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How Dublin Airport Uses Real-Time Feedback to Improve the Passenger Journey

“HappyOrNot changes how we focus our energies, which makes us more efficient, and ideally makes the passenger happier along the way.”

Jennifer Dandy
Performance Improvements Manager, Dublin Airport
Industry: Transportation
Area: Europe
Solution: Smiley Terminal

HappyOrNot Has Helped Dublin Airport:

Pinpoint low performing areas and make quick improvements

Ensure third-party suppliers maintain high-quality service performance

Validate the success of new projects

See a holistic view of the overall airport experience

How Dublin Airport Uses Real-Time Feedback to Improve the Passenger Journey

Dublin Airport is the 11th largest airport in the EU. It’s the only capital city in Europe that has US pre-clearance, making it a key gateway for North American traffic. With almost 200 destinations, it’s also a major hub for the UK.

Dublin Airport partnered with HappyOrNot in 2013 to better understand the passenger journey and make quick improvements to its operational processes. They initially placed eight Smiley Terminals and placed them at check-in, washrooms, security, retail, and boarding gates. Now, they have 49 Smiley Terminals spread across each point of the passenger journey, and five Smiley Touches in their lounges.

Upgrading Experience Insights To Real-Time

Previously, Dublin Airport relied on surveys to understand the passenger experience, but found they were too expensive, only based on a small number of participants, and that it took too long to put the data together.

“The surveys are really good for medium and long-term planning, but quicker results are needed for daily airport operations,” says John Seeley, Dublin Airport Technology Projects Manager.

ublin Airport uses HappyOrNot data to ensure its third-party suppliers maintain high-quality service performance.

Managing Third-party Suppliers’ Performance 

Dublin Airport uses HappyOrNot data to ensure its third-party suppliers maintain high-quality service performance.

“We use that information to inform not just our operations team, but our partners that we work with, including US pre-clearance, which is a very important area to Dublin Airport,” says Seeley.

Dublin Airport devised a daily scorecard using a point system. The analytics are shared with its suppliers daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. This way Dublin Airport operations teams, contract cleaners, US pre-clearance staff, and TSA contractors are all working together to provide the best possible experience for customers.

Dublin Airport outsources its lounge operations to a third party. Smiley Touches are used at this point of experience to collect open feedback, monitor passenger satisfaction, make quick improvements, and motivate staff.

“HappyOrNot helps us pinpoint if something went wrong, so we can go and investigate it with our service provider,” says Dublin Airport Travel Services Project Officer, Amy Pyne. “We take one unhappy customer seriously and take immediate steps to remedy. It’s a great tool for us to pinpoint exactly where customers are having good or bad experiences in the lounges.”

“We Have Confidence in this Data Because of the Large Volumes”

“We Have Confidence in this Data Because of the Large Volumes”

“We have instant access to take immediate corrective action where required and we are able to see how improvements are being received by passengers. We have confidence in this data because of the large volumes of responses we have not just on a daily basis but also on an hourly basis,” says Seeley. “It’s simple information, and that consistency over time has helped us a lot in understanding that journey.”

Dublin Airport also uses these real-time analytics to qualify data from its surveys and NET Promoter Scores. With real-time passenger feedback, Dublin Airport has gained more awareness of the overall passenger journey and it is better equipped to prioritize improvement actions.

“The top benefit is getting a gauge of how your passengers are feeling as they move through the facility. And it’s adding that human touch,” says Jennifer Dandy, Dublin Airport Performance Improvements Manager.

HappyOrNot Complements Dublin Airport’s Robust Data System

Dublin Airport integrates HappyOrNot data into its BI platform, using it in tandem with its other operational data. This way, it gains a deeper insight into passenger responses and can see a holistic view of the overall airport experience.

“When you layer the HappyOrNot scores along with the other data, it gives a really nice overview of not only how long processes are taking, but also how passengers feel about it,” Dandy says.

These scores are included in a monthly operations report sent to Dublin Airport’s Chief Executive. In the report, they highlight areas that have improved and outline the action plans to improve lower scores.

Since Dublin Airport has been using HappyOrNot for several years, it can now look at the data year on year to monitor changes with passenger happiness.

Jennifer Dandy, Performance Improvements Manager at Dublin Airport

About Dublin Airport

Owned and managed by daa, Dublin Airport is the 11th largest airport in the EU. More than 400 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport since its opening day on January 19th, 1940. Dublin Airport now sees up to 740 aircraft movements a day, with flights to 42 countries on four continents.

All roles within Dublin Airport take pride in doing their job to the highest standard and creating an exceptional environment for their passengers and for each other. To learn more, visit www.dublinairport.com.

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