Flight Centre transforms

FLIGHT Centre is evolving from a supplier-driven to a customer- driven organisation, with the firm’s journey over the last few years detailed in a conference session at this morning’s Travel Industry Exhibition in Melbourne.

John O’Neill from Komosion described a major project conducted by his company, which was engaged by Flight Centre in 2014 to help it better understand leisure customers.

At the time Flight Centre did not segment its customer base, and marketed to clients based only on their most recent transaction rather than as a holistic traveller.

O’Neill said the supplier focus also previously drove much of the Flight Centre offering, including product ranges and descriptions, inventory and availability.

Switching to a customer- centric operation is still a work in progress, but sees Flight Centre partner more closely with suppliers to influence product offerings, produce content based on customer needs, and segment the offering across the various Flight Centre brands to appeal to different client demographics.

O’Neill said Flight Centre had now implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and rather than the former strategy which solely focused on getting clients to interact with consultants, now aimed to understand what each customer wanted - ranging from a quick flight transaction through to a complete bucket list holiday - and meet that exact need.