Last week, I talked about the different contact center channels. I mentioned that airline contact centers do a good job of keeping up with customers’ demands and expectations of communication.

Many of us travel quite frequently so just looking at how an airline operates is a great example of a modern contact center.  Right now as I write this, I am in the middle of an intercontinental trip.  I asked for an upgrade via use of a “coupon.”  I was informed multiple times via email (my preferred communication method as per my signup) where I stood with this.  Ultimately, I did not get one, but the communications to me were fairly frequent.  My boarding passes appeared on my smartphone and also in my email inbox.  And since I had a connecting flight, I opted in to find out how this part of the trip was going, and so I was kept up to date with text messages. 

The proactiveness of this whole experience was very good.  I’m sure it also kept expenses down for the airline since less agents were needed to handle phone calls (which is how we used to do things – and I’m sure some of you probably remember the banks and banks and more banks of phones at airports).  I’m sure we’ll see even more proactiveness in the future.  IoT may even play a role.  Dean Bubley was the first person who brought up that IoT can help you and airlines track your checked luggage. Hopefully, your luggage is not in New York if you are going to Los Angeles, but at least you’d know where it is.