the e-commerce and website, the customer service team give the responses to customer complaints effectively. These services provide the benefits to Virgin Atlantic as the organisation has backed into profitability. In the year 2015, the airline company gave £16 m pre-tax profit. Virgin Atlantic aims to profit £100m plus annually in each year by 2019. In addition, the management of Virgin Atlantic aims to have more fuel efficient plan with keeping the profit margin of 1% (Theguardian.com 2017).
Theme 4: Issues faced by Virgin Atlantic in providing customer service
In the overall airline industry, complaints raised nearly 25% in the last year 2016. This issue is as high for the first time since last 15 years. Airline companies give discounts flights, best customer services and e-commerce platforms to book tickets, however, the grievances are coming per-passenger basis. Most complained airline companies are American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Envoy Air and many other companies are in the list. In case of Virgin Atlantic, the customers complained mainly about delayed air services and on-time arrival of flights percentage 79% last year, 2016. Another important issue of customer service is cancelled flights. Virgin Atlantic cancelled almost 2% scheduled flight last year, 2016 (Fortune.com 2017).
In the industry standards, Virgin Atlantic lost 4% baggage last year and this rate has been increased by 1%. Virgin Atlantic tries to solve the customer service with front line teams and ground staffs are there to solve the issue of customer service. Virgin Atlantic has been facing the issue of cancellation as 12% flights bookings are getting cancelled at last time (Virginatlantic.com 2017). In case of any issue, customers of Virgin Atlantic can lodge a complaint filling up the feedback forms available online.
Theme 5: Strategies to be followed for improving use of e-commerce and customer service
Virgin Atlantic has been taking the advantage of e-commerce and there are various indirect costs are associated with this, reservation system cost, agent fees, ticketing fees, advertising and promotion cost and sales offices cost. In case of e-commerce services to the customers, Virgin Atlantic can divide the market and make a plan. The management of Virgin Atlantic made a plan of customer acquisition through a display, online PR and viral marketing strategy. In customer retention, the organisation has been focusing on customer service, process, segmentation and e-mail marketing. Moreover, customer conversion, Virgin Atlantic is going to follow accessibility, merchandising, usability and payment options. In modern market place, this airline is going to take a measure in revenue management system with constantly monitoring the competitors’ strategies. Competitors are British Airways, Jet Airways, Easy Jet, Ryanair and Lufthansa. In providing customer care, Virgin Atlantic can follow the technology involved as in minimising inconvenience in flight cancellation; the organisation can implement a system that customers will automatically get a message (Mellat-Parast et al. 2015). There is a natural relationship in business growth and service leadership, however, in better customer service, cost effective strategy and supply chain management is necessary.
In the airline industry, financial factor plays an important role as the fuel cost varies with time. Technological innovation is also necessary for operation and in the improvement of e-commerce. Many of the airline companies focus on revenue management system. In this scenario, e-commerce is an advantage to the Virgin Atlantic as the competition in the airline industry is huge. It is admitted that e-commerce has brought the change in the customers’ perception in purchasing products or services. The customers tally the price and services that an organisation offers to the customers. In e-commerce practice, airline industry is new and it is safe for an airline company to offer e-commerce services to the customers. The threats can come from sudden disruption of the internet, hacking of information, the sudden crush of the website, online payment related issue. However, Virgin Atlantic has already invested to grow the business and infrastructure of the website. In e-commerce, the theory of Transaction cost analysis can be implemented as it is stated about investment in the certain sector that can grow the business. Then, the next step is to research to validate the idea and American Airlines had success through this in beforehand. Investment decision-making process is necessary and Virgin Atlantic gets permission from CEO. Virgin Atlantic ties up with iQuest to provide e-commerce service provider and the organisation may not hope that the e-commerce will grow their business without implying any threat. In implementing the e-commerce, Virgin Atlantic has to change the business model and corporate governance system. In a global market scenario, Virgin Atlantic has to pay a commission to the e-commerce or to the agent and agent has to pay commission to CRS, in this way; the customer gets an expensive ticket. However, Virgin Atlantic wants to make direct marketing through developing their e-commerce portal through iQuest’s help. E-commerce portal enables the customers to have fare chart, schedule of flight, cancellation of flights and feedback. In another theory of Agency cost analysis, it is stated that this cost must be paid to the agent as an internal cost. Therefore, it has less chance to curb the operation cost of the airline as salary cannot be cut to the employees and fuel price is getting high day-by-day, however, using the e-commerce Virgin Atlantic can curb the distribution cost in order to gain the highest profitability.
According to SERVQUAL model talks about services to the customers with quality. The customers expect more from the company and this model measures the gap between expectation and experiences of the customers. This model expects to measure the customer satisfaction in scale based on reliability, assurance, tangible, empathy and responsiveness. Virgin Atlantic has the willingness to help the customers and assure the customers with knowledge and courtesy. Empathy towards the customers increases the caring side of the organisation. When airline industry feels the pressure of oil price hike, managing profit margin is not the easy task. In case of Virgin Atlantic, the customer service is the hallmark of organisation’s mission and philosophy that an organisation wants to follow. Employees are important for Virgin Atlantic; however, employees provide benefit to having customer service provision. Customer service excellence provides the boost in revenue of the organisation. Leading airlines provide ancillary services to passengers. Spirit Airways became top in the year 2016 with revenue percentage of 49% and in case of Virgin Atlantic, this percentage was 42%. Ancillary services like leg room, space, beverage, magazine services to the customers. Virgin Atlantic has a feedback form on website, where, a passenger can lodge a complaint if their issue is neglected. Customer feedback is solved by the organisation and proper action is taken. However, it is needed that competitors’ analysis is also needed by the organisation with keeping the eye on competitors. It also needed that organisation must have a service standard for the customer service; Virgin Atlantic has 12 sections of customer services that the organisation follows. Integration of technology in customer services is needed and Virgin Atlantic mainly follows the customer service centre. Virgin Atlantic lacks the communication technology apart from the traditional channel. The building of customer service culture is the most important for the organisation with ensuring that front-line customer service team should be knowledgeable and the customer must be satisfied with this. Reasoned action theory predicts that two factors are most important in the behaviour of the customers, one is attitude and other is the subjective norm. Moreover, Virgin Atlantic can build technology friendly services like Etihad Airways provides service to mobile boarding passes services and customers do not need to take print of it. Moreover, Emirates has launched an iOS based app for iPad users to check in for flight. Therefore, competitors are using technology to provide customers’ services and Virgin Atlantic needs to improve their dependence on technology.
Conclusions and Recommendations
This is an introductory portion, which summarises the contents of the chapter. In this chapter, the research has concluded the research work, which would shed light on the research objectives. The findings would seek for its resemblance with the research objectives. Importantly, this would also recommend some points for the identified issues. The section would also cover some limitations that the research has come across. The research would help the researcher in their future works as well.
Conclusions
The research has identified many issues in the selected research topic. One of such issues is the use of technology to enhance the standard of customer service. The traditional style of customer service just with the help of pleasant talking on the phone would not sufficiently serve the purpose. Virgin Airline in particular should use some technology to provide a real experience of customer service. Technologies like generation of automated message that would contain but are not limited to such as “your flights would be delayed”. This would practically speak of the customer service standard.
Cancellation of tickets is another issue, which is hampering a significant business. There can be many reasons such as drop of internet connection while making the payments. Such problem would actually deny the processing. Changing minds of customers such as changing the preference for flights by selecting some other airline company is another issue that hampers the experience of e-commerce. Many other issues like such are a threat to the e-commerce business.
Using the e-commerce platform of third party service provider is the other identified challenge, which is influencing the standard of customer service. This is because companies have no direct control on the third party operators. A direct control is indeed required to offer an utter quality of customer service.
Inception of fresh talents is also required to improve the customer service standard. Aspirants filled with the customer service skilled and well versed with a wide range of technologies need to be recruited in order to enhance the customer service standard of the Virgin Airline.
Objective 1: To identify the strategies in e-commerce that can provide effective customer service
In this objective, it was necessary to identify some strategies that could improve the standard of customer service. The research has specifically identified some strategies to uplift the standard of customer service. Those strategies are improving the technologies used for customer service like automated messaging, cutting down on using the indirect distribution and recruiting fresh talents with improved skills.
Objective 2: To analyse the customer service delivery benefits with the application of e-commerce on Virgin Airline UK
In this objective, it was important to find the benefits, which would be generated with the help of e-commerce. Nevertheless, the research has identified that e-commerce can be used to reduce the cancellation of tickets by generating automated messages to the customers who has cancelled the booking. E-commerce can be used as remarketing tools by prompting a message to such customers stating some message such as “please find related information in your mail id”.
Objective 3: To recognise the issues faced by Virgin Airlines in delivering customer services through e-commerce
In this objective, it was necessary to find the issues that Virgin Airline has with the use of e-commerce. The research has identified one such issue, which is the cancellation of tickets. People do cancel the tickets while during the ticket booking because of various reasons such as poor internet connection and better price offerings from different other airline companies.
Objective 4: To recommend ways by which customer service delivery can be enhanced in Virgin Airline UK
In this objective, it was necessary to identify ways to improve the customer service delivery in Virgin Airline UK. The research work has identified few solutions to the identified issues such as technology to improve the customer service standard, remarketing to reduce the cancellation of tickets, cutting down the indirect distribution and hiring fresh talents.
There are some recommendations as well to improve the customer service delivery system of Virgin Airline UK. Company should use improved technology to enhance the customer service standard. Technology such as automated message need to be used, which would prompt to user the situational messages like please find related information in your mail id.
Remarketing can improve the rising numbers of cancellation of tickets. This would be done by prompting a situational message to the customers.
Cutting down the indirect distribution is another point of recommendation, which would bring into existence the self-driven e-commerce platform. A self-driven e-commerce platform would provide high control to the company on the customer service.
Recruiting fresh and skilled talents would also be very useful for the company as this would provide it a required bench of people who are well versed with different technologies on customer service.
The research has few limitations as well. It has limited time. The research could have been more fruitful if it had sufficient time. Budget was another limitation, which has restricted the researcher in accessing to costlier secondary resources. Those secondary resources could have provided more light on the topic.
The research work has found some important facts related to the reasons that are causing problems to the e-commerce of Virgin Airline. The identified reasons such as cancellation of tickets at frequent numbers would draw the attraction of researcher on the research topic. The topic would attract future research as well.
I have never thought that the selected research topic would provide ample of learnings to me. When I decided to work on the selected topic, my tutor has asked me to think carefully before moving to work on the selection. I thought it carefully and after analysing it thoroughly I found it interesting and educative as well. I started my research work on a nerves note. This is because I was scared of the relevant secondary resources. However, as I proceeded with the research work, things started happening to me. I started getting various secondary resources such as journals, websites and books on the selected research topic.
The research has helped me learn various things such as factors that affect the customer service standard. Customer service to me was less known facts; however, the research has taught me that it plays a very important role in benefitting the business. Customer service is such a factor that cut down on the competition by narrowing the scope for others. The one with high standard of customer service has high chances of earning a competitive advantage. It made me understand that customer service standard is of high significance in the airline industry.
It also educated me on e-commerce, which has now become a very good resource of business. According to my perspectives, e-commerce is just a platform that provides buying and selling options. However, my perspectives have died after working on the selected research topic. It taught me that e-commerce is nowadays is also a resource to customer service. The platform can well be used to enhance the customer service standard. For example, the use of e-commerce in different airline companies such as in Virgin Airline has provided them a good business option. Now, the interest of customers can be drawn towards business by advertising different offers on the company’s own e-commerce platforms or on the third party service provider’s platform. In both case, customers would get ample of opportunities to search their requirement related to the ticket pricing, service quality etc.
On completion of the research work, I understood the way to reduce the negative views of customers by using different customer service related technologies such as automated message. Automated message were found as one of weapons that could reduce the incrementing cancellation of tickets. Such customers can be notified through automated message such as “please find the related information in your mail id”. This gives option to remarketing, which is a very handful option against the rising numbers of ticket cancellation. Overall, I was also able to understand what could all be the limitations of the research. The limitations, which I found has prevented me from getting more results. I understood that it is very important to have access to important journals, books and websites in order to attain the best results. It also made me understand the importance of time that ruined me from researching as much as it could have been. Sufficient time is highly recommended to get the maximised results.
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