Research Background
As technology progresses and provides convenience to many of us, many businesses are riding on the bandwagon of it, turning to e-Commerce for money-making opportunities. Out of the endless amount of businesses set up on the world wide web, we're looking into the nature and operations of Tiger Airways, in particular for its additional Travel Services, taking the role of an e-commerce transaction broker for many other additional services, which includes hotel services, travel insurance, budget accommodation and car rental services around the world.
Introduction to TigerAirways.com
Established in 2004 with merely 1 aircraft base, 2 aircraft in its fleet and 3 routes in its network, TigerAirways has successfully built itself over a 4 years span, extending its operation to 3 bases (namely in Singapore, Melbourne and Adelaide), more than 50 aircrafts, traveling more than 25 destinations across 9 countries, as well as the inclusion of additional value-added services on top of its flight operations and managements. It operates mainly from its website, which covers 3 common spoken language, mainly English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia, and is categorized according to 10 different countries in Asia. Its primary and main business is the provision of air flight services to its customers at the lowest possible cost. It also plays a secondary role, acting as an intermediary between Hotels, Car Rental Companies and Insurance to provide a full range of services for an easy planned trip overseas.
Purpose
TigerAirways consistently strives to offer passengers the lowest airfares on safe and convenient point-to-point air travel thus its business concept relies very much on its website and several telephone supports in various selected countries, since there's no contemporary brick and mortar store for the delivery of the final goods. Its website serves the purpose of B2C (Business to Consumer) and even B2B (Business to Business) interactions between the business and its potentials, providing customers a one-stop service for an overseas trip plan. Thus it is essential that it provides customers with an ease of viewing and access of all the services it covers, from its primary services of booking, checking, paying and even enquiring of flight details, all the way to its secondary role of serving the customers to the end, by playing the role as an agent and comprising the rest of other basic travel needs like accommodation, travel insurance and transportations in its one stop service.
Through this, customers have the benefit of accessing and "buying their goods" at once, as and when they like, anytime and at anywhere around the world. This not only enables TigerAirways to establish itself borderless-ly, but also reduces the costs of processing, allowing it to meet its mission of providing the lowest airfares to its passengers.
Features
Apart from its air flight services, our focus here is on TigerAirways as it takes the role of an intermediary/transaction broker, transacting on behalf of the hotels/car rental companies/insurance companies with the customers. It facilitates as a convenient point whereby both the business (hotels/car rental companies/insurance companies) and consumer benefit at point of transaction.
Designs
TigerAirways adopted an orange/white colour scheme for its website design, which matches the colours of its company logo. The neat layout with proper classifications and categorizations are commendable, simple navigations can be done around the pages and information can be obtained at ease.
Security/Privacy
TigerAirway's series of privacy policies are supported by Verisign. As transacting online (with regards to traveling matters) encompasses a mass load of sensitive personal data disclosure, securing these private datas are extremely crucial. TigerAirways.com adopts VeriSign SSL Certificate to safeguard and encrpyt information provided before transmission.
On top of that, to enhance safety in online transactions for credit card holders, TigerAirways engaged Verified by Visa (VbV) and MasterCard SecureCode (MCSC) to ensure that credit card frauds on its site is kept at minimal.
Strength
Supported with a mere virtual concept, TigerAirways strives to bring convenience and ease to its customers. It practices constant updates of flight details and information on its site. To keep up with its competitors, they have to constantly come up with new promotions and lower rates to stay aggressive and attract customers. Despite an intermediary, TigerAirways manages to collaborate with selective hotels across the borders to come out with new promotions every now and then, from time to time. Information provided on the hotels are moderately detailed, with pictures of the hotel rooms and facilities to enhance visions and provide a gauge for the customers' expectations. Hotelbookings.TigerAirways.com allows customers to sort the various hotels according to their concerns - price, top picks, ratings and district area, allowing search and selection-making very precise and straightforward. Traveler reviews can be shared and found at each click on a hotel selection, and comparisons between hotels can be easily done up by clicking the "Compare" button, thus unfamiliarity and fuss in decision-makings is discarded. On top of that, TigerAirways is attentive enough to provide the Currency Converter function for its users from different countries.
Weaknesses
TigerAirways does not have an upfront counter for its after-sales support. Similar to its business concept, it relies heavily on networking and technology, setting up 10 local travel agent hotlines in various locations to handle all matters with regards to their business; clearing doubts and queries of customers, handling of complaints, cancellations and amendments services... The weakness in this system is that customers could only rely on emails and phone calls to reach out to TigerAirways, and very often, according to the feedbacks received, the delay in getting a response is rather unbearable.
Customers find it frustrating having to hog on the phone and wait for too long to get their message across, or worst still, they could not get through the lines at all. Although FAQs were provided on the site itself, we strongly believe that there's still room for improvements. After-sale support and speed of delivery is essential for the service line businesses afterall. To add on, it would be ideal if the telephone hotlines are as accessible as its website - 24/7 and the customer service could be as instant as booking an airticket online.
Other than the support services, the booking of airtickets on the site itself often raises undeniable doubts. Some details provided were not comprehensive enough. For instance, there will be multiple miscellaneous charges added to the price stated on its site, causing a huge discrepancy between the price stated and the final price. This might pose the site as an unreliable source and sometimes, regarded as a mislead to many. TigerAirways should list out all explanations for the various termed "miscellaneous" charges so that customers are aware of what they're paying for.
The last point would be that of flight timings. TigerAirways is known to have the right to make amendments to the flight schedules should they deem necessary. As a result, flight timings were often terribly delayed or even canceled given certain circumstances. This is where customers dissatisfaction arises again. TigerAirways should refrain from doing so as different arrangements would have to be made by the customers (if any), and that would sometimes be impossible given the last minute notice by TigerAirways themselves.
The above three points somewhat made up the fundamental basis of a good customer service, thus TigerAirways should seek ways to improvise them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we believed TigerAirways has done relatively well in customer acquisition through its convenience and low cost airfares. However, there are still rooms for improvements with regards to customer retention through an even more comprehensive set of excellent customer services. With the vast technology advancement every now and then, TigerAirways have to constantly prepare themselves for major changes in the operations of the business.
