Delivering 94% Increase in Sales for a Scandinavian Airline by Enhancing CX

The Challenge

Stagnation of Ancillary Sales and Overwhelmed Refund Claims Process

This airline carrier is consistently rated as the best airline in Northern Europe and transports over 12 million passengers a year.

But their customer support was facing growing pains. The staff was not taking advantage of ancillary sales and products as a direct source of revenue. Training and better insights into customer behavior was needed.

To top it off, the COVID pandemic brought in a surge of refund claims, which their customer care teams struggled to service. They needed a partner who could manage a complex customer experience process on short notice.

The Outcome

Harnessing Digital Solutions for Greater Customer Experience

Sutherland worked with the airline to upskill their existing sales team and enable them to deliver results in ancillary sales. We implemented lean six-sigma projects and sales training programs, aiming to improve customer satisfaction alongside agents’ conversion rates. By offering the most relevant product and the right-fit solution, this approach increased cross- and up-sell, driving revenue.

To handle the spikes and irregularities in customer contact volume that are common in the airline business, we deployed Minibot 12 DOS. A dynamic WFM solution that could support all channels simultaneously, this resulted in time savings of 24 minutes per agent per day and improved aux leakage by 16%.

In response to the COVID pandemic, our domain experience enabled us to quickly adapt to new requirements. Our trainers debriefed, prepared, and delivered training to select front-office agents within two weeks. It took only 2 months to exceed targets, and by the 6th month, the average handle time had been reduced by 50%.

94%

Overachievement in sales of ancillary products and services

17%

Improvement in first call resolution (FCR)

$2.5M

Additional revenue