Astute Solutions Bolsters British Airways'
Customer Service Proposition
Company Announces Success of Integrated Passenger Compensation Solution
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 28, 2006 - Leading the charge to help consumer based
companies differentiate through service excellence, Astute Solutions today announced the success of its
customer compensation service solution implemented for British Airways (BA), the United Kingdom’s largest
international scheduled airline.
Astute was the logical choice to help BA roll out advanced passenger compensation capabilities
to its 145 airport locations. The implementation of Astute’s ePowerCenter™ in 2004 integrated BA’s 29 global
customer relations centers on a single-system platform, providing contact center agents and employees, worldwide,
with immediate visibility into consumer interactions. Astute developed a compensation solution to integrate with
the ePowerCenter platform, further enhancing BA’s consumer service responsiveness to include rapidly compensating
passengers if the need arises – whether it is through a representative on the phone, or an agent at the gate.
"At British Airways, continually improving our ability to measure and act upon what our
customers are saying is a top priority. We were confident that Astute could help us develop and integrate a
world-class compensation solution. And they did," said British Airways Global Customer Relations Manager,
Richard Stabbins.
BA identified the need to improve its customer compensation procedures, so it put forward
a request to Astute to develop a solution. Astute developed an integrated compensation card solution
capable of being issued from ePowerCenter, BAs global service recovery system.
To arrive at the optimal solution, Astute partnered with global leaders in the card services,
currency exchange and travel money services industries to create an integrated compensation platform. Based upon
three core currencies—pounds, U.S. dollars and euro—this platform enables card activation and fund loading in real time.
When there is a need to issue compensation, a BA representative simply activates the card, which simultaneously
creates a record of the transaction in the service recovery system. From there, they are able to give the compensation
card to the customer over the counter. The card is ready to use at thousands of ATM or Point of Sale (POS) locations
worldwide.
"Customer satisfaction is a key priority for British Airways," said Stabbins. "Our objective
is to avoid service disruption, but when it is unavoidable, our state-of-the-art compensation solution allows
us to offset the impact to the customer for a service disruption."
A major advantage of Astute’s solution is that it provides BA with a comprehensive record of any
compensation claim. Once unattainable, this information is easily viewed within a case record or through a
variety of detailed card activity reports. An added benefit is that BA can now avoid duplicating compensation.
"At Astute Solutions, we focus on delivering consumer-centric solutions," said Astute President
and CEO, Joseph Sanda. "British Airways is continually raising the bar on service for the airline industry through
its responsiveness. And our work with them is all about supporting those exceptional service standards."
About British Airways
British Airways is one of the world’s longest established airlines and has always been regarded as an industry-leader.
Last year, more than 36 million people chose to fly with the airline. British Airways’ worldwide route network covers
some 216 destinations in 94 countries with a fleet of 294 aircraft. The group employs more than 46,000 people in
around 100 countries worldwide. British Airways is one of the founding partners of the oneworld alliance. The company
has turnover of £7.6 billion.
About Astute Solutions
Through its consumer interaction and case management solutions, Astute enables consumer-focused companies
to differentiate through service excellence. Its award-winning PowerCenter™ product family is the number
one user-endorsed solution for optimizing operations through immediate, actionable feedback to better address
the consumer need for more personalized experiences. Engineered to solve day-to-day consumer interaction challenges,
while meeting the complex technical requirements of the enterprise, PowerCenter™ integrates best-of-breed consumer
contact center software with advanced telephony offerings. The choice of leading Global 1000 companies, Astute’s
customers include McDonald’s, British Airways, Levi Strauss & Co., L’Oreal USA, Scott’s, GlaxoSmithKline, Neutrogena,
Abbott Labs, Dunkin’ Brands, and Sara Lee Branded Apparel. For further details, visit
www.astutesolutions.com
or call (877) 769-3750. Astute Solutions’ London office is located at 450 Bath Road, Longford, Heathrow UB7 0EB.
The main phone number is +44 (0) 208757 5938.
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