BACKGROUND

A passenger's journey through an airport involves myriad touchpoints (e.g., check-in, security screening, boarding, concessions, and other amenities). Time constraints, unfamiliarity with the terminal layout or protocols, unexpected events (e.g., flight delays, cancelations, gate changes), and poor customer service can result in a poor experience for travelers. Airport industry practitioners are realizing there are opportunities to improve customer experience, and recently developed technologies can play a role. Yet many of these technologies are nascent, particularly in the airport setting, and may require significant investment and coordination among various stakeholders. Airport industry practitioners would benefit from a guide to help identify, evaluate, select, and implement technologies related to customer experience.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a guide and resources to help airport industry practitioners evaluate, select, and implement appropriate technologies to enhance customer experience.

The guide and resources should address the following topics across all touchpoints within the terminal, at a minimum:

• Demand management;
• Obtaining real-time feedback on customer experience and sentiment;
• Effective deployment of janitorial staff;
• Signage and wayfinding;
• Messaging and communication (e.g., flight status, customer messaging); and
• Irregular operations.

The guide and resources should provide, at a minimum:

• Overview of current state of practice, including relevant domestic and international airport and non-airport examples;
• Guidelines and tools (e.g., decision trees, flow charts, checklists, frameworks) to help staff at airports of various sizes and with varying resource levels:
  • Define customer experience challenges;
  • Identify which challenges are most amenable to technological solutions;
  • Evaluate, prioritize, and select appropriate technology solutions;
  • Partner with stakeholders (e.g., airlines, service providers, concessionaires); and
  • Develop an implementation strategy that considers technology integration and user uptake.
• Technology fact sheets that include:
  • Concise description of technology (including maturity and level of industry adoption);
  • Potential customer experience-related applications;
  • Degree of scalability; and
  • General resource requirements (e.g., costs, staffing) for implementation and operation;
• Representative case examples of how these technologies have been implemented at airports to enhance customer experience; and
• Resources (e.g., slide deck and handout templates) to help communicate recommended technology implementation strategies to decision makers.

RESEARCH PLAN

The research plan shall include the following interim deliverables for ACRP review and approval a minimum:

• State of practice overview and summary description of potential technologies to be researched; and
• Interim report to include research results and analysis to date, candidate case examples with rationale, draft annotated guide outline, fact sheet template, description of recommended tools, next steps, and identification of follow-on research ideas to be developed into ACRP problem statements.

The research plan shall include the following checkpoints with the ACRP panel at a minimum:

• Kick-off teleconference meeting to be held within 1 month of the Notice to Proceed;
• Web meeting to discuss results of state of practice overview and potential technologies to be researched;
• In-person interim deliverable review meeting; and
• Other web-enabled meetings as appropriate.

The final deliverables shall include: 

• Guide and resources;
• Contractor’s Final Report documenting all research steps, results, and analysis;
• Summary of Key Findings;
• Further Recommended Research Memo; and
• Technical memo titled, “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”.

STATUS: Research is underway.