Today, an airport needs to be more than just a gateway for travel. In an increasingly competitive market, airports must go the extra mile to offer the best passenger experience possible and turn terminals into places passengers enjoy visiting. One of the ways airports are differentiating themselves is with fast track services to reduce long queues and increase efficiency in the airport. Here we’ll explain how fast track booking systems pave the way for a better passenger experience.
What is fast track and how does it work?
Fast track booking systems, like the Rezcomm Marketplace, enable airports to sell reservations to customers via their website. Willing passengers pay to pre-book a fast track ticket to speed up their journey through the airport. This could be for fast track boarding, immigration, security, appointments – anywhere queues typically exist in the airport. Essentially, passengers gain access to a priority lane, so they spend less time queuing, are processed quicker and have more time to enjoy themselves at the airport.
At Rezcomm, we send customers a fast track QR code to their email addresses. Then, once at the airport, they scan the QR code to gain entry to a fast track lane using their mobile phones. It’s speedy and seamless and also has the benefit of being safer, as it’s contactless.
We also offer in-airport fast track bookings with QR signage. Passengers simply scan a QR code in your airport to reach your online fast track reservation system. There they can purchase a fast track ticket to use immediately at the airport – no queuing, no sales kiosks, and no extra staffing costs.
The importance of providing excellent customer service to airport passengers
With tough competition from other airports offering similar flights and parking products, providing excellent customer service will improve customer loyalty and give your airport a competitive edge. According to Salesforce Research, 92% of customers say a positive customer experience makes them more likely to make a further purchase. It’s also worth remembering that acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing customers, so it pays to provide excellent customer service and build those lucrative long-term relationships.
Of course, this isn’t something that happens overnight – airports must take the time to listen to passengers, gather feedback and use it to make customer-centric improvements to their terminals and services.
Innovations that can improve the passenger experience at airports
Fast track booking systems benefit both airports and passengers. For the airport, offering fast track boarding, fast track immigration, and other similar pre-book services generates instant revenue. It can also increase ongoing revenue from happy, loyal and returning passengers.
For passengers, fast track improves their airport experience by reducing time wasted in queues and increasing their opportunities to relax in the airport lounge, have fun and spend money in the airport coffee shops, stores and restaurants.
Read more about the benefits in our article: Fast track booking systems, are they worth it?
Something else we champion at Rezcomm is a personalised customer experience, and offering fast track boarding and other reservations through fast track booking systems can help you achieve that. In addition, by collecting valuable passenger data and marketing permissions, you can get to know your passengers and create better-targeted marketing, offers and cross-sells. This improves the customer experience, as passengers feel important to you, leading to increased loyalty and lifetime passenger spending.
We encourage all of our airport clients interested in Contactless Fast Track Booking to combine it with other innovations that improve the passenger experience at airports, such as our Venue products:
KPI and Feedback – Add QR code signage to your airport fast track lanes to gather vital digital feedback from your passengers. Feedback is delivered in real-time, so you’ll know if you need to deploy more staff during busy times and rectify any problems with customers with a goodwill gesture.
Queueless Journeys – In addition to reducing queueing with a fast track lane, you can approach the problem from another angle with Rezcomm’s Queueless Journeys. Passengers pre-book a time of arrival anywhere queues typically exist in your airport, queue virtually using their mobile and receive an alert when it’s their turn, eliminating queues in these bottlenecks entirely.
Contactless Customer Service – While reducing queues in your airport, why not reduce the need for customer support desks too? Some passengers will always prefer face to face interaction, but for those who don’t or don’t have time to queue to reach them, invite passengers to scan a QR code to access your digital support portal for a speedier and more convenient service.
Reduce your operating costs and achieve operational excellence
While fast track booking systems can contribute to a positive passenger experience, airports must combine them with analytics and forecasting to increase efficiency and achieve operational excellence. In our article, ‘Don’t let Fast Track slow your airport down,’ we discuss how to use booking data from your fast track reservations to forecast how many passengers will use your fast track lanes, so you can allocate staff and resources efficiently and gain real-time visibility to plan for peak times. Armed with this data, airports can make more informed operational decisions, process passengers more quickly and achieve greater efficiency.
Providing an online reservation system for fast track boarding and fast track immigration and enabling passengers to purchase fast track security tickets using their mobiles at the airport also reduces the need for sales kiosks. As a result, not only will your airport reduce its staffing costs, but you’ll also be able to utilise the space you’ve saved more effectively.
Lastly, fast track booking systems using QR code scanning also prevents the need for staff to physically check tickets, again helping to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Moreover, it’s contactless and digital, contributing to an overall safer airport experience – something that’s still very important to passengers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and becoming an expected standard.
Improve your passenger experience with Contactless Fast Track Booking
Ready to invest in fast track at your airport? The Rezcomm Marketplace takes fast track booking systems to the next level, enabling airports to generate more revenue, improve efficiency, increase customer loyalty and gain valuable data to create a more personalised passenger experience. Moreover, it’s possible to launch your new services in just 2-4 weeks.
To learn more about our fast track immigration, security and more, download our Venue brochure and book a meeting with the Rezcomm team.
Orchestrating digital strategy, Victoria Wallace is Rezcomm’s Chief Digital Officer. With specialisations ranging from digital marketing and CRM to UX design and ecommerce, she is an expert in integrating innovation and technology to deliver outstanding results in sectors like travel, parking, and airports.
