British Airways:

One of the Worlds Largest International Airlines Implements

"55,000 customers' questions are answered by AskBA on ba.com every

week. On average that's 5 questions and answers every minute.
Commercial Lead
Times were tough across the worlds airline industry even before the
turbulence created by September 11th 2001. British Airways
recognized that a radical simplification of how it dealt with its
customers would help towards the rigorous cost-savings it required.
However, it also knew that only changes that successfully appealed to
its customers, and its shareholders, would work in the long run.
The airline concluded the answer could lie in delivering customer selfservice technology via the Internet and set about looking at new
ways to further maximize the potential of its Web site. It also began
looking at ways to integrate Web self-service with telephone and email
customer service.
The benefit of self-service is its availability 24 hours a day vital
when we cross so many time zones. Also, answers to questions are
carefully crafted so customers are consistently given the fullest and
most useful information possible," says Ian Romanis, commercial lead
for eBA.
We wanted a consistent contact proposition to provide the right type
of answer to our customers via the most appropriate and customerfriendly channel.
British Airways began by reviewing different options, including a pure
search engine and a natural language search option but none
provided the functionality required and a resultant return on
investment.
British Airways needed a solution to make a big impact, but didnt
want to spend millions on re-designing its entire Web-based offering.
It was a timely call from RightNow Technologies that provided the
answer. RightNow eService Center is a software and services delivery

platform that fundamentally changes the cost structure of customer

service while dramatically increasing customer satisfaction. RightNows
multi-channel eService platform offers email response management,
Web-based self service, live chat and collaboration and reporting on
key service metrics.
RightNow eService Centers proprietary knowledge engine analyzes
and sorts information so the most popular and useful answers come to
the top of a list of around 250 to 300 Answers. The most routine
questions are found almost immediately, minimizing the need for
customers to telephone or email to find their answers.
However, the system does make it easy for users to escalate to email
or human contact, if the exact answers are not available.
Subsequently, these answers are added to the knowledge base
growing the content and making it easier for customers to find
answers to future, similar inquiries.
This seemed to be just the proactive solution British Airways needed,
but there were two other factors that clinched the decision. Firstly,
RightNow was able to host the solution the Internet this meant it
could be up and running in days rather than months, says Romanis.
Secondly, as part of its Standard of Business Practice, RightNow
offers all its potential customers a production pilot of the solution at
minimal cost, before they make a full commitment. British Airways
trialed the software on its North American Executive Club customers
and via a "stand-alone" interface, a number of its UK travel agency
customers.
Romanis is quick to praise the trial: It meant we had almost instant
delivery and saw instant benefits with little or no development
overhead. We were testing the product on our own customer base
which meant we began to build market awareness right away. Also, it
gave us the opportunity to learn as much as we could about the
product before developing our main strategy.
The trial proved a success and to check they were on the right track,
British Airways surveyed all those customers who took part. 94
percent said they liked the service and wanted British Airways to
continue with it.
After this decisive vote of confidence, British Airways began
integrating RightNow eService Center now called AskBA more
closely with its Web sites. This involved the development of
segmented targeting to allow for different content to be presented to
different types of customer.
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British Airways rolled out 24 interfaces of RightNow eService Center,

10 external and 14 internal. Customers now contact the airline 24
hours a day and easily find answers to a diverse range of questions
ranging from how old must a baby be before it can fly? to how can I
transport my surfboard?
British Airways wont disclose the percentage drop in the number of
customer phone calls received since RightNow eService Center was
implemented, but it does say the figures are exceeding the original
business plan and expectation. They have, however, reported that:
55,000 customers questions are answered by AskBA on www ba.com
every week. On average thats five Q & As every minute.
Also, results reveal the UK and Ireland travel agency contact volume
mix has shifted, with phone calls dropping from 98 to 69 percent of
total contact volume received and self-service rising from 1 to 31
percent of total contact volume.
RightNow plays a key role in an ambitious business-to-employee
intranet project enabling employees access to HR information via a
self-service knowledge base eliminating a considerable number of
forms and consequently producing further substantial cost savings.
It is clear RightNow played a key role in assisting British Airways to
meet the serious challenges it faced. In fact, it helped solve that
eternal mystery how to make substantial cost savings, while at the
same time, making sure customer service is enhanced. With an
average of five questions being answered online every minute, the
answer is obvious just AskBA.