In this paragraph, I will lay out the results of the customer satisfaction/importance analysis and discuss the differences in magnitude for these two criteria for German and Dutch silver agers. The goal is to identify silver agers’ customer needs; specifically, to find out at which steps of the customer experience journey potential improvements are needed the most.
Satisfaction and importance scores were prompted for 27 steps of the customer experience journey, from different ways of booking to reaching the final destination. In absolute terms, the average levels of importance and satisfaction (both measured on a five-point Likert scale) are high (see Figure 27) in the absence of a non-silver-ager comparison group. This is in line with a previous study regarding age and air travel that
found older air travellers to be more satisfied than younger ones, perhaps due to their higher income. Greater wealth enables travellers to choose airlines based on service quality (Clemes, Gan, Kao, & Choong, 2008). For the course of this analysis, that is not relevant since the focus is on relative pain points within the sample.
N=725 Importance, mean
4.17
NL GER 4.08
Satisfaction, mean 3.75 4.14
NL GER
Figure 27: Average importance and satisfaction scores, source: own depiction
Dutch silver agers (Mdn=4.19) show significantly higher importance scores than German silver agers (Mdn=4.11), U=56,924, p=0.008. Satisfaction scores are also significantly higher (NL Mdn=4.36 vs. GER Mdn=3.75), U=43,633, p > 0.001. From an intercultural management perspective, this is counter-intuitive. More individualistic societies, like the Netherlands, are expected to be more demanding in terms of quality (Furrer, Liu, &
Sudharshan, 2000). Thus, their satisfaction level should be lower than in mo re
collectivist societies. There are no significant differences between the Dutch and German silver-ager subsamples in terms of standard deviations for importance and satisfaction score. To level scores, both importance and satisfaction scores are mean-centred for subsequent analysis (standard deviation approx. equal for NL/GER subsamples). All 27 addressed steps of silver agers’ customer experience journey in air travel are depicted by average satisfaction and importance scores in Figure 28.
N=723
Importance and customer satisfaction, mean-centred
1.0
0 -0.5
0.5
0.5 -1.0
0
1.0 -0.5
-1.0 Satisfaction
Importance Entertainment
Food
Check-in/baggage
Sanitary facilities on-board
Seat comfort Handling of delays Flight attendant service
Booking: Call center Pre-departure service/safety Booking: Travel agency
PAIN POINTS
Low priority Keep up the
good work
Possible overkill
Figure 28: Importance x satisfaction of air travel customer experience, source: own depiction, structure based on Martilla and James (1977)
Starting from the top left, I find four steps that can be labelled as ‘Low priority’ due to already high satisfaction levels and relatively low importance levels. Compared to other stages, these steps of the user experience require the least improvement for overall customer satisfaction. Examples are Booking through travel agencies which received the highest satisfaction score in the whole sample and Pre-departure service/safety. In the top right quadrant, the stages are relatively important and are perceived as satisfactory by customers (‘Keep up the good work’). Flight attendant service and Check-in/baggage are steps which are seen as critical but are well taken care of by airlines. The third quadrant represents the so-called ‘pain points’. These stages are characterised by high importance and low satisfaction. Thus, improvements at these stages would presumably lead to the highest overall satisfaction increases. Seat comfort, which also includes personal space requirements, has the highest importance and lowest satisfaction score. This is not surprising. On the one hand, when they are lacking, seat comfort and leg space can contribute to physical pain, especially since a significant share of silver agers have mobility-related physical conditions, including lower back and knee difficulties. Thus, a basic comfort need is not being fulfilled. On the other hand, air travel used to be a luxury service in terms of comfort and service quality. In recent years, it has been commoditised
through the reduction of government intervention (state monopolies) and the introduction of low-cost carriers. This has led to more competition, eventually leading to airlines equipping aeroplanes with more seat rows. Thus, each individual’s personal space has been reduced. Due to the fact that a high number of silver agers started flying decades ago, many have known flying as a luxury with superb service. These high service levels serve as reference or anchor points in the minds of silver agers (Kahneman, 1992;
Strack & Mussweiler, 1997), and quality levels now are continually compared to previously higher space/comfort levels, which is of course disappointing. Handling of delays is also seen as a critical pain point. This includes the various flows of information to the customer in the case of delays or special events leading to a change of itineraries/boarding gates, etc. Flows of information include intercom messages within the airport terminal buildings, at the gates or on board the aircraft. Due to widespread mental or physical limitations, silver agers have a higher chance of missing potentially highly important information. A post-survey focus group discussion with silver agers (see section 7.1.4.2) revealed the criticality of lacking information, e.g. when important (delay) information is missed. The initial feeling is that silver agers feel they are not taken care of properly. If information is still not provided, fear and insecurity can result, which can eventually lead to completely refraining from flying.
A third pain point to be highlighted is sanitary facilities on board the aircraft. Besides physical limitations requiring the more frequent use of sanitary facilities, a significant amount of flights are medium- and/or long-haul, which increases likelihood of needing to use these facilities. Low satisfaction levels are apparently caused by the small size of toilet cubicles, which again is more challenging with physical limitations (e.g. less strength, lower body coordination).
The fourth quadrant depicts so-called ‘possible overkill’ steps of the user experience.
Here, customers have low satisfaction, but also consider these aspects to be of low importance. Thus, improvements at these steps will increase overall satisfaction only marginally. Entertainment and Booking: Call Centre are characterised by the lowest importance of all 27 steps. Due to the predominately short-haul flight pattern of silver agers, Entertainment is probably not needed at all. Some silver agers mentioned that bringing books would be enough entertainment for them. Booking: Call Centre is the least important booking mode for silver agers (vs. website and travel agency) and it also has the lowest satisfaction rating.
For differences between the two countries, i.e. Dutch vs. German silver agers, deviations between importance and satisfaction scores were analysed. Euclidian distances have been calculated for each of the 27 steps, which are the distances between the points on the graph (see Figure 29).
N=723
Importance vs. satisfaction – GER vs. NL TOP 5
0 -1.0
1.0
0.5
-0.5
0.5 0
-1.0
1.0 -0.5
Satisfaction
Importance PAIN POINTS
Low Priority Keep up the
good work
Possible overkill Deviations GER vs. NL, Euclid. distance
Beverages
Attendant service
0.33 0.48
0.08 Info elderly services
Entertainment 0.35
0.39 0.61
…
Mobility services
…
Baggage claim
0.07 Security
0.08 Pre-take-off/safety 0.08 Sign-posting
0.07 Handling of delays
NL GER
Enter- tainment
Information elderly services
Mobility services Flight attendant service
Beverages
Figure 29: GER vs. NL innovation/satisfaction, source: own depiction
On the left-hand side of the graphic, deviations are shown in descending order (top five and bottom five), i.e. the steps of customer experience with the levels of highest disagreement between German and Dutch silver agers are on top. The top five (from Beverages to Info elderly services) include silver-ager-specific steps like Mobility services and Info elderly services, as well as non-specific steps like Beverages and Entertainment.
The bottom five steps (from Sign-posting to Baggage claim) are steps that are seen as equally important and have similar satisfaction levels among German and Dutch silver agers. Here, one of the identified pain points, i.e. Handling of delays, is found to be stable in both subsamples (see Figure 29).
On the right-hand side of Figure 29, I see that most deviations in the top five are caused by satisfaction level deviations. This suggests that the importance perception of the customer experience steps is presumably similar for both German and Dutch silver agers.
Furthermore, I see that the satisfaction levels of German silver agers are lower for silver- ager-specific steps like Information elderly services, which entails up-front information about special services or offerings for potentially physically or mentally limited silver agers, or Mobility services, which comprises the actual service delivery. Dutch silver agers are less satisfied with general customer experience steps, like Beverages and Flight attendant services. Lower satisfaction levels among Dutch silver agers are in line with intercultural management literature, which suggests that more individualistic societies (Netherlands) are expected to be more critical of product and service offerings (Hofstede, 1983). Another explanation can be attributed to the different company service level offerings that German and Dutch silver agers are exposed to. Even though one can assume that the ratio of premium to low-cost carrier travel is similar in Germany and the Netherlands, the individual offerings of most-liked airlines could be different for German (e.g. with Lufthansa) and Dutch (e.g. KLM) silver agers.
In conclusion, I find that importance levels are fairly equal for German and Dutch silver agers. As a result, companies addressing the silver markets of Germany and the Netherlands can assume similar importance preferences. Satisfaction levels differ significantly, i.e. Dutch silver agers show higher satisfaction levels than Germans. Overall customer satisfaction can probably be increased through improvement of the identified pain points, which are: Sanitary facilities on board the aircraft; Handling of delays, specifically information flows and communication; and Seat comfort and personal space.
Furthermore, Handling of delays is seen as equally important and of equal satisfaction by German as well as Dutch silver agers, which makes it highly suitable for improvement initiatives.