Implementation at CLM for Heathrow Airport

About Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport as Britain’s only hub airport, is home to over 80 airlines, serving 184 destinations in 84 countries. On average, Heathrow handles over 191,000. It is the busiest airport in Europe and the third busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic. Heathrow has the highest retail sales of any airport in the world ahead of South Korea’s Incheon airport in second place. Gross retail sales at Heathrow increased in 2011 to £1,7 billion, while Net Retail Income per passenger increased by 4.4% to £5.82 in 2012. At Heathrow, there are over 400 different outlets and over 120 global brands with the World Duty Free as a second biggest partner, after British Airways.

Business challenges

Heathrow Airport manages over 70 million passengers a year through its terminals and that’s a huge number of people who could be receiving benefits and bonuses for using the airport. Heathrow was committed to make every journey better but to get this continuous improvement it required greater personalization of the journeys and client insight that it was missing out on. Heathrow recognized these changing needs from experience with a previous loyalty scheme and realized that greater one-to-one engagement and deeper knowledge about its passengers can reveal a vast untapped potential.

IN RE-LAUNCHING THE LOYALTY SCHEME HEATHROW SET A NUMBER OF KEY OBJECTIVES:

to generate incremental sales and income by encouraging members to spend at airport outlets and on services
to increase number of high value marketable members
to generate greater insight from the transactions of Heathrow Rewards members
to improve customer experience by engaging with members and retail partners in a way that they wanted to interact
to ensure world-class customer service
to provide relevant and motivating rewards
to adapt and expand to new technologies like Apple Passbook and mobile website to provide easiest access to information
to improve and speed up the process for participating point-issuing partners
to migrate quickly from the old platform to the
new with minimum disruption to member base
to ensure cost effective management and operational delivery of Heathrow Rewards

The Implemented Product

Comarch provided a comprehensive loyalty solution enhanced with additional management and operational services.

The Loyalty Engine implemented on the basis of Comarch Loyalty Management for Airports platform consists of four flexible integrated modules:

Business Administration - an application for back office users to configure rules, rewards, redemption parameters, and a set of reports
Contact Center Application – an application used by Customer Service Agents to serve customer requests
Web Portal – an application dedicated for Heathrow Rewards members to manage their accounts and activities
Mobile website – mobile version of desktop Heathrow Rewards site for Android and iOS

The system is hosted by Comarch Data Center and maintained by Comarch Support Team. Meeting Heathrow’s requirements regarding delivery of comprehensive services such as Member Helpdesk Service, Member Website Service, Service Level Maintenance.

What Is Heathrow Rewards

Originally launched in 1999 as WorldPoints, the programme was reinvigorated as Heathrow Rewards in May 2013, offering greater appeal to the modern, digital traveller. Heathrow Rewards targets and rewards two types of members: passengers and Heathrow staff for their frequent and loyal usage of all airport commercial offers.

To participate in the Heathrow Rewards programme, the member must obtain a Heathrow rewards card by:

applying online and getting a card sent to a member
picking up a card at the airport and registering it online
joining by phone

Members can collect points from over 400 outlets and over 120 different brands. Heathrow offers three ways of collecting points:

a loyalty card with a magnetic stripe and a 1D barcode on the back
online by entering a card number on the booking form
a virtual card on the phone downloaded from Passbook App or from a mobile website

So by spending on anything from sunglasses to sandwiches, from perfume to parking they earn:

1 point for £1 spent
1 point for £10 exchanged in Bureaux de Change

Members can earn points even faster with loyalty bonuses and a premium tier. Within one calendar year, when they earn:

250 standard points they can get 100 loyalty bonus points
750 standard points they can get double points on future transactions and reach premium tier which enables double points collection on all subsequent transactions

Members are able to redeem those points for airport L5 shopping vouchers, for discounts on Heathrow Express tickets and Heathrow official parking, instant redemption on World Duty Free products during the purchase. They can also transfer them into mileage in their favorite FFP programme such as British Airways Executive Club. Heathrow Rewards also offers their members the chance to win fabulous prizes by participation in competitions and prize draws as well as regular offers and promotions.

Benefits

The implementation of the new concept helped Heathrow to build highly successful airport loyalty programme that has become an integral part of Heathrow’s e-Business planning for the next years. Thanks to cooperation with Comarch, Heathrow:

gained insight into the database with deep knowledge about client preferences and retail data in one place
improved its offer for clients including a programme for new reward partners thanks to flexible partner management interface and EPOS and POS integration
enriched portfolio of passengers rewards by including motivating rewards as electronic instant points redemption within World Duty Free outlets.
improved the passenger experience by including mobile website, smartphone virtual membership cards, coupons via Apple Passbook and utilizing geo-location
increased recognition across Heathrow websites gained integrated, high profile launch and acquisition marketing
developed a new acquisition channel, which brings 70-80% of new registrations every day (Wi-Fi integration)
improved targeting offers and actions to members based on client segments related to transaction history