Michael Beckmann

Philipp Goedeking
Holger Sindemann Study

CRM for airlines

Three ingredients in a recipe for success
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Contents

CRM for airlines: Three ingredients in a recipe for success 3

1. Customers: Who are your most valuable customers 6

and what are their key needs?

2. Touchpoints: How do you build a relationship with 11

your customers through touchpoint interaction?

3. Processes: How do you establish structures and 16

systems to manage the CRM process across
your organization?

Summary: Creating value through a well-executed 19

CRM initiative

Interview: CRM at Lufthansa 20

A team with experience 22

The authors 23
3 | CRM for airlines

CRM for airlines

Three ingredients in a recipe for success

Roland Berger has developed an approach to Customer Relationship Mana-

gement (CRM) for airlines that focuses on a customer-centric strategy.
CRM means giving the right customers the right treatment at the right
customer contact points. Therefore, the Roland Berger approach focuses on
three key ingredients: customers, touchpoints, and processes. CRM is
about three essential issues:

1. Who are your most valuable customers and what are their key needs?
2. How do you build a relationship with your customers through touch-
point interaction?
3. How do you establish structures and systems to manage the CRM
process across your organization?

The creation of a customer-centric CRM strategy follows a three-step

approach

CRM

1 2 3

Customers Touchpoints Processes

Who are your most How do you build a relationship
valuable customers with your customers?
and what are their key > Touchpoint mapping
needs? > Treatment definition
> Customer analysis > "Touchpoint logic"
— Customer value — Customer identification
— Customer needs — Treatment delivery
— Response measurement
How do you manage CRM?
> Selection and deploy-
ment of treatments
> CRM infrastructure
— Touchpoint enabling
— Backoffice infrastructure

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

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Consequently, the Roland Berger approach to CRM for airlines starts with a
detailed understanding of customer value and customer needs.

Second, based on the notion that building a customer relationship takes

place at the touchpoints (customer contact points), a comprehensive con-
cept to intelligently manage interaction across multiple touchpoints is
created.

Third, processes and systems are developed to translate the idea of CRM
into actions. As a result, you will have a clear understanding of how to
offer what treatment to which customers at which touchpoint – in other
words, you will have defined a comprehensive CRM concept!

CRM is a strategic initiative to create a customer-centric organization,

not a technology exercise

CRM for airlines is ... CRM for airlines is not ...

... a strategic business priority ... a technology-driven issue

... focusing on winning, growing, and retaining ... focusing on winning and retaining any
high-value customers customer

... maximizing customer knowledge in terms of ... aimed at collecting, storing, and analyzing
customer value and customer needs any type of customer information

... developing personalized services and improving ... creating new, costly customer service
customer service efficiency for high-value measures available to any customer
customers (e.g. reducing processing times)

... an opportunity to increase marketing efficiency ... a driver of increased marketing spending
and measure the effects of individual marketing ("spend, spend, spend"-mentality)
activities

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

5 | CRM for airlines

Note that IT is conspicuously absent from this list of key ingredients, as we The priorities are clear:
firmly believe that CRM should not be regarded as a technology exercise. Strategy comes first,
IT comes second
However, the fact that a comprehensive CRM initiative requires substantial
investment in IT cannot be ignored. Still, IT is just an enabler, and techni-
cal capabilities should never be the driver of CRM.

Therefore, the appropriate use of technology will not be discussed until the
third step (process design) after the major pieces of the CRM strategy –
namely determining which customers should get what kind of treatment at
which touchpoint – are completed.
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1. Customers: Who are your most valuable customers

and what are their key needs?

CRM is aimed at achieving a higher level of personalization in customer

service and improving the targeting of marketing offers. In order to achieve
this, however, a thorough understanding of the value and key drivers of a
customer's purchasing decision is required. Understanding customer value
enables an airline to determine how much it should invest in a particular
customer. Capturing key customer needs will help an airline predict what
kind of offers a customer will respond to and how to improve the retention
of high-value customers.

1.1 Customer value: How can you establish a measurement for customer
value as a basis for service differentiation?
Understanding the value of an individual customer is essential to effec-
tively differentiate services. In addition, a meaningful value concept is the
foundation of a performance measurement system that should be linked to
any CRM initiative.

Loyalty program status represents an initial approach to modeling customer Loyalty program status is an
value – this assumes that mileage levels correlate with value. However, initial clue to customer value,
there are four key disadvantages to using loyalty program tier level as a its disadvantages need to be
proxy for value: understood, though
> Such a value concept is solely based on historical data, since loyalty
program tier levels are awarded based on past activity
> There is a focus on buying intensity (transactions per period, i.e. number
of flights) rather than the value (profitability) of transactions – mileage
bonuses for the premium cabins are just a crude proxy for the value of
an itinerary
> Using tier levels results in only a few (usually three or four) distinct
categories – this is insufficient to rank particular customers in order to
prioritize premium treatments
> The spread of values of individual members in each category, especially
the top category, is very high, which limits the opportunities for true
service differentiation
7 | CRM for airlines

A value-based segmentation reveals that there is no perfect correlation

between customer value and loyalty program status
Distribution of customers within value segments [%]

11 4 You are overinvesting

in many top-tier loyalty
52 program members!

89 96
You are under- Top-tier members
investing in 48% of the loyalty program
of your high value 48
customers! Regular members
of the loyalty program
% of total
8 51 41
customers
High value Medium value Low value
customers customers customers

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants analysis - typical airline

Our analyses have shown that loyalty program status does not adequately
predict customer value. As you can see from the chart above, many custo-
mers are not currently treated according to their value: For a typical air-
line, only 52% of its high-value customers are also top-tier members of its
loyalty program. This means that an airline is likely to underinvest in
almost half of its high-value passengers. At the same time, an airline is
likely to overinvest in a significant portion of its top-tier loyalty program
members, many of whom may actually be unprofitable and do not deserve
top-tier benefits, which are costly to provide.

A more sophisticated way to model customer value is to allocate revenues Leading-edge customer
and costs to customers. This results in an understanding of historic profita- value modeling takes
bility based on past transactions. To go even further, you need to adopt a into account a customer’s
forward-looking view by forecasting future transactions and the develop- future development
ment potential of a particular customer. This view is similar to the net potential
present value approach taken in capital budgeting problems. Modeling the
future value can be accomplished through customer lifecycle concepts, for
example. Incorporating development potential means quantifying the
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additional customer value that can be unearthed through CRM measures,

e.g. by increasing the value per transaction or by prolonging the retention
period. Development potential can for instance be modeled by creating a
factor that positively biases the overall value of young customers with a
low share of wallet (SOW, the proportion of air travel spending with your
airline) over older customers with a high SOW.

The most sophisticated way to model customer value focuses on future

transactions

Future value Models future transactions (forward-looking view) and

(net present also takes into account a customer’s "development
value) potential" that can be unearthed through CRM
Increasing
complexity
of analysis,
but increasing Allocates revenues and takes into account
Historic profitability
informative costs of past transactions, which are directly
(revenue less cost)
value influenced by the customer

Loyalty program status Is based on existing and readily

(miles) available data

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

In summary, creating a customer valuation that takes a forward-looking A forward-looking customer

view and goes beyond already existing loyalty program tier levels will value concept helps eliminate
especially accomplish two things: underinvestment and reduce
> Eliminate underinvestment: Identify and capture valuable customers overinvestment in customers
that would otherwise be overlooked (access to untapped potential)
> Reduce overinvestment: Selectively decrease the service level to top-tier
customers that do not deserve premium treatments (cost reduction)
9 | CRM for airlines

1.2 Customer needs: How do you understand key customer needs and the
drivers of purchasing decisions?
Understanding your customers also means understanding their needs.
There are two categories of needs that should be covered with separate
strategies: explicit needs and the drivers of purchasing decisions.

Needs data is derived directly from the customer or by learning from

customer behavior

Needs categories CRM action

Explicit needs "Sell"

> Method of collection: direct ("ask", > Improve response rates

e.g. customer profile on the website) through needs-based
> Examples: Seating preference, targeting of offers
hobbies and interests (e.g. golf,
personal finance)

Customer
needs data
Drivers of purchasing "Pamper"
decisions
> Select relevant treatments
> Method of collection: indirect for high value customers
("learn", e.g. response behavior)
> Examples: Price, flexibility,
comfort, brand image, loyalty
program mileage, and benefits

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

First, explicit needs are basically customer preferences, e.g. the "need" for a
window seat, a special meal, or wheelchair assistance. Such needs can be
derived from direct interaction with customers, e.g. by having them fill out
a customer profile on the airline's website. Additional explicit needs
include customer interests and hobbies which can serve as a basis for
targeting marketing offers and cross-selling.
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However, in working with customer profiles, the guiding principle should An effective customer profile
always be that recording a particular type of need can add value for the focuses on recording a few
airline. Our experience has shown that focusing on a fairly short list of explicit needs rather than
needs is more practical than aiming for an elaborate needs profile that will maintaining a long list of
never be used in its entirety. hobbies, preferences etc.

Second, the drivers of purchasing decisions can best be derived from

recorded customer behavior such as response to offers or website click-
stream data. While price is usually the dominant decision driver, other
important drivers include flexibility, comfort, mileage program benefits,
and an airline's brand image. A sophisticated needs database, for example,
will maintain a score for a customer's level of price sensitivity (e.g. based
on responses to offers) and likelihood to defect (e.g. based on service
failures).

A thorough understanding of customer needs not only enables you to

customize services, but also to enhance your marketing efficiency.
For example, you can reduce target groups for promotional mailings and
achieve a higher response rate at the same time. As a result, you can signifi-
cantly reduce the cost per response. By systematically targeting customer
groups with certain needs, a European bank increased the response rate to
its promotional mailings from an average of 2% to over 20%.
11 | CRM for airlines

2. Touchpoints: How do you build a relationship with

your customers through touchpoint interaction?

Customer contact points (touchpoints) are where the relationship between

an airline and a customer is built. Creating a strategy to deliver targeted
offers and treatments to customers through touchpoint interaction is at the
heart of any effective CRM initiative. This second chapter has three compo-
nents: touchpoint mapping, treatment definition, and a logic for delivering
treatments to touchpoints.

2.1 Touchpoint mapping: How do you structure customer contact points

along the travel chain?
The objective of touchpoint mapping is to create an exhaustive list of
customer contact points to be used as an outlet for CRM treatments. For an
airline, touchpoints can be mapped fairly easily along the typical travel
process.

The typical travel process creates many customer interactions at the touch-
points

Pre-flight Departure airport Inflight/enroute Arrival airport Post-flight

> Web-site > Check-in/priority > Onboard crew > Baggage claim > Web-site
check-in
> Call center > Inflight entertain- > Baggage service/ > Call Center
> Multi-purpose ment system lost & found
> City ticket office automat (e.g. inflight web) > Customer mailbox
> Arrival lounge
> Customer mailbox > Lounge > Transfer desk

> Sales force > Gate

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

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Note that a customer's (e-mail) inbox is also an important touchpoint,

albeit one that is not truly interactive. A key challenge is to create a reason-
ably complete list of touchpoints and visualize the different organizational
units that define the role of each touchpoint. For example, an airline's
website is an important touchpoint for CRM, as it creates a low-cost oppor-
tunity to offer personalized services. However, many airlines have not
established clear management responsibility for this touchpoint, as it is
often shared by sales, loyalty program management, and corporate
communications.

In addition to mapping all relevant touchpoints, an airline should also

develop an understanding of which touchpoints are most efficient for
rolling out CRM treatments. Key criteria in such a touchpoint prioritization
are the value added by a particular touchpoint (e.g. driven by the number
of customer interactions and the variable costs per treatment) and the fixed
costs to install treatments at this touchpoint (e.g. driven by IT development
and employee training). In our experience, the two touchpoints call center
and website are highly efficient for (CRM) treatments.

2.2 Treatment definition: How do you create an effective portfolio of CRM

treatments?
After mapping all relevant touchpoints, an airline has to define the treat-
ments it envisions as part of its CRM strategy. The basic idea of CRM is to
deliver targeted offers and personalized services to selected customers.
While an airline already offers a broad range of such "treatments" (e.g.
making advance seat reservations, selling award tickets, and issuing com-
pensation for lost or delayed baggage), many treatments can be enhanced
and/or personalized. In addition, many new dedicated CRM treatments
can be developed. For example, by proactively selling upgrades for cash,
airlines can offer a premium service to selected customers while enhancing
revenues at the same time.

One of the key challenges here is to manage complexity while first looking In the development phase,
at treatments independently of the touchpoint. For example, proactively treatment definition should
reminding selected customers of a promotional offer previously sent to take place independently of
them could be done through e-mail or a traditional mailing, but also during touchpoints
a telephone conversation with the call center or while checking in at the
lounge.
13 | CRM for airlines

2.3 "Touchpoint logic": How do you decide which treatments to offer at

which touchpoints to which customers?
Having created a mapping of touchpoints and a list of treatments, one
question remains: How do we create a rationale that links customer infor-
mation with treatments and touchpoints? There are two key components in
developing such a "Touchpoint Logic": First, selecting the touchpoints at
which to offer certain treatments. Second, defining the target groups that
will receive a particular treatment. This is the link to the customer value
methodology explained above, where you create a logic for selecting custo-
mers for treatments.

A "touchpoint logic" manages customer interaction by linking customer

information, treatments and touchpoints

"Touchpoint logic":
Which customer gets what treatment at which touchpoint?

Customer information Treatments Touchpoints

> Customer value > Mileage promotions > Call center
> Customer needs > Price offers > Website
indicators > Upgrades > Airport
> Disservice indicators > Lounge vouchers > Inflight
> Recent transactions > Loyalty program top-tier > Mailbox
> Method of payment level > ...
data > ...
> ...

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

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A state-of-the-art way of accomplishing these tasks involves three steps:

customer identification, treatment delivery, and response measurement.

> Customer identification: A customer is identified at a particular touch- A state of-the-art touchpoint
point. Example: Mrs. Jones arrives at the airport check-in desk and is process involves three steps:
identified by swiping her loyalty program card. customer identification,
treatment delivery, and
> Treatment delivery: The touchpoint system queries the centralized custo- response measurement
mer database for customer-specific information and prompts treatments
that have been queued. Example: Mrs. Jones' current flight information
is displayed to the check-in agent. Simultaneously, the check-in agent
receives a "pop-up" message to offer an upgrade to Mrs. Jones for a
reduced mileage of 15,000. This is based on the booking situation of the
flight (availability of upgrade seats), the most recent customer valuation
for Mrs. Jones and any information the airline has on Mrs. Jones' prefe-
rence for using miles instead of a cash payment, and possibly Mrs. Jones'
price sensitivity or her likelihood to defect.

> Response measurement: After acceptance of the treatment, the check-in

agent performs the transaction associated with the treatment. The
response is noted in the system, thus ensuring that the same treatment
is not offered a second time. In addition, this response provides further
clues to customer preferences, price sensitivity, and purchasing beha-
vior. Example: Mrs. Jones' acceptance of the upgrade offer is transpor-
ted back to the centralized customer database, thus deleting the queued
upgrade offer. The propensity score for Mrs. Jones to accept upgrade
offers for miles is also adjusted.

This example of a "touchpoint logic" shows how you can intelligently

manage treatments across all touchpoints and create a "learning loop", i.e.
a systematic way to record and analyze the customer's response. For exam-
ple, if a customer repeatedly declines different offers for an upgrade for
cash or miles, this particular customer could be rated with a low affinity for
the purchasing decision factor "comfort" and could be excluded from
further comfort-oriented offers. Such a "touchpoint logic" accomplishes two
things:
15 | CRM for airlines

First, it ensures that the appropriate treatments are delivered to the "right"
customers at the first possible contact. Second, it also guarantees that the
same treatment (e.g. a particular promotional offer) is triggered only once
for a particular customer.

In summary, a "touchpoint logic" clearly defines the kind of customer

relationship you wish to build through touchpoint interaction. As a next
step, we will demonstrate how to "make CRM happen" – including transla-
ting the "touchpoint logic" into a work plan for the CRM project team and
the line organization.
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3. Processes: How do you establish structures and

systems to manage the CRM process across your
organization?

In order to "make CRM happen", there are two key work flows to consider:
Treatment selection/deployment and the setup of the CRM infrastructure.

3.1 Treatment selection: How do you identify treatments that add value to
your organization through revenue enhancement or cost savings?
First, you need to look at how to select and deploy treatments. It is impor-
tant to realize that not all CRM activities are equally lucrative. Thus, under-
standing the value added of each treatment and then prioritizing which
CRM treatments to go after first is a key task in view of limited resources.
The valuation of a treatment should include such components as the expec-
ted bottom line impact, the infrastructure (notably IT) investment requi-
red, and the time to implement. The list below provides an evaluation of
typical CRM treatments and measures.

An evaluation of the "classic" areas of CRM reveals the key areas of leverage

CRM bottom Incremental IT Time to Priority

line impact requirements implement

Promotion of loyalty program membership High Low Short High

Targeted loyalty program campaign "spend" High Low to medium Short High
Targeted direct sales campaign (e.g. price) Medium to high Low Short High
Targeted loyalty program campaign "earn" Medium to high Low Short High
Campaign management/permission marketing High Medium Medium High
Upselling (upgrades) High Medium Medium High
Retention management Medium Medium Short Medium
Optimizing sales and fulfillment channels Low to medium Low Short Medium
Upselling (fare) Medium Medium Medium Medium
Cross-selling, bundling Low to medium Medium Medium Low
Proactive customer information (e.g. waitlist confirmations) Low to medium Medium Medium Low
Service recovery management Low to medium Medium to high Medium Low
Process improvements using customer profiles Low Medium Medium Low
Feedback-management Low Medium to high Medium to high Low

Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants analysis

17 | CRM for airlines

As you can see from the chart, high priority measures are centered around
improved targeting of campaigns, promotion of loyalty program member-
ship, and up-selling, notably using upgrades. It is important to understand
that the promotion of loyalty program membership should only be focused
on customers that promise to be valuable. By enrolling these customers in
the loyalty program, you make them identifiable and accessible for develop-
ment through targeted treatments, thereby increasing revenues in the
medium term.

A key conclusion from this analysis is that the prioritized activities are An effective CRM initiative
primarily aimed at revenue generation. Our research shows that the bene- focuses on generating
fits of cost reduction, albeit an integral part of any CRM initiative, are of incremental revenues
significantly lower magnitude, especially in the short term.

A plan to deploy the high priority treatments is the logical next step. In our
experience, starting with a prototype that is developed in a cross-functional
team including CRM project members and experts from the touchpoint is
most conducive to ensuring a smooth roll-out. In addition, it is essential to
clearly define process ownership across all organizational units involved.

3.2 CRM infrastructure: How do you enable the organization to carry

out CRM?
The second component of "making CRM happen" is designing and imple-
menting the CRM infrastructure. This includes two key elements: touch-
point enabling and backoffice infrastructure. This infrastructure setup will
create the foundation that CRM will "run" on. This is where IT finally
comes in.

Touchpoint enabling covers adapting front-line systems and training front-

line employees to perform CRM treatments. For example, most airlines still
run airport systems that are focused on performing typical airport transac-
tions, such as check-in or closing out a flight in the departure control
system. In order to fully benefit from CRM at the touchpoint airport, you
need additional capabilities. For example, airport systems could be enabled
to display more comprehensive customer information to speed up standard
processes or create a "pop-up" functionality to deliver treatments, such as a
customized offer for an upgrade for miles at the airport counter.
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The backoffice infrastructure represents the IT to support CRM across the A centralized customer
entire organization. The key ingredients are a centralized customer data- database is the hub for all
base and a data warehousing infrastructure. A customer database needs to customer information
include basic data (such as address and preferred method of payment),
needs (e.g. seating preference and hobbies entered into the customer
profile), and allocation to customer segments. The allocation to segments
could include additional derived parameters such as price sensitivity or
likelihood to defect.

A data warehouse should store comprehensive transaction data, e.g. from

the reservations, check-in and, loyalty program systems. It should also
collect behavioral information such as clickstream logfiles from the airline
website. Finally, the data warehouse needs to include an analysis facility to
support the customer valuation, as well as act as a basis for a performance
measurement system. Such a system enables an airline to set value-based
targets and monitor the effect of CRM activities.
19 | CRM for airlines

Summary: Creating value through a well-executed

CRM initiative

As explained above, focusing on three key ingredients – customers, touch-

points, and processes – will help an airline transform its vision of creating a
customer-centric company into a concrete strategy. By adhering to these
ingredients, airlines can introduce CRM to initiate lasting change through
redefining the customer relationship while improving the bottom line at
the same time.

In summary, there are three key imperatives for CRM success:

> Customers: Understand your customers' value and their needs

> Touchpoints: Create your "touchpoint logic", including a comprehensive
list of (CRM) treatments
> Processes: Make CRM happen by prioritizing and deploying treatments
while creating the CRM infrastructure at the same time

The message is clear: Create a CRM strategy based on a comprehensive

customer valuation, an appropriate design of treatments and a logic for
delivering treatments to touchpoints. Then, contemplate the appropriate IT
infrastructure to support this strategy.
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"CRM at Lufthansa
means enabling touchpoints to provide
differentiated treatments to our customers"

Interview with Michael Grande,

Vice President Customer Relationship Management at Lufthansa
German Airlines

What is the motivation behind Lufthansa's CRM initiative?

In essence, we view CRM as a source of sustainable competitive advan-
tage. We have recognized that the classic product offering, including net-
work, price, and service on the ground and in the air, can easily and
quickly be matched by competitors. The quality of the overall relationship,
however, cannot be copied easily. Therefore, we see our CRM initiative as
a way of improving the relationship we are forging with our most impor-
tant customers. When talking about relationship quality, though, we can-
not forget transaction quality (such as a fast and efficient booking process)
either. Our CRM initiative is therefore centered around improving both
relationship quality and transaction quality.

What drove your prioritization as you set up your CRM initiative?

A key driver for us was to enable all customer contact points to recognize
our most important customers. In addition, we felt that it was imperative
to have comprehensive customer information available at the touchpoints
to create a basis for true relationship quality. For example, we wanted to
enable agents to see the disservice history (such as lost bags, missed flight
connections) of a particular passenger. Therefore, a key driver of our CRM
initiative was to provide the right "tools" and infrastructure to the customer
contact points.

How did Lufthansa come to set up a CRM project?

Back in 1995 – long before the term CRM was coined, we had already
recognized the need to create a comprehensive customer database. This
initiative was mainly driven by our loyalty program Miles&More, and
resulted in the creation of a database marketing team. We realized, how-
ever, that executing targeted marketing campaigns is just a small part of
what is now known as CRM. Specifically, we wanted to go outside the
Sales and Marketing organization and especially get the customer touch-
points involved. Our CRM initiative is therefore aimed at working with
21 | CRM for airlines

the entire organization and helping to break down interdepartmental

barriers.

How did Roland Berger assist you in your CRM effort? Roland Berger helped Luft-
Roland Berger helped structure our approach by creating a "screenplay" for hansa develop the "functiona-
CRM at Lufthansa. Our CRM "functionality matrix" provides an exhaustive lity matrix" as a roadmap for
list of customer-driven capabilities and allocates touchpoints where these its CRM effort
capabilities should be offered. Let me give you an example: We feel that
customers should be able to ask for mileage retrocredit or register for
promotions at multiple touchpoints. So, the "functionality matrix" tells us
at which touchpoints it makes sense to perform this function. One great
benefit is that the "functionality matrix" is now the driver of IT develop-
ment. This is an essential point as we pre-empted IT projects from beco-
ming the driver of the CRM process, which I believe is the "kiss of death"
for any CRM initiative. In addition to developing the "functionality matrix",
Roland Berger assisted us in creating a multi-year work plan based on a
quantitative prioritization of CRM measures, and also helped us get organi-
zed for our CRM effort. One very valuable recommendation from Roland
Berger was to create integrated teams of CRM experts, members of the
functional areas, and IT specialists, to ensure the smooth implementation
of measures.

What are key results that you have accomplished so far?

We were already able to implement several CRM measures at customer
touchpoints. For example, selected call center agents are now able to work
with the profiles of our most valuable customers and thus proactively offer
preferred seating, special meals, etc. In addition, we have launched several
measures in the area of service recovery management, e.g. providing
proactive onboard information when connecting flights had to be rebooked
due to a delayed inbound flight.

In light of the current developments in the industry, what is the future of

CRM at Lufthansa?
We have received reassurances from our Board that CRM is a strategic
investment that is destined to help Lufthansa come out of the current
downturn as a strong player. We are confident that our CRM paradigm
based on transaction quality and relationship quality will remain valid in
the long term. Finally, we feel that this is a time to be communicating with
our important customers on a personalized basis to ensure their continuing
business – and CRM will help us do just that.
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A team with experience

With more than 30 years of comprehensive industry experience combined

with extensive CRM know-how, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants is the
intelligent choice for developing creative CRM strategies that work and
delivering return on investment. With more than 1200 consultants in 32
offices in 22 countries around the globe, we help our clients achieve a
measurable competitive advantage. Our aim is to improve our clients’
business with tailor-made solutions rather than off-the-shelf recommen-
dations. Our consultants work hand in hand with our clients to develop
innovative solutions to today’s business challenges.

Our Transportation Competence Center advises many of the world’s lea-

ding airlines, airports, railway operators, and tourism companies. We are
wideley recognised as the market leader on strategic issues such as net-
work management and alliances. Our alumni hold top positions at leading
transportation companies.

Our Marketing and Sales Competence Center has developed in-depth CRM
know-how through projects with leading global companies across indus-
tries, such as high tech, retail, banking, telecommunication and logistics
services.
23 | CRM for airlines

The authors

Michael Beckmann
Senior Consultant
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Arabellastr. 33
81925 Munich, Germany
michael_beckmann@ de.rolandberger.com
Tel. + 49-89 9230 8022

Dr. Philipp Goedeking

Partner
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Bockenheimer Landstr. 42
60323 Frankfurt, Germany
philipp_goedeking@ de.rolandberger.com
Tel. + 49-69 17003 200

Holger Sindemann
Associate Partner
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Arabellastr. 33
81925 Munich, Germany
holger_sindemann@ de.rolandberger.com
Tel. + 49- 89 9230 8347
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