Due to my recent flight Warsaw (Poland) to Liverpool (United Kingdom) and back, for the Manchester United game, I decided to look into the WizzAir sales approach during the flight.
Flight situation:
Plane filled with Customers - they have already managed to sell to roughly 180 people (via website, partnerships etc.)
Challenge:
Sell more to your customers.
Resources:
- Time: Flight time is about 2h15 minutes - so with all the health&safety procedures - about 100 minutes for selling
- Sales people - 4 flight attendants
- Customer base: 180 people (already your customers!)
My observation:
- People buy less and less during flight
- Prizes are extremely high (I wonder if the calculations showed that it's better to sell less but for higher price?)
- Products are not attractive (see my new ideas below)
- Products are outdated - I was offered "lemon grass perfume" - why on earth I would but a perfume during the flight? There is no "duty free" any longer, so it's not cheaper than I could find on Internet, plus there is environment to "try it on"
My ideas of what to sell during the flight:
- Travel guides and maps of the cities where from and to we are flying (if you offer some of the good value people would buy - maybe wizzair own travel guide?)
- Souvenirs of destinations we are flying from and to (I'd love to buy a Manchester United gadget for my son if there was any good on offer)
- Bus/train deals to "next to cities" (I was flying to Liverpool but then had to catch a bus to Manchester using Terravision - there was an offer I was using for some time - wonder why it was gone this time)
- Rental car services promotions - why don't partner with Hertz/Europcar etc. and offer special bonus/promotion
- WizzAir Club - there is plenty on offer in WizzAir Club - why not offer special prizing for your customers, or explain them what benefits do they get?
- Alcohol - but regional alcohol, not the one "I can buy in any supermarket" (as Jamie Oliver would say), but the regional alcohol - if WizzAir would promote Scotch/Welsh whiskey/rum or British beer (Pale Ale, Lagers) I'd love to buy a pack for my dad from UK (instead of buying at the duty not free shop), on the way back from Poland, the visitors also could purchase Polish vodka and beer (each country has it's own best specials), however these should be promoted in a special way and packaged in a gift boxes (mixes, blends, glass extra etc.)
- WiFi access (if possible technically)
- Travel gadgets - but promoted straight from the beginning (travel pillow, blanket, ear plugs etc.)
- Ebooks, audiobooks, music, movies - I bet WizzAir could manage a partner who would provide devices that could handle exchanging files easily and fast to any customer device (tablet, smartphone, laptop) via usb/wireless transfer - blutooth etc.
- Gift cards - ie. 10p euros of flight reservation or to spend on inflight merchendise
- Inflight game with prizes - ie. bingo (silent version), lottery
I understand:
- technical challenges of some of the ideas, but seem worth calculatign
- that passengers are used to come and sleep during the flight (at least I am the one), but I've been on Spanish flights which look like a huge family party with people walking, talking, singing
- logistics difficulties
However, I am in favor of up and cross sales - especially when you have your own customers in one place for significant time.
Customer community
On the other hand, Wizz Air may want to build a community around the brand - and that's also a great opportunity. Maybe make draw between passengers for Wizz Air Discount Card (and have opportunity to promote it) or some branded gadgets (bear or plane toy). Some of the things mentioned in catalog/magazine look better alive.
Summary
I do not see Wizz Air flight attendants as confident sales people - their highest priority is our health&safety (which is great), but then there is only sales activities they can actually perform during the flight. But they do not have great products and services in offer, and they feel it - that's why I encourage Wizz Air to reconsider their offer and sales approach. As sales person to sales person...
