We are living in an age where service has become the cornerstone of our day-to-day lives. While we run a mad race of competition, trying to outdo our counterparts, time is a binding constraint. In our contest with the clock, while upholding all personal and professional commitments, improved service received from others comes in as a relief. It is on the basis of this new-found importance of service that the service industry and service-providers are thriving in present times. Every service-provider is engaged in a competition to capture the market with a qualitatively better portfolio of service offerings.
Airline operators are major players in the service industry. Airline service-providers today are aware that they cannot target the entire market, because there are differences in the tastes and preferences among the prospective customers. Thus, it becomes imperative for airline operators to gauge the needs and expectations of various categories of customers and cater to specific segments in a strategic manner.
The need for customizing services according to customer needs came into focus with the liberalization of the airline industry across the world, leading to a multitude of operators on each route. Over the years, the market has become highly-competitive and the airlines have resorted to various means for capturing and retaining their market share. To achieve better results and to specifically focus on customer needs, the industry has broadly segmented the air travelers into `business travelers' and `leisure travelers'. |
