Taking off customer (and employee) satisfaction by optimising refund processes

Field immersions and feedback have revealed that refund processes represent a major irritant for both contact centre teams and the airline's customers.

This observation has highlighted two key issues:

• The complexity requiring significant investment in training, knowledge maintenance, quality control, etc.
• The processing time involving multiple steps and tasks in the process, extending refund timelines.

BlueLink's approach to address these issues

A team dedicated to operational excellence

With the objectives of improving customer service efficiency and simplifying the daily tasks of customer service teams, the team relied on proven methodologies of Lean Management and Lean Six Sigma. By conducting in-depth process analyses, they identified numerous improvement opportunities. Through a collective intelligence approach, the operational excellence team designed innovative solutions: operational process redesign and digitalisation.

Operational Process Redesign

In terms of operational efficiency, process mapping and analysis identified and reduced low-value tasks and eliminated unnecessary ones. The initial results are promising: a 9% reduction in actions to be performed, better availability of advisors, and reduced customer waiting times.

Digitalisation

A custom application was created to assist advisors in handling complex requests. This innovation has made the process more reliable, reduced the error risk to almost zero, and decreased the processing time for complex refunds by 40%. This automation also eliminated the need for training and systematic checks, allowing team leaders to focus on higher value-added activities.

Benefits

With significant service improvement, reduced complexity for contact centre teams, and increased customer and employee satisfaction: this lean approach reflects a true culture of excellence that drives the teams at Transavia and BlueLink.

Results

• 0 risk of error in the complex refund process.
• 40% reduction in average processing time for complex refunds.
• 9% reduction in waiting queues.