British Airways CRM Case Study: Customer Relationship and Marketing

This case study delves into British Airways' Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies, examining its historical establishment, quality dimensions (technical, functional, and corporate image), and sales funnel approach. It contrasts the differences between low-cost and regular airline customers, detailing how British Airways acquires the 'right customers' through understanding evolving consumer behavior and leveraging online channels. The analysis includes best practices in CRM implementation, such as information gathering, process management, and the use of software tools to manage customer touchpoints. Furthermore, it assesses customer and employee reviews to determine the airline's progress, highlighting areas for improvement in customer service and employee work-life balance. The study emphasizes British Airways' efforts to maintain a competitive edge and enhance customer loyalty in the dynamic global airline market, with solutions available on Desklib.

Running head: RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Relationship Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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1. History of how this British airline was established and who is British Airways today
British Airline was established in 1974 (John). The British government established the British
airway board to manage two of the nationalized airway corporation, namely, British European
Airways and British overseas airways along with two of the regional airlines namely, Northeast
Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne and Cambrian Airways from Cardiff. Since it was a huge
hustle to handle all the four companies separately, on 31st March 1974, all the four organizations
were merged to form British Airways. The British Airways was a state company for a prolonged
period of 13 years. In the year 1987, the mentioned company got privatised due to the wider
privatization plan by the then Conservative government ( Joep and Joep ).
The prosperity of the company gradually increases with the acquisition of Dan-Air in
1992, Caledonian in 1987 and British Midland International in 2012 (Michael and Richard).
With the enhancement in its market value, the British railway started enhancing its resources to
increase the yearly revenue. In 1998, it orders 59 Airbus A320 family aircraft followed by the
purchase of 12 Airbus A380 along with 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 201. Today, BA is
considered to be the largest operator of Boeing 747-400 (Albert). Not only that, BA is one of the
founding members of American Airlines, Oneworld Airline Alliance, Quantas, Canadian
Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Today, the British Airway is the third largest airline company in the
world, the first and second being Sky Team and Star Alliance Respectively.
2. The three quality dimensions of British Airways: Technical quality, Functional
Quality and Corporate Image.
According to Gronoroos, The perceived service quality model can be classified into three quality
dimensions namely technological Quality, functional Quality and Corporate image:

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 Technological Quality: This quality dimension can be defined knowledge of an
organization related to the technological output of the service provided. This dimension
helps the company to identify the technological parameter that helps the company to
enhance its revenue. Being the third largest Airline Company, the management o the
mentioned airline is experiencing constant improvement in technical quality that includes
renewal of the aircraft fleet of BA. This improvement is resulting in the satisfaction of
both consumers and employees (John)
 Functional quality: This quality dimension represents the methods by which BA provides
service to the consumers. Higher the functional quality higher is the satisfaction of the
consumers. BA invests highly to enhance its functional quality. The company pays
special attention so that the checking, boarding, departure an arrival experienced by the
consumers are smooth.
 Corporate Image: Considering the fact that corporate image of the mentioned company
depends on the social-political-cultural context of the nation along with the above-
mentioned dimensions, BA has a commendable Corporate Image. In order to retain its
quality dimension, BA uses several methods like behaviours, symbolism and
communication.
3. What sales funnel does British Airways use?
In order to gain a competitive advantage in the global airline market, Thee mentioned
organization uses the Broad and narrow funnel (Albert). Sales funnel can be defined as the
buying process through which consumers are lead by a company when purchasing a product or a
service. The sales funnel used by BA can be divided into seven phases that include Awareness

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phase, Interest Phase, Evaluation Phase, decision Phase, Purchase Phase, Revolution phase a
Repurchase Phase.
4. Explanation of the main differences between the low-cost customers and regular
airline customers (DNA)
The chief differences between Regular airline consumers and low-cost consumers are as follows:
Traditional or Regular Airline consumers Low-cost airline consumers
 Consumers are offered genuine help
and compensation in case of lost
baggage, flight delay or any other
loopholes in the service provided.
 If flight gets cancelled, regular airline
uses their alliance partners to offer a
seat to the consumers. For instance, due
to the cancellation of a flight in BA,
Consumers were able to rebook their
seat in American Airlines (John).
 Consumers are not required to pay any
extra charges once they have booked
their seats on a Regular Airline.
 Due to the usage of the same airport by
both the regular and low costs airlines,
regular airline consumers may feel
deceived.
 Generally, no help or compensation is
offered to the consumers.
 Since low-cost airlines do not possess
any alliance partnership, no such
services are provided to the consumers.
 Several times, some of the hidden extra
charges that include in-flight
entertainment charges, check-in
baggage charges and others enhance the
overall cost of the ride.
 Several times, the same airport is used
by both the regular and low-cost
airlines. As a result, a consumer who is
paying for low-cost airlines gets
benefited.
5. How does British Airways acquire the “right customers”?
Considering the fact that global consumer behaviour is rapidly changing, the mentioned airline
has implemented effective strategies to understand the psychology of the consumers that helped
them in acquiring the ‘right consumers’ for them. The British Airways is currently UK's Leading
consumer ‘superbrand’ (Albert). The target market of BA is chiefly the UK and Europe. In order
to understand the right consumer base, the company had first detected the changes in the retail
travel sectors. Some of the changes detected by the company include:

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 The excessive usage of online channels for booking and searching
 The usage of multiple devices during the booking process
 Social media usage for first-hand sharing experiences
 The enhancing relevance of loyalty programs
After accessing the changes, BA increased the usage of their online promotion and marketing
methods to grab the attention of the consumers.
6. Best practices when it comes to BA’s customer relationship management
In order to develop competitive advantages and enhance the yearly revenue, the Company has
developed effective customer management strategies. BA has implemented CRM software to
manage detailed information about each consumer associated with the business. The four steps
followed by the company include Information gathering, Process management, Software tools
and finally implementation of change Management Elements (John). The software also helps the
company to manage the ‘touch points’ that include reservation, baggage tracking, checking and
check out, frequent filter program, business class services, food and beverages and flight
attendants. Besides that, the company also uses modern technologies like social media platforms
to communicate with their consumers and solve their issues. Active communication not only
helps the company to gain competitive advantages but also enhance the loyalty of the consumers.
7. Analysis of the reviews from BA customers and BA official to identify whether
British Airways is on its path to success or still has to implement many changes in
how it approaches its customers and necessary changes to be made
During analyzing the reviews of the consumers as well as the employees both positive
and negative feedback has been noticed. While according to some consumers, the ride offered by

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the company was unprofessional and show evidence of lack of training, according to other
consumers, the ride was highly comfortable and the cabins appeared highly clean and hygienic
due to renovation. A good number of consumers also reported that the Airline also punctual
about on-time departure and arrival. The numbers of positive reviews are found to be higher than
negative reviews by the ratio of 5:1 (Michael and Richard). When it comes to the review of the
employees of the organization, positive review about the work culture and travel benefits
provided to the employees were obtained. However negative review was obtained about the
work-life balance of the employees.
From the above discussion, it can be said that the organization is heading towards its path of
success. However, in order to assure that cent percent of the consumers are satisfied with the
service of the organization, BA should consider providing effective training to its cabin staffs so
that no further complaint is received.

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Reference List
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practice. Sage (2017): 123-127
Grundy, Michael, and Richard Moxon. "The effectiveness of airline crisis management on brand
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55-61.
Hayes, John. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan (2014): 34-36
Mills, Albert J. "Cockpits, Hangars, Boys, and Galleys: Corporate Masculinities and the
Development of British Airways☆." Insights and Research on the Study of Gender and
Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures. Emerald Publishing Limited (2017): 237-263.