AirAsia was honored with the ‘Customer Lover’ award by Web In Travel (WIT) at the inaugural WITovation awards ceremony at the Suntec Convention Centre last month, held in conjunction with the annual WIT Conference.
WIT, a Singapore-based content and community platform for the travel distribution, marketing and technology space, recognized the airline’s innovative approach in engaging with guests via its interactive one-stop help and information centre AskAirAsia, accessible at airasia.com/ask.
Customer care manager, Frank Bateman receives the award.
AirAsia Regional Head of Customer Experience and Technology, Zaman Ahmad said, “We are very happy and proud to win the WITovation ‘Customer Lover’ award from Web In Travel. We’d like to thank WIT for recognizing our efforts in providing guests with state-of-the-art but uncomplicated solutions platform, in the form of AskAirAsia. We are always on the move to introduce innovative methods to enhance our guests’ experience and ready to invest more in technology in order to adapt to their needs.
“We realize that a vast number of our guests are technologically savvy and familiar in the use of interactive media platforms, thus it is necessary for us to leverage on this consumer trend of interaction with us online. AskAirAsia caters to their need for immediate solution and increases efficiency and reduces operating costs for us. Available 24 hours daily, it also provides multiple contact points for guests to easily get in touch with us and to know more about our products and services.”
The WITovation awards are aimed at recognizing companies or individuals which have made a difference in a chosen field, either through a specific marketing campaign or an overall strategy, in the digital travel space. AirAsia ousted closest contender Cleartrip, an online travel portal, for the ‘Customer Lover’ award. AirAsia Customer Care Manager, Frank Bateman was present at the ceremony to accept the award on behalf of AirAsia.
The judging panel, led by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, managing partner of T2 Impact, said it came to a close call between AirAsia and Cleartrip but they believe that AirAsia, with its reach and pedigree of loving its customers, just edged out Cleartrip’s entry.
The judges said, “AirAsia’s approach is very user-friendly and appeals to a wider market with varied demographics. The use of a named Avatar (in AskAirAsia) gives the service a personality and creates an online rapport with the user. This service exceeds customer expectations regarding budget airlines where cheap equates minimal service.”
AskAirAsia, available free to anyone from anywhere in the world, is a platform for guests to pose any question and engage with AirAsia via live chat, webmail and twitter. As soon as a question or enquiry is received, it would provide specific, tailor-fitted answers in real time through the use of intelligent automated response technology.
