The effects of self-service on senior passenger’s customer satisfaction in Helsinki Airport
Janni Alapartanen Tessa Huhtamäki
Bachelor’s Thesis Degree Programme in Hospitality, Tourism and Experience Management 2019
Abstract
26.11.2019
Author(s) Janni Alapartanen Tessa Huhtamäki Degree programme Hospitality, Tourism & Experience Management Report/thesis title Number of pages The effects of self-service on senior passenger’s customer and appendix pages satisfaction in Helsinki Airport 44 + 4
This research was done in Helsinki Airport and the target research population was senior passengers. The aim of this research was to find out how does self-service effect on senior passengers’ customer satisfaction and how the experience could be improved to motivate this customer group to use them more. This topic was chosen, because the authors would like to work in product and customer experience development positions in the future, and they wanted to understand customers’ needs and opinions towards self- service better. In order to find the answer to the research questions, a survey was performed in a quantitative method at the airport and target passengers were surveyed in time period of three days. The passengers were able to answer satisfactory questions and give improvement ideas on the machines. The results were surprisingly good. Majority of the seniors surveyed were fairly happy with the self-service machines however, they would still prefer personal service instead. The generation is used to getting personal service from a human being and appreciates that more than a machine. Some, however, would prefer self-service and found the positive factors about them, such how it fastens the process and reduces time used in queuing. To improve the self-service experience, airlines should make them simpler and more logical. The scanners should be higher quality, so they would scan the passports and ID’s quicker and easier. There should also be more guides available to help the passengers, not only during rush hours. This paper found answers to the research questions and the authors were happy to learn about senior passengers and how important it is to understand and hear customers opinions. Keywords customer satisfaction / self-service / senior citizens / survey
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Demarcation of the topic 2 1.2 Benefits of the research 3
2 Self-service ...... 4 2.1 Definition and history of self-service 4 2.2 The effects on companies and customers 5 2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages 7 2.4 Self-service in Airports 8 2.5 Future of digitalization 9 2.6 Helsinki Airport 10
3 Silver Tourism ...... 13 3.1 Description of Seniors 13 3.2 Senior travellers 14
4 Customer Satisfaction ...... 18 4.1 Customer service 19 4.2 How to Measure Customer Satisfaction 20 4.3 Customer Satisfaction in Airports 21
5 Research results and methodology ...... 23 5.1 Quantitative method and survey 23 5.2 Data collection process 25 5.2.1 Limitations and risks...... 27 5.2.2 Analysis process ...... 28
5.3 Results 28 5.3.1 Customer information ...... 29 5.3.2 Customer satisfaction ...... 32
6 Discussion ...... 37 6.1 Analysis and findings 37 6.2 Improvement suggestions 39 6.3 Conclusion and further development 40 6.4 Trustworthiness and ethical issues of results 41
6.5 Evaluation of the thesis process and one’s own learning 42
7 References ...... 44
8 Appendices ...... 51
1. Introduction
The aim of this thesis was to find out how satisfied airport passengers were in using self- service machines. The main purpose of this paper was to find out the problems that especially senior passengers face when they have to check-in with self-service kiosks and how airlines could improve their services to make customer experience better. Authors also wanted to know how motivated senior passengers are in using self-service. Would they use it if they didn’t have to, or do they prefer personal service more? This paper will try to find answer to the research questions; Does self-service effect on seniors’ customer satisfaction in airports?
The research was carried out in Helsinki airport, in Finland. To achieve their objective and find answers to the research questions, authors decided to use a survey as their research tool and aim was to collect minimum 100 respondents in three days. The target group was narrowed to senior passengers, because their generation might not be as familiar with technology as millennials.
The theoretical part will explain the concepts of self-service, senior passengers, customer satisfaction as well as the methodology of survey in great detail. The purpose of theoretical part is to give information about the concepts and previous studies and research done around those. Research results part will contain the results and findings that were gathered from the survey, with statistical figures. Discussion part will analyse the results and whether this paper found answers to the research questions. It also includes trustworthiness of the results, conclusions and learning outcomes.
The key concepts in this research are completely related to the research questions. The first concept is self-service in chapter 2, which is the main problem and matter that this paper will try to develop, from the results gathered from participants. Digitalization is growing rapidly, and a lot of everyday services have started to provide their customers with different self-service options to choose from. Nowadays you can pay your groceries by using a self-service machine or buy a train ticket in a few seconds through an app on
1 your phone. The growth of digitalization can also be seen at most airports around the world – most airlines have switched to self-service kiosks and bag-drop machines in order to speed up the check-in process at the airport. Nowadays it's possible for travellers to check-in through their mobile devices or computers before even coming to the airport. It can be very efficient and easy, and in most cases also a cheaper option for the company. However, passengers who don’t travel often or are not skilled using technology devices, can find self-service stressful which can ultimately affect customer satisfaction. People also might not be educated about the reasons behind why companies have switched to self-service and the benefits of it, and because of that they may find it confusing and angering.
Age group which might find self-service problematic is senior passengers, and this paper will discuss them as a second key concept in chapter 3. There are multiple definitions about how old seniors are, some saying that it would be people 65+ or even 70+ years old. The authors decided that this paper will research passenger over 55-years old, in order to find enough respondents and gather enough data. Senior passengers usually have more money and time to travel, and they should be viewed as an important customer group. Senior tourism is expected to grow, so the services and products should be designed to be suitable for them who has a disability or are not as familiar with technology. These are the two main concepts of this research which will be discussed and analysed further and in more detail throughout the whole paper.
1.1 Demarcation of the topic
Authors of this research were studying the same degree; Hospitality, Tourism and Experience Management in Haaga-Helia. They were also working together in Helsinki- Airport during summer 2019 and found common interests towards thesis topics and decided to work on it together. Whilst working at the airport, they both noticed that passengers were frustrated and stressed when using the self-service machines and wanted to research the problem further. This topic is very interesting to the authors, because they are both interested in digitalization and they would both want to work in the airline industry and product development positions in the future.
When forming the thesis topic, it was clear to the authors that it should be related to the airport and to self-service functions. They had an idea to compare different age groups between 18 to 70-year olds opinions towards the self-service in airports. Later, the topic had to be narrowed down further, and the target group shaped into senior passengers from age 55 to over 70-year olds. The topic was narrowed down, because broader age
2 group would need a bigger sample size in order for this research to be trustworthy. The target destination was narrowed to Helsinki-Airport, because the research was done in Helsinki, and they could not generalize the results to all airports in the world.
Self-service functions needed to be explained even more precisely, to include only the check-in kiosks, where customers do their check-ins, print their boarding passes and bag tags, instead of all the self-service facilities at the airport. Passenger can’t be asked about all self-service functions in the airport, because they might feel differently about different devices. When doing a research by using a survey, the topic and questions had to be very specific, so the results are trustworthy and not generalized.
1.2 Benefits of the research
This research is beneficial for airports and airlines, because it will help them to understand how customers really feels about self-service and gives them suggestions how they could improve the customer satisfaction and their service experience.
When companies are asking feedback and reviews via online, the passengers can sometimes be shy to tell their honest opinions or will only give bad reviews. The authors encouraged people to give their honest feedback the good and the bad, and asked for concrete improvement ideas, which would be very beneficial for companies to know, what they are doing right and what areas they need to develop their products in.
It is also very useful for us students, who are the employees of the future and possibly in service-development positions. It is important to understand customers opinions and motivation towards these services so we can develop the customer experience and future products to be quicker, easier and more user-friendly.
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2. Self-service
Digitalisation is growing rapidly, and services are changing into more electronic form. In airports, most airlines have given up on service desks, and relocated check-in functions to do with mobile phone applications or self-service kiosks. This chapter will explain the reasons behind growing self-service, the advantages and disadvantages it has to companies and customers and what is the future of digitalization.
2.1 Definition and history of self-service
Self-service is technology functions either online or in the form of kiosks and gates. They are used in e.g. restaurants, airports, health-centres and shops. Self-service means that customers must serve themselves, e.g. in purchasing, ordering items or check-in without customer servant doing it for them. (Cambridge University Dictionary) Self-service can also be smaller activities that person might not even realize it’s self- service. Self-service can be defined as performing tasks such paying bills in your online bank account without the help of employee. (Shaham, 2019)
The term “self-service” goes all the way back to 1917, when the first self-serving shop was opened. This meant that customers were collecting items themselves and took them to the cashier. Before this concept, shop assistants were collecting items for customers. Behind this idea was a man called Clarence Saunders, who made a patent from his innovation. (Salesforce.com)
Technically, self-service begun already in 1833, when Percival Everitt created first vending machines that were selling mainly postcards and few years later in U.S, vending machines started selling chewing gum. Decades after vending machines grew popularity and range of items e.g. milk and even nylon tights. In 1960s, John Roscoe invented first self-service gas station, where customers would have to fuel their cars themselves. The first retail self-service check-out was created by doctor called Howard Schneider in 1992 and after that it started to grow quickly in Northern America and since then in global scale. In the 2000s, airports started to use self-service kiosks to reduce queuing times and employee costs, that were caused by the changed security regulations after 9/11. Airline industry started the phenomenon and self-service functions began to grow to retail and hospitality sectors. (QikServe, 2018.)
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Nowadays, self-service functions are getting more common in restaurants, hotels and even in medical centres. You can for example order your food from self-service kiosk in McDonalds and many hotels has self-service check-in instead of regular reception. You can make a doctor’s appointments online, and check-in with your ID when you arrive to the health centre. There’s no need for a receptionist when checking in or paying for the doctor’s appointment, when most of the time the bills arrives in mail. Customers can also manage their businesses online from home e.g. banking, insurances and other subscriptions. (Jäske, 2019.)
2.2 The effects on companies and customers
So why are companies changing customer service more towards self-service? Companies are developing their services to self-service, to save money. Reducing the amount of staff, saves money from recruiting processes, trainings and paying wages. Companies also wants to make the services as fast and easy as possible for customers, which increases their sales. (Kangas & Suomi, 2019.) When having e.g. multiple kiosks, with fast and easy technology, companies can serve more people in less amount of time. Customers are also able to see more products, and tools that they probably wouldn’t consider buying at normal cashier, which will again increase sales. Long queues are a risk for companies in losing customers, since many people are in hurry, and seeing a long queue can have an effect on their purchasing decision. (Ixtenso, 2019.)
Self-service is a big trend in digitality especially amongst millennials and they are expecting self-service options from companies. Millennials are generation born in the early 80s to mid-90s. Millennials have lived through the biggest changes in technology and digitality and are known for being a skilled generation with technology. In the era of technology and fast services, customers, such millennials, are getting used to having everything right here right now, so a lot of customers would rather do it themselves than waste time queuing and waiting for someone else to do it. (Ixtenso, 2019.)
Self-service can make customer experience better. Even though employees have been trained, everyone has bad days. Employees working environment can be very busy and they often have to work under a lot of pressure, e.g. airport workers. That is when mistakes could happen, or things builds up and the frustration puts them on a bad mood. When employee can’t serve a customer fast enough and with the best quality as possible, that of course effects on customer satisfaction. Self-service can make customer’s experience better, because they get to be in charge and don’t have to receive poor
5 service. In order to this to work, self-service functions e.g. kiosks must work efficiently and be simple for customers to be satisfied in using them.
Some customers would rather use self-service functions than customer service counters, but a lot of people are also very hesitant and even scared to use technology and machines. Collier and Kimes researched (Collier & Kimes, 2015) how customer’s views self-service and found that customers are afraid to do something wrong and it would be important to have employee there to help in case they need it. Especially when a customer is in a rush, it can be very stressful and frustrating to start learning how to use a new piece of technology. To have an employee’s support makes them feel more confident.
The future of traditional customer service is hard to predict. A lot of people fear that automation will take people’s jobs e.g. in retail. People also feel like that they now have to work for companies and for free, when using the self-service machines. (Harris, 2019) In recent study from last year, CivicScience did (Commisso, 2018) a research about different age groups and which one would they prefer to use; cashier or self-check-in. They found out that from customers 55+, 75% of them would prefer regular customer service. From age group 35-54 years old, 55% would prefer cashiers. Age group 18-34 had more even answers. Majority would rather prefer self-service with percentage of 46%, when votes for cashier got 39%. This age group had the highest percentage for option “no preference”. Millennials are more comfortable in using technology and self-service and sees the advantages of using them. (Commisso, 2018.) But, as shown in this study they are quite happy to use either one. It’s not surprising that senior age group is the least excited to use self-service. They appreciate personal service from a human being and are not as familiar with technology as younger generation.
Personal customer service won’t disappear completely because there are always people who wants personal service, needs help or can’t use internet because of disability or lack of skills. (Jäske, 2019.) Jobs will change though. For example, airport employees such as service agents are not behind the check-in counters anymore but are now in guiding tasks, helping customers with the self-service machines. The tasks will be broader and can change more often during the day depending on volume and need around the airport. Employees will have more skills, when job tasks will be more variable.
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2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages
This chapter will conclude the advantages and disadvantages of using self-service. There are a lot of advantages of self-service. As mentioned before, using self-service is cheaper for companies and customers. Companies don’t have to hire as many employees to guide with the machines as they would have to have behind counters. One employee can guide multiple people at the same time. This can show in the prices of the services. Customers pays less money, because the price won’t include service charges. Having self-service options will attract more customers and increase sales. If self-service is made simple and efficient, it will make customer’s service experience a lot faster, which increases customer’s satisfaction. (Kokemuller, 2017.)
E-gates makes boarding and security control a lot faster, when officers don’t have to check each boarding pass and passport one by one. This way they can focus and put that time into more important tasks, like safety and security matters.
There are also few disadvantages of self-service. Even though self-service can make customer experience better, people are all different individuals and for some it can make their experience to the worse. Some customers want the personal interaction with someone and have a conversation. A good customer servant can also change customers day to the better. Machines can’t smile or be empathic towards customers and those things are an important part of customer service. (Pratt, 2013). Self-service makes it difficult for companies to create personalized and special customer experiences. Customer servant can wow with their good service, special treatment or with great problem solving and so make the customer feel special and important. Some selfservice machines could be personalized, but it can’t really be done for e.g. airport check-in kiosks. (Hyppönen, 2014.)
As mentioned earlier everyone is different and there should always be possibility for personal service for people who needs it. Even though self-service has been around for a while, there are people who has never used them before. A lot of people like senior customers finds them extremely difficult and stressful to use. (Hyppönen, 2014.) Another problem especially senior generation might have, is the language barrier. Some airlines do not have their check-in kiosks e.g. in Finnish, and seniors often don’t speak any English.
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There are some security risks with self-service as well. Having machines so closely next to each other, other people can easily see the private details of the person, e.g. name, flight number, destination and frequent flyer numbers. Many occasions, the authors have witnessed that passengers often accidently leave their boarding passes or bag tags to the machine, for anyone to take. This can lead to someone using the information wrongly, and e.g. go on a flight with someone else’s boarding pass, because passengers don’t have to show their passports on every flight. Or even worse, use the bag tag that was left, to check-in a random luggage in someone else’s name.
2.4 Self-service in Airports
There are multiple self-service functions in airports. The first can be found from departure halls. Many airports offer self-service check-in kiosks instead of regular service counters, to speed the check-in process. Passenger is able to check-in with multiple ways e.g. with a passport, booking reference or bar code. With self-service kiosks, passengers are able to do their check-in, change seats and print boarding passes and bag tags. In Helsinki Airport, Finavia provides the self-service kiosks and different airlines have their own check-in applications in them. (Finavia, 2016) Nowadays a lot of airlines such Finnair are going more and more towards only offering self-service check-ins and letting people to the special assistance counters in special situations. Before, passenger could have an option to either use the counter with personnel or use the kiosks, but now airlines wants to encourage passengers to use the self-service.
A lot of airlines have also started using only self-service bag drops. Bag drops are easier and simpler to use than kiosks, because at this point passenger should’ve already printed out all their documents. Passenger can simply place their luggage to the belt, scan the bag tag and it will be sent away. Self-service bag drops are getting more common in airports, to make passengers check-in processes smoother. It would be frustrating for passengers to queue up to a counter to only leave their luggage, after already checking-in beforehand. (Colby, 2019.)
There are few other digital functions in airports. Most of the gates in Helsinki airport have e-boarding gates, which makes gate agents job easier and faster, since they do not have to scan every passenger’s boarding passes individually. Now passengers can scan their boarding passes themselves and go through the e-gate. However, there is still always 1-3 gate agents to board the plane and making sure everything runs smoothly. They do still
8 board e.g. families with small children, passengers who sit in exit rows and passengers who need special assistance. There are also e-gates when passenger enters security control. (Finavia, 2016) Another self-service function at the airport is automated border control. Passengers with e-passports can enter these machines, however there are some country specific regulations. Passengers needs to scan their passports again, and then look at the screen which will try to match passengers face to the passport picture. (Finavia, 2019.)
2.5 Future of digitalization
It’s important for people to familiarize themselves to technology and not be scared of it, because it will grow each year and there will be more self-service functions everywhere. It’s inevitable that there will be less personal customer service, because in the future robots may take over some service jobs. For example, in 2018, student called Henry Hu, invented a robot who makes a cup of coffee in 30 seconds, because he was fed up queuing in a coffee shop. Customers can order from multiple options at the kiosk or through an app, and a robot barista will make them a coffee of their choice. This innovation would help reducing queuing times and stress of the passengers. (Hochman, 2018). Perhaps, the future café’s and other services in airports will be like this. Airports have big opportunities to change with automation, artificial intelligent and better use of data (Norman, 2019). Growing air travelling and security issues, are causing massive queues which are challenging for airports to handle. Airports such as London Heathrow in the UK, are trying to come up with security checks that can spot liquids and electronic devices, such lithium batteries, inside the bags. This innovation would help reducing the queuing times when passengers won’t have to take items out of their bags each time. (Berti, 2019.)
Another invention called Amazon Go was established in 2018 by the online company Amazon. It’s a store, where customers can shop without paying in any check-out counter or to a cashier. Customers can simply leave with their items and payment is done by their Amazon Go account. The idea of Amazon Go is to make shopping even faster and no time is wasted on purchasing process. When entering the store, customers and products are tracked by cameras and sensors which will identify what customers have picked up and are then charged without customers doing anything themselves. These types of smart stores could be the future and with self-driven cars and now Amazon Go, future looks easy and even faster for customers. (Miller, 2017.)
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Artificial intelligence is getting even smarter. For example, chatbots that have been booming for a couple of years, are getting more intelligent, providing more natural and better customer experience. Augmented reality will get even more real. In the future it’s possible to test and see how a wall colour could fit a room by using a mobile phone that will superimpose the wanted colour to the wall. (Williams, 2019.)
2.6 Helsinki Airport
In the past couple years Helsinki Airport has become a lot busier than before. There has been a massive growth in number of travellers, and new flight and destinations of airlines. For example, in 2018 Finnair opened new routes to Nanjing, increased their weekly flights to China and USA, and in 2019-2020 they opened and will be opening new routes to Los Angeles, Busan, Sapporo and some new destinations in Europe. In fact, Finnair’s strategy is to grow by offering customers short connection times to their Asian destinations, and this is possible because Helsinki is geographically well situated when travelling between Europe and Asia. (Finnair, 2019). These changes have resulted in growth in transfer connections and, of course passenger numbers and flights. In 2017 there where nearly 19 million passengers in Helsinki Airport which is more than ever before. (Lentoposti, 2017).
Helsinki Airport has been under construction since 2014. The airport and its services will be expanding, and the airport will be growing to serve its increasing customer numbers. It is expected to be ready in 2022. (Finavia, 2019). Even though the airport has been under construction the customers have been happy with their travel experiences, and the customer satisfaction has increased compared to previous years, and in 2017 it was the highest. The building of the airport is done by putting its customers as a priority by thinking about their safety and satisfactions. Finavia tries their best to minimize the effects of the reconstruction with careful planning. And airlines, like Finnair for example, has recruited more staff in order to provide better customer experiences for their customers. (Lentoposti, 2017). Once the airport gets bigger and there are more people it can be harder to give excellent customer service to every individual, meaning there is a possibility that the customer satisfaction of the airport might drop. (Finavia, 2019).
In spring 2019 Finnair changed their check-in system completely by only providing customers with the self-service check-in and bag-drop option. The traditional desks are now only for customers with special needs or direct USA flights, or if for some reason it didn’t work with the self-service machines. Traveling, and especially flying for many can be very exciting, but also scary. Busy airports, short connection times, long walking
10 distances etc. on top of the digital machines can make traveling very hectic and stressful, which for the elderly can be a lot to deal with. Most airlines and airports do offer their elderly customers services to help them with their special needs - from providing wheelchairs, special lines for queuing and assistance with getting from place to place. Some airlines, like Finnair for example, even offers special discounts on flight tickets to seniors. Even though flying has become pretty cheap and affordable, it still has some glamour to it like it used to before. Airports are filled with premium lounges, fancy restaurants and high- end branded stores from Louis Vuitton to Bulgari and Rolex. People still expect travelling by air to be somewhat glamorous, so they also expect airports to provide high-quality services. But will this be possible when almost all steps are done through a machine with minimal human contact?
First of all, it’s extremely important that airports are hassle free - they must have clear signs in the most used languages of passengers, the departure boards should be liable and punctual, and information easily accessible. Another factor that has a huge impact on the customer satisfaction is the staff. They should be well-trained, polite, respectful and most importantly helpful. Some passengers might not travel often or be scared of flying etc. so going an extra mile and looking after them is a great way of staff giving good customer experiences. In airports people come from different cultures and speak different languages so it’s essential that the staff is also culturally aware. In airports staff that speak multiple languages is also always a plus, because it can be needed in some tricky situations when there are language barrios.
Most of the senior travellers in Helsinki Airport are from Finland, but a large number of them also come from China. One major phenomenon in silver tourism is the growth of Asian seniors’ tourist - especially Chinese. Ever since China’s opening up in 1978 and their economic reforming there has been a steady growth in Chinese senior tourists all over the world. (China Daily, 2017). This has resulted in Helsinki Airport hiring more Chinese speaking staff and putting digital services and even signs in Chinese language. The Chinese tourists have a positive impact on the Finnish economy, because when comparing to tourist from other countries the Chinese spend the most money during their Holidays in Finland (Taloussanomat, 2018). In 2017 the growth of Chinese tourist in Finland had grew by 30% compared to the year before (Kahkonen, 2017).
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Still most of the elderly customers in Helsinki Airport are from Finland. In fact, the seniors in Finland travelled overseas 40% more than four years ago (Frilander, 2013). Most of them travel as a couple to destinations like Spain or Thailand. Many of them also travel as part of a group holiday.
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3. Silver Tourism
The term silver tourism means tourism that is focused on elderly travellers that are about 60-years and older. Silver tourism is an increasing part of the tourism market due to longer life expectancy and lower birth rates. But who are silver tourists and what kind of travellers are they?
3.1 Description of Seniors
A senior citizen is usually a person that is over sixty or sixty-five years old. The term can be used pretty widely, since there is no precise way to identify if someone is a senior or not. It’s a term commonly used for the elderly people, but typically citizens that are retired from work are considered as seniors. Many of them are slowing down in their life after raising a family and having a career. They are often seen to be wiser and more experienced compared to people younger than them. (Seniorliving.org).
After their retirement many of them live with their retirement funds or savings, but many also need financial support from the government. In Finland its possible for the elderly to get financial help for their rent, medical care, transportation, medicine and even a basic monthly allowance. Many cities provide help to the senior citizens by offering them home care - which means providing them with assistance at home in washing, eating, cleaning etc. Old age often comes with health problems, and seniors can suffer from poor mobility, hearing and vision. Some seniors who aren’t capable to live by themselves choose to live in an old people’s home in order to get nursing and care. (Seniorliving.org).
However, nowadays due to better health services and lifestyle changes seniors live longer and are generally heathier. Many choose to even work after turning 65 years old, which is often considered as the age to retire. Seniors nowadays can be very active and many companies have started to see them as a potential target market - restaurants, movie theatres, airlines, hotels and even McDonalds in the US offers special discounts to their elderly customers. Another reason for the discounts is also the fact many seniors have limited assets that are supposed to last them for the rest of their years, so some companies offer discounts in order to help them a bit financially. (Seniorliving.org).
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3.2 Senior Travellers
Tourists that are 55 years and over can be considered as senior travellers. They are often retired from active employment and have a lot of leisure time in hands. To them traveling is a priority, and they are ready to pay for traveling in a regular basis. (ACS Distance Education, 2019). In the recent years’ senior tourism, also known as silver tourism, has grown rapidly. But who are senior tourists and what are their impact on the tourism industry?
Senior travellers are travellers of higher ages and for them comfort and easiness are a priority. They often favour traditional tour operations and group holidays rather than planning their trips by themselves, because everything is ready-made. Senior tourists’ value high-quality and convenience - they favour all-inclusive hotels and package holidays. (ACS Distance Education, 2019). During their travels seniors often require more communication and clear instructions, especially in their native language. Travel plans are ready-made and customized for them from transportation to travel times and lengths that suits them the best. On top of that, the elderly often requires personal care and accessibility to medical and health services. (Kumar, 2019). This is why tour operators and package holidays are an easier option for them.
Most senior travellers travel in order to see their children and grandkids or to meet up with their friends, and some travel due to work, education, hobbies or simply due to travel and leisure. When it comes to traveling for leisure senior travellers seek for places that they haven’t seen before, so when choosing a holiday destination, they find the nature and culture of the place important. For example, ocean, tropical location or snow can be pull factors for them. (Franz, 2019.) When it comes to the accommodation, they favour convenience and quality. (Frilander, 2013). Seniors are ready to pay more for comfort, safety and high-quality services, and this makes them a huge market segment in the tourism industry.
Silver tourism is still a pretty new concept for many. In fact, it only started to develop in the 2000 when people of higher ages started to be more interested in travelling. Senior tourists have quickly become a huge market segment in the tourism industry and a lot of companies that specialize in senior tourism see potential in the business. Nowadays there are multiple tourism companies that offer guided tours and specially made trips for the elderly travellers. Silver tourism is predicted continue its steady growth in the 21stcentury
14 as populations age and globalization grows. (Klimova, 2018). In Finland alone there are more than 2 million people that are over 50 years old, and in the world over a billion people that are over 60 years old. People’s life expectancy is higher and overall health is better than before, meaning the elderly have more energy to travel. The latest statistics that could be found was by Tilastokeskus; according to their research outbound tourism of 65-74 years old Finnish seniors has grown by 43,4% in 2009-2012. (Lehmusvirta, 2013).
Even though senior tourism has grown, they are still a less dominant group in the tourism industry - they travel much less than the people of younger ages. In fact, more than half of the European residents aged 65+ did not participate in tourism which means they didn’t make any trips for holiday purposes, and this is the highest when comparing to other age groups. The most domestic and outbound trips were made by 25-45-year-olds. (Eurostat, 2019).
It's safe to say that the tourism industry has changed a lot from traditional travel agencies to companies operating mainly through the internet. Nowadays the booking and marketing of holidays happens mainly online and it’s a well-established fact that millennials have a lot to do with these changes. Individuals who are born in between 1980 and 2000 are considered as millennials. Through their use of technology such as smart phones and social media platforms this generation have transformed the way travel companies function. Compared to the millennials the senior’s tourists are often much less experienced with technology, which is one of the reasons they favour traditional travel operators. Even though senior tourists are still a less dominant group in the industry they still have a lot of influence in it. In fact, it’s believed that the increasing number of senior tourists could even slow down the changes millennials have forced to the travel industry. (Ostdick, 2016).
The rise of technology has also allowed us to connect with people and get real-time news and information from all over the world quick and easy. Millennials who spend a lot of their time online, have become very exposed to different countries, ethnicities, cultures, religions and languages - this has resulted in the growth of millennials cultural awareness and improved language skills, especially in the English language. The older generation wasn’t and might still not be as exposed to the world which makes them often less culturally aware, and it’s not rare of them to only speak their own native language. (Welzer, 2011.)
Travelling has become pretty cheap and affordable, and many millennials have had the opportunity to travel internationally even from a young age. Many of them have a lot of
15 experience in travelling - when the older generation in other hand might have none. In the old days only, upper-class families could afford the luxury of travelling, especially abroad. In the past 50 years of so, there has been a lot of changes in the tourism industry; Development in air and sea transportation, changes in people’s lifestyles, availability in products, and of course the technological development. All of this on top of the affordable prices has resulted in the growth of international travel, which for the older generation can still be a pretty new concept or something that they aren’t as used to. (Ural, 2014).
That might be one of the reasons why many senior tourists prefer domestic over international travel. They like to revisit places that they have been to before or explore destinations that are close to their home. Most of the trips that are made overseas or further away from their home are done with their children, grandkids or other family members. Unlike the millennials who mainly travel with their friends or in some cases even alone. They seek for adventure and immersive cultural experiences - meaning no package holidays or ready-made trips for them. In fact, backpacking is a popular way of traveling for them. They are much less keen on the traditional beach-and-sun holidays what the seniors so much enjoy. (Ostdick, 2016).
Other differences between these two groups of tourists is that the seniors have more time and money to spend on their holidays - they can afford to be more flexible about their travel times and they usually have more savings and less financial commitments than the younger travellers. (ACS Distance Education, 2019). This allows them to spend their money on luxury-travels, all-inclusive cruises, pre-planned social and cultural activities. Unlike the seniors who like relaxing getaways the millennials often combine business and travel. Millennials have less time and money to spend on their holidays, so they often extend trips that are done due to work and take few days extra for leisure. (Ostdick, 2016).
Seniors are also more responsible and want to travel with a peace of mind; travel insurances, printed documents, package deals, or other plan-ahead activities allows them to have a stress-free and relaxing holiday. These things for millennials are rarely a priority. Once the generation of the millennials gets older it will be interesting to see how the tourism industry and their travel preference will change. Travel agencies will most likely have to start offering individualized experiences and unique travel options, since they aren’t that keen on the traditional ways. (Ostdick, 2016.)
Silver tourism will continue its growth, since globalization and cultural awareness are becoming modern in today’s society. Travelling has become much easier and cheaper, which gives the opportunity to people from all ages and income levels to travel. The fact
16 that millennials are used to traveling and doing yearly trips overseas might have a huge impact on the future of silver tourism - once this generation gets older, they will want to continue their habits.
Since silver tourism isn’t going anywhere and its only expected to grow. It would be profitable for airlines, airports, travel agencies and other travel businesses to think about ways to improve their services in order to gain more elderly customers and expanding their market segments. Seniors are often physically weaker than other age groups, which means they often need special assistance and higher quality services. Silver tourism definitely has a lot of potential if it’s done right. (Si, 2019).
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4. Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction indicates how happy a customer is with a product, service or an experience. Factors that can affect customer satisfaction is the price, value and the quality of the product or a service. Even the atmosphere of the location where the product or service is bought can have an impact in the customer satisfaction. In order to achieve high customer satisfaction, the needs of the customer should be met. In the business world this is one of the most important factors when it comes to developing a product or a service. A satisfied customer is more likely to recommend or purchase from the company again, which results in getting more loyal customers or gaining new ones, and this equals to more revenue. (Bernazzani, 2019). Loyal customers for a company are very important, because they won’t look at the competitors for offers (Pascal, 2016).
In fact, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction aren’t the same thing - the difference is that customer satisfaction measures the experience the customer had in their latest interaction with the company. Even though the experience was good, and the customer is satisfied it doesn’t mean its permanent. Customer loyalty in the other hand is long-lasting, and this is the ultimate goal of every business. Loyal customers spend more money than new ones and are more likely to recommend the company to their friends and family, because they trust the brand. (Nicereply, 2017). A loyal customer spends 67% more than a new customer, and 92% of customers trusts recommendations that they have gotten from family and friends, which means companies can also safe on marketing and advertising (Limani, K. 2018).
Every businesses goal is to have satisfied and loyal customers, because this is the key to success. In order to achieve this goal companies, use different tools, such as surveys, polls or interviews to get feedback from their customers. They use this information to improve and develop their products or services to meet their customer expectations. The main needs of a customer are a fair price, good service and quality product. For example, if another company is selling the same item for much less or much more the reason might be that they are offering a better or worse product or service. The price and the quality of the product should be in balance. By interacting and listening to customers, companies can evaluate how happy they are with the price, service or quality. (Loyaltylion, 2019).
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4.1 Customer Service
Like mentioned good service is one of the main needs of customers when they purchase a product or a service. Especially in the service industry, customer service is strongly linked with customer satisfaction. The term customer service means the assistance or advice provided by a company to its customers. The goal of this interaction is to satisfy the customers’ needs and leave them feeling valued and respected. Customer service can happen face-to-face, through the phone, or online. (Salesforce.com).
In the world of digitalization any kind of personalization and service is appreciated. People choose companies based on the price and product or service, but nowadays also the overall experiences counts a lot - and customer service plays a big role in it. Ever since self-service become dominant customers are wanting more and more personalized experiences, and the importance of companies building relationships with their customers have increased. Nowadays customers expect companies to communicate with them other than through self-service machines. By being responsive, solving problems and asking for feedback, companies can already exceed their customers’ expectations. (Bigue, 2014).
Companies that invest in good employees have higher chances of delivering excellent customer service to their customers. Skills that are considered good for a customer servant are the ability to listen to customers, offer friendly and personable service and to show empathy. This makes the customer feel valued and makes the experience more memorable for them. Customer service is what represents the company, its image and values since this is the connection the customer has with the company. The positive outcomes of good customer service can be; increase in customer loyalty, amount of money each customer uses and increase in positive mouth-of-mouth about the company. Happy customers are also often more understandable in situations like price increases, product breakdowns, and other complications. (Amaresan, 2019). Companies that invest in customer service and happy employees, i.e. by training staff, making them feel appreciated and providing good work environment have better chances in achieving high customer satisfaction. (Salesforce.com).
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4.2 How to Measure Customer Satisfaction
Companies measure the customer satisfaction score (CSAT) - the score is the average rating of a customer’s responses. The scale normally has options from 1-3, 1-5, or 1-10, a larger range of choices is not suggested, because there is simply too much answers to choose from and the results might come out vague.
Some factors, like cultural differences for example, can affect the way people answer. This is something that should be taken into consideration when the customer base is international, because people from different cultural backgrounds answer differently. For example, an American is more likely to rate a service or product ‘’amazing’’ or ‘’terrible’’ when a Japanese person would more likely to rate ‘’fine’’ or ‘’okay’’. The fact that the other country is individualistic and the other is collectivistic might have something to do with the way people answer. Simpler scales and minimal options minimize these differences and are better in capturing feedback on the service quality. (Pascal, 2016).
Another scale that is used in meaning customer satisfaction is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) which measures what are the chances of the customer recommending the product or service to someone. The scale is normally from 1-10 and asks how likely they are to recommend the company. Companies use this score to measure customers long-term loyalty. Then there is the Customer Effort Score (CES) which measures how easy it was for a customer to do business with the company. Customers rate based on the effort it took them to complete a transaction or resolve a support issue. Unlike the NPS this metric measures how the company works rather than the service or product itself. (Pascal, 2016).
Measuring these metrics can be done effectively through standard surveys that consists of questions about how satisfied the customer was in the product, service or interaction. Surveys normally have short questions with answers from ‘’very satisfied’ to ‘not satisfied’’ and ‘’ how likely’’ to ‘’not likely at all’’, and they might also have some short follow up questions with open answers. Surveys can be done through apps, emails or online programs - most of them even calculate the results automatically. This makes surveys a quick an easy way for companies to measure customer satisfaction and to get feedback on their products and services. (Bernazzani, 2019).
Still a pretty new way to measure customer satisfaction is by social media monitoring.
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Nowadays, social media is a common place where customers go and share their good or bad service or product experiences and companies can find these feedbacks by monitoring mentions, tags and by using Google Alerts. Social media is the perfect place for companies to see what their customers think about them and it also gives them a great platform to build relationships with their customers. Some good examples of websites that are made for the purpose of giving feedback are Yelp and TripAdvisor. (Pascal, 2016).
4.3 Customer Satisfaction in Airports
Ever since flying and travelling overseas became a norm the travel industry has done a lot of developing. One great example of development is the airports. Airports have become a place of leisure, attraction, services and activities. The concept of travelling by air has grown, and even though the main focus of airport innovations is still the efficiency, travellers are now looking of experiences before they even board the plane.
A good example of an airport that offers this to its customers is the Singapore’s Changi Airport. It’s the biggest and busiest airport in the country and its home to Singapore’s Airlines and 78 other airlines that operate from there. Changi Airport has been chosen as the world’s best airport for the seventh year straight and the customer satisfaction has hit its new height. But what makes the airport so unique? In surveys, travellers were asked to rate airports by the check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping and restaurant options, and security and immigration. The top three airports with the highest scores were Singapore’s Changi Airport, Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Seoul’s Incheon Airport. The similar thing about these three airports is the fact that they are all very big, meaning there is room for many different services, and that all of the airports are fairly new or recently renovated. (Kaur, 2019). In 2018 Helsinki Airport was ranked the best airport in North Europe (Finavia, 2018). And in 2017 it was ranked the 17th worldwide. (Skytrax, 2018).
Changi Airport alone has 155 shops and 105 dining options for travellers to choose from. The airport offers tons of activities to its customers from multiple resting areas to entertainment decks, movie theatres and TV lounges to even spa services and swimming pools. On top of that the airport has its own indoor rainforest, which its actually the most famous for. Since it’s the customers and travellers that vote for the best airport it’s safe to say that people do value activities and service options during their travels in airports. It is understandable, since air travel is often tiring and consists of long distances and waiting times. (Rizzo, 2019).
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Even though the airport has dozens of service and activities, the authors believe that the main reason for high customer satisfaction is in the small details. In the end, the most important thing when it comes to travelling its’ the easiness. Changi Airport gives customers the opportunity to check-in early, or the option to use self-service kiosks or the traditional check-in desks. The airport offers personal service as well as self-service options. The fact that Changi Airport allows its customers to choose what suits their need the best when it comes to services might be one of the reasons to their high number of satisfied customers. (The Business Times, 2016). Changi Airport has taken the concept of a traditional airport to a whole new level. The airport itself is an experience and an attraction. (Cripps, 2019).
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5. Research results and methodology
The aim of this chapter is to explain the methods used and the research process as whole. The method used in this research is quantitative method and it was conducted in the form of survey.
5.1 Quantitative method and survey
Quantitative method is a way of investigating e.g. customers behaviour, opinions and thoughts related to the research questions. Data collection can happen with surveys or questionnaires. (Surendran, QuestionPro). The main quality that differentiates quantitative method from qualitative is the quantity of participants needed, when qualitative method is more descriptive. The purpose of quantitative method is to find out how many people is affected by the research problem. The numbers gathered from the data collection, can be made into statistics, which can help with analysing and understanding the results. (Kumar, 2011 30-38) The questions in quantitative method are predetermined and structured, so there is no possibility for additional and specified questions (Corbetta, 2003).
The chosen research tool in this paper was a survey. This method was chosen, because the authors thought it would be the most appropriate one, since they wanted to research a large number of seniors. They thought e.g interviewing would be more time consuming and difficult, since they needed to research the population at the busy airport and passengers don’t have time to sit down and answer the questions. Analysing a big sample size is also easier with survey, and so the authors felt that survey was the best tool for them and for this research. Survey is a list of pre-determined questions and answer options, that participant reads and answers themselves. Surveys can be in a form of online-survey or paper version. There are two types of questions. Closed-ended questions are questions where the answers are already given, and participant can tick the answer that is most suitable for them. Open-ended questions are questions where participant can answer in their own words. The survey questions should be kept short and as simple as possible, because survey is not usually done face-to-face and so for there is no one to explain the questions to the participant. The questions should also be thought out well, to get as quality data as possible, because researcher cannot ask specified questions from the participant. (Kumar, 2011 138-143)
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The language of the survey should be understandable for everyone, so using academic wording should be avoided. The questions should be specific, so it would be better to ask “Are you satisfied with the self- service check-in?” rather than “Are you satisfied with the service in the airport?”.The second question will confuse the participants of what service they’re rating here, restaurants, agents or cleaning? The more specific questions are the easier it is to analyse the answers. (Kumar, 2011 144-146)
When forming the questions to an interview or a survey, it’s important to consider the ethical issues. Researcher must keep the participant’s identity anonymous. When making a survey, participants don’t usually have to put any names or contact details on them, so greater anonymity is achieved compared to an interview. The researcher should avoid using sensitive questions, which may offend participant or make them feel uncomfortable. There should be a possibility to answer “other” or “I’m not sure”, so people who are not sure what to answer, won’t leave the answer empty or answer option they don’t believe in. In the beginning of the survey it is also important to tell people, the purpose of the survey and how long it will take, to give them the opportunity to decide whether to do it or not, people can’t be forced to participate. Asking leading questions should be avoided. Leading questions are e.g. “Self-service machines are difficult to use, aren’t they?”. (Kumar, 2011 146-150) The length of survey should be thought depending on the environment and schedule of the sampling. This research was done at the Helsinki-Airport, which is hectic and busy environment and where passengers are usually in a hurry. In this research, the time to get enough participants was limited. Therefore, the survey should be kept short, with maximum 10 questions. If the survey was done online and send out as a link to a population and given 1-2 weeks’ sampling time, the length of the survey could be longer.
This method won’t take as much time to do, as for example interviewing. In interviews, preparations and the interview for even one person consumes hours of work. The data gathered will be a lot more and in-depth, which would take a lot of time to analyse. In survey, the data will be narrower and more controlled, because respondents can’t answer as in-depth and explain their personal experiences. Survey is also less expensive and easier to establish. You will not need as much tools for surveys, as you might need in interviews. It’s also easier to get people to respond to a survey, than to get people to participate and have time for an interview. For survey, you will only need to make one base and send it out to population. (Kumar, 2011 140-141)
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The method has also some disadvantages. Even though data analysis can take less time, the data gathered will be quite superficial and less in-depth. Since, the questions are premade, the researcher won’t be able to ask any additional questions. Making the questions can be a difficult, because they can’t be changed after it’s been sent out. There is no possibility to clarify or add information, so the questions need to be thought through well. The population needed is usually very large, and so for it can be difficult to achieve enough respondents. (Kumar, 2011 141)
After the data is gathered, it needs to be analysed. The analysis process starts with editing the data. Editing means that the data is carefully scrutinized in order to find errors in the information gathered from participants. (Kumar, 2011 228) Next step of analysis process is coding. Coding means giving a numeric value to each piece of data, in order to make it easy to analyse them in programmes such as SSPS. Coding can be done to both qualitative and quantitative data and steps for coding are; creating a code book, pre-test it, coding and verifying the finished data. (Kumar, 2011 229) The researcher needs to decide the method how data is wanted to be analysed and there is two ways to do that; either manually or by computer. For qualitative data there are computer programmes such Ethnograph and for quantitative there’s SSPS. The difference between the two programmes is Ethnograph is for descriptive data where SSPS calculates statistical figures. Data can also be analysed manually if the sample size is rather small, but it can be very time consuming. (Kumar, 2011 210, 247.)
5.2 Data collection process
The method used in this research is a survey. Sample size for the survey was set to minimum 100 participants and maximum length for the survey was set to 2 minutes, because passengers are usually busy and won’t have time to stop for too long. Time limit for data collection was 3 days from 30th, 31st October and 1st of November. The limited time had to be set in order to stay in writing schedule. Since authors performed the survey mainly themselves at the airport and not online, few days was enough to receive the wanted amount of responses.
To be able to perform a survey at the airport, authors had to contact the administrator of the airport Finavia, to get a permission to be there and ask passengers questions. The permission was given by the Finavia Service supervisor and authors were advised to come outside the peak times and not to disturb customers. She was then informed the specific dates and times of the day the survey was going to be done.
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Survey was made online with Typeform.com, which is a free survey tool up to 10 questions. Bigger sized surveys would’ve needed an upgrade and that would’ve cost 30- 70€/per month, which are meant for more of a professional use. Authors decided to use Typeform.com, because it was easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. It was decided to have maximum 10 questions considering the busy environment of airport and how people are not usually willing to answer a long survey.
The formulation of the questions started from considering how to get answers to the research questions. It was decided to ask a few demographic questions in the beginning of the survey which were; age, gender and nationality. Even though the target age group was seniors, it was interesting to compare the different opinions and needs between the 55-64-year olds compared to 70+ year olds.
The type of questions asked were mostly closed ended question, with few open-ended questions. This was decided so the authors could understand the real thoughts of the respondents and suggestions of improvements towards self-service, in their own words.
The survey had 10 questions from which first 3 of them were geographical questions and the rest were trying to find the answers to the research questions. The questions asked were;
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Nationality
4. How often do you travel by air?
5. How satisfied were you with the self-service machines?
6. How easy did you find the use of self-service?
7. Do you prefer self-service or personal service?
8. And why?
9. How could the self-service experience be improved?
10. How likely would you use the self-service machines again in the future?
Pre-testing was done before performing the actual survey. Authors were testing it with a few people they knew, to get comments and time it, in order to know if it works well, the questions are clear enough, and it wouldn’t take too long to do. Questions were modified after receiving feedback from the thesis supervisor and people who sampled it. By receiving feedback, authors were able to see little grammar mistakes or difficult wording and that the questions are intelligible for everyone.
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Authors went to Helsinki Airport on two days Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st of October around 10am-2pm, to perform the research and find target participants. They went to both Terminal 1 and 2 together and were standing near the self-service machines, so they were able to see who had used the machines and so for would know how to answer the questions. The plan in the beginning was to both have an iPad, so travellers could easily answer the survey, and that way they would both be able to ask participants. Unfortunately, authors weren’t able to borrow any iPads, so they decided to use their own mobile phones and mark customers answers themselves. This way passengers didn’t experience any hassle of trying to hold a device with all their luggage’s with them which, would’ve added more stress for them.
Even thought, authors ended up marking the answers and reading the questions to passengers, the survey was done in both Finnish and English. This made things easier and faster for them to simply read the questions and not having to try to translate them, since they had to be quick.
5.2.1 Limitations and risks
As good tool and appropriate method survey is, it also has some limitations and risks. Using a survey as a research tool, won’t gather as in-depth data from respondents, compared to for example interviews. Even though this method is less time consuming and less expensive to do, the analysis process though is quite time consuming, because there are more respondents answers to examine and analyse. Analysing by computer can also be difficult for some researchers who are not as skilled in mathematic calculation, figures and coding, especially without guidance.
Formulating the questions was difficult, since the amount of questions asked were so limited. Each question had to be perfectly framed, in order to get as much data as possible, with only few questions. There were questions that were quite pointless considering the amount of data gathered from them and should’ve maybe been changed completely. The nationality question was not important question for this research, but was kept, because it was thought it could be interesting to know where respondents comes from. However, almost 80% of the respondents were Finnish, so any statistical comparisons could not be made. The answer options were also made as continents, because the authors didn’t want to list countries and were not able to add open box, where people could write their country to. The time of the day and season when the research was done, may have influenced on how little variation there were with nationalities. There are more international travellers during rush hours and peak seasons.
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The authors did not find significant differences between the genders, because most of the seniors were couples and so for had similar answers and opinions. Because of that, the gender question didn’t give much data but was important in knowing if there were differences in the amount of travelling between them.
This choice of method also has some risks such; the sample size had to be large and getting enough participants can be difficult. The research environment such airport can be challenging, because people might not have time or does not want to participate. Using an online tool creates risks as well, because there can be an error with the application or problems with internet connection, and so data might be lost.
5.2.2 Analysis process
The analysis process started by examining the survey results and statistics shown in the survey tool Typeform. Some of the results were then analysed manually using Excel, which the authors felt to be easier than trying to learn how to use other programmes. Neither of the authors had skills for coding or using programmes such SSPS nor had time to learn it. Even though analysing results manually can be very time consuming, especially if there is a lot of data, however in this research the results were simple to calculate manually. Authors used Excel to compare the different age groups answers to questions 4 to 7 and created statistical figures and percentages of the results. They also made one statistical table about the possible difference between the genders and how often they travel in yearly basis. All the other results and statistics were found from Typeform and authors didn’t feel the need to analyse them any further in other programmes.
5.3 Results
The target of this research were senior tourists, from ages 55 to over 70-year-olds, that are travelling by air from Helsinki Airport. These group of travelers often travel less compared to other age groups and are also physically weaker and have less experience with technology. Authors found the seniors as an interesting target group, because Helsinki Airport works mainly through automated self-service machines, and so it was interesting for the authors to find out how the elderly with special needs handle these procedures.
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Authors made a survey to understand senior passengers’ experiences and this chapter shows and explains the results gathered from that survey with statistical figures to compare the answers.
The results were gathered from senior passengers’ survey responses during the three-day of surveying. The sample size was minimum 100 respondents, and the authors were successful to get total of 106 respondents. Most of the responses were gathered during two-day surveying at the airport and rest was gathered via online link.
Authors were filling the surveys for the passengers, to ease the process and to avoid creating more stress and hassle for them. Most of the passengers interviewed were from Finland, so some of the tables shown are in Finnish, but will be translated on the text. In this chapter the questions asked are explained briefly and results are revealed with statistical figures.
5.3.1 Customer information
The first three questions in the survey were geographical questions, which helped the authors determine what factors might influence the respondent’s answers and opinions. The age of the respondents can define their knowledge and experience, especially in a research involving digitality and electronics. In the first question we asked the respondents age by giving them three options from ‘’55- 64-year-olds’’, ‘’65-70-year-olds’’ and ‘’70+ year-olds’’. From the total of 106 respondents, two did not answer this question and that’s why they can’t be calculated in an excel results. So, from the 104 respondents most fell in the age gap of 55-64-year-olds - 42.3% which is a bit less than half.
Figure 1. Age of the participants. 104 responses.
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The second question of the survey asked the gender of the respondents and the results were quite even. 54.7% of the participants were women and 44.3% were men, and one person identified as ‘’Other’’. The authors expected that there wasn’t going to be a big difference in these numbers and believe that the gender of the respondent doesn’t really have a big impact on the results of the survey.
Figure 2. The gender of participants. 106 responses.
The third question of the survey asked the respondents nationality. The options for this question were ‘’Finnish’’ or one of all the different continents of the world. The authors chose to ask this question, because the nationality and difference in culture might affect the opinion a person has towards the self-service machines. Some nations might be more use to them than other etc. Sadly, the authors weren’t able to get that many answers from other nationalities, and 78.3% of the respondents were Finnish. Most of the outbound tourists from ages 55-70- year-olds in Helsinki Airport were local travelers. The authors were able to get answers from some other nationalities, and 16% were from Europe and 2.8% from Asia, but none from Africa and Australia.
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Figure 3. The nationality of the participants. 106 responses.
The fourth question in the survey asked ‘’How often do you travel by air?’’. The amount the person travels may have an impact on how used they are in the self-service machines and the procedures that happen in the airport when traveling by air. The question had answers from; less than once a year, 1-2, 3-4 or more than 4 times a year. All age groups travelled mostly 1-2 times a year, but the 65-70-year-olds travelled this much the most, but in the ‘’more than 4 times a year’’ this age group had the lowest percentage. Most of the respondents travelled more than once a year, since this option got the least answers. There weren’t huge differences in the amount the respondents travelled when comparing their ages.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU TRAVEL BY AIR?
55-64 65-70 70+
60% 57%
50%
40% 34% 32% 32% 30% 25% 23% 25% 24% 20% 16% 14% 12% 10% 6%
0% Less than once a year 1-2 times a year 3-4 times a year More than 4 times a year
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Figure 4. How often do you travel by air? 106 responses.
5.3.2 Customer satisfaction
The last six questions of the survey asked customers questions about their experiences and opinions about the self-service machines. Through these questions the authors wanted to find out if the customers were satisfied or not and if they had any improvement ideas towards the self-service machines.
The fifth questions of the survey asked how satisfied the person was with the self-service machines and the options given were from a scale of 1-5 - one being the lowest, ‘’not satisfied at all’’, to five being the highest, ‘’very satisfied’’. There weren’t many participants that rated their satisfaction from 1-2. In fact, most of them answered 3-5 meaning they were mostly satisfied with the self-service machines. Most of the 55-64 and 70+ year-olds rated their satisfaction with number 4 and the majority of 65-70-year-olds with a 5.
HOW SATISFIED WERE YOU WITH THE SELF - S E R V I C E MACHINES? 1 = NOT SATISFIED 3=SATISFIED 5= VERY SATISFIED
55-64 65-70 70+
40% 36% 35% 31% 29% 30% 30% 28% 25% 26% 25% 23% 20% 20% 15% 9% 8% 8% 10% 7% 6% 5% 2% 0% 1 2 3 4 5
Figure 5. How satisfied were you with the self-service machines? 106 responses.
The sixth question asked from participants was “How easy did you find the use of self- service machines?”. For this question they had to answer from scale 1-5, where 1 represents Not easy at all and 5 is Very easy. From the total of 106 participants 28.3% answered that self-service is very easy, 27.4% answered easy and 32.1% answered satisfying. Only 12.2% would answer 1 or 2 as not easy.
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HOW EASY DID YOU FIND THE USE OF SELF - SERVICE MACHINES? 1 = NOT EASY 3 = SATISFYING 5 = VERY EASY
55-64 65-70 70+
40% 37%36% 36% 35% 29% 30% 27% 28% 25% 26% 25% 20% 16% 16% 15% 10% 6% 7% 5% 4% 5% 3% 0% 1 2 3 4 5
Figure 6. How easy did you find the use of self-service machines? 106 responses.
Figure six compares the senior age groups answers to the same question. It shows that majority of 55-64 years old would answer option “easy” (4), 65-70 and 70+ year olds answered “satisfying” (3). Majority of all seniors answered the options 3-5.
The seventh question was “Do you prefer self-service or personal service? and passengers had to choose between self-service, personal service or no preference. With this question authors wanted to find out if passengers were given the option which one would they choose or whether they don’t really care. From total amount of respondents, 53.8% answered “personal service”, 24.5% said “no preference” and only 21.7% said self- service.
DO YOU PREFER SELF - SERVICE OR PERSONAL SERVICE?
55-64 65-70 70+
80% 72% 70% 60% 48% 49% 50% 40% 30% 29% 30% 23% 23% 16% 20% 12% 10% 0% Self-service Personal service No preference
Figure 7. Do you prefer self-service or personal service? 106 responses.
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Figure seven above shows how the age groups answered. 72% of 70+ year olds prefer personal service and only 12% said self-service. Age group 65-70-year olds, 49% would choose personal service, 29% don’t have a preference and 23% would rather use self- service. The youngest age group from seniors 55-64, 48% would also use personal service the most, when 30% would rather use self-service. They had the highest percentage to option “self-service”, compared to 65-70+.
Figure 8. The reason why you chose self-service/personal service. 103 responses.
Following the question of preference, authors wanted to know the reasons behind their choice. They asked an open question, where respondents could answer their opinions and feelings without ready-made options. The follow up question was “And why?” and some of the answers will be listed below.
There were a lot of the same or similar answers between respondents, so they had to be scrutinized and pick the mains answers which were:
Answers about choosing personal service:
• “It’s easier to deal with a person” • “Personal contact wins the machine” • “Personal service feels nicer” • “I can ask questions about anything worrying” • “Use to personal service” • “Machines don’t work” • “Always problems with machines”
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• “Service should be included to the expensive ticket price”
Answers about choosing self-service:
• “It’s quicker and there’s no lines” • “Easy, if there is help available” • “It’s easy” • “Fast and good”
Answers about choosing no preference:
• “Depends which one is faster” • “If there is queue to the counter, I choose self-service” • “No preference, if the machines work”
Passengers were then given the change to tell how the self-service experience could be improved. Self-service experience includes signages, self-service machines and guides. Authors wanted to understand how passengers experience could be made better.
This question was also an open question, where passengers’ improvement ideas were written down in their own words. Since a lot of them had same ideas and problems, this section gathered the most frequent and higher-quality responses.
Improvement ideas:
• “Check-in machines could be more logical”
• “More guides available to help”
• “Airlines should use the same terminology so they’re easier to understand”
• “Bigger buttons and text, to see them better. Protection on the screen, so people behind me or next to me couldn’t see my information. Clear information at the end, to know the process is done”
• “Clear instructions with pictures”
• “More machines and guides”
• “Alarm to remind to take the ticket or bag tag”
• “Better instruction on how to scan passport”
• “Machines should be simpler, too many buttons”
• “Too cramped, so more space and smarter queuing system”
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• “Applications turned off too quickly”
• “Better quality paper for the tickets”
• “Better reader for IDs”
• “If you have checked in via mobile, the machine will do it again or at least unnecessarily prints the boarding-pass again. It could only print out the bag tag”
Figure 9. How likely would you use the self-service machines in the future? 106 responses.
Figure nine shows the amount of responses question 10. “How likely would you use the self-service machines in the future?” got. Passengers had to answer on a scale 1-5, 1 being “not at all likely” and 5 being “Highly likely”. It reveals that out of 106 passengers, 50% responded that they would highly likely to use them again. 29.2% answered option 4 “likely” and 12.3% said option 3 which is “neutral”. Only 9 people, 8.5% of total, answered that they would not likely to use self-service again in the future.
There weren’t much of a difference between ages and how they felt about the machines, because the age gaps were quite small. But through the survey the authors were able the get information about the elderly travellers’ opinions and ideas about the self-service machines and use it to calculate, if and how it has affected their customer satisfaction.
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6. Discussion
In the following chapter the authors will analyse the results that were gathered from the survey and the visits to Helsinki Airport. Through the analysing the goal is to understand the target audience as travellers, get answers to the research question and to compare the results with the theory findings. Like mentioned earlier the age gaps in the survey were quite small, so the authors feel that this and the gender of the respondents don’t really have an impact on the results of the survey. Also, since the most respondents were Finnish customers the analysing will be mainly based on them.
6.1 Analysis and findings
Most of the senior tourists travel about 1-2 times a year and most of their trips are made for leisure purposes. The answers between ‘’3-4 times a year’’ and ‘’more than 4 times a year’’ were very even, and the authors were actually quite surprised that there were so many seniors that would travel even more than four times a year. The aging population might have something to do with this, because nowadays elderly people do have more energy and are overall healthier than before. So, it’s safe to say that a lot of the seniors in Helsinki Airport did in fact travel somewhat frequently – since only 11.3% of the respondents travelled less than ones a year. Many of the Finnish seniors travelled with airlines that they trusted and had used before, like Norwegian and Finnair. The Finnish seniors travelled mostly to places like Gran Canaria, Malaga, Alicante and other popular tourist destinations.
When asked about the self-service machines many of the elderly had mainly positive things to say. And overall, the seniors seemed to find the self-service machines fairly easy to use which might explain the high ratings in how satisfied they were with the whole self- service experience. In the survey questions regarding satisfaction and easiness of the machines majority of the respondents rated between 3-5 and almost 80% of the respondents said that they would likely use them again. Many commented that the machines worked well and i.e. during rush hours they are very efficient and quick way to check-in and tag your bag.
For the authors it was really surprising to see how many of the respondents rated the experience with such high numbers. Both of the authors have worked for Finnair as guides in the self-service check-in and bag-drop area and experienced that many of the
37 customers, especially the older ones, dislike the new change of not being able to go to the traditional check-in desks. The authors worked there during rush hours, however the surveying was done during quieter times, so they believe that this might also affect the experience – during rush hours people might be more stressed and the machines might add more stress to them.
Although, the comments and statistics about the machines in the survey were mostly positive, more than half of the respondents did still prefer personal service over self- service, and even though there weren’t major differences between the ages it was the 70+ year-olds that favoured personal service the most. And from the respondents who favoured self-service the most the largest group was the 55-64-year olds. The reason for this could be that the older generation might be less used to the digital machines or have more trouble using them than the slightly younger generation.
Many of the elderly commented that they preferred personal service, because it’s much easier and it’s nicer to talk to someone. To them the machines are often hard to use, not trustworthy and don’t always work perfectly, hence why many of them felt that they did need help and assistance from staff while using them. Still, majority of them said that they would still use the self-service machines again, but many also added ‘’because we have no other option’’. There were also roughly 30% that did actually prefer self-service or had no preference to either and they commented that the machines were easy and quick, and they are used to them already.
In conclusion, the senior passengers should be listened, and self-service machines should be improved to be easier to use. It would encourage seniors to learn to use them even more, and that would be important because digitality is growing so fast and they shouldn’t be left behind with it or fear it. However, the authors feel that the current senior generation will always think that personal service is ultimately better than machines, and changes to the machines might not change their minds on them. Many of them still expect airports to have at least the option for personal service, since flying for them can be scary or new. They assume that only cheap airlines force their customers to use self-service, even though all airlines are slowly moving towards this way of digitalization. It is understandable that the elderly customers have strong opinions towards the self-service machines, because their generation is more use to personal service, and they aren’t so good with technology. In the end, it is in fact a machine and it can’t replace the human interaction that happens through personal service. The authors believe that this is the reason for the high ratings in the survey which didn’t really match the comments that were given when chatting with customers and the fact that more than 50% chose personal
38 service over self-service. They just don’t appreciate self-service as much as personal service.
6.2 Improvement suggestions
The self-service machines and the whole experience could be improved with little changes. Since senior passengers might have worse eyesight and coordination ability, the text and the buttons should be bigger. Also, a lot of the senior passengers wished that the machines would be more logical to use, because e.g. if they had done the check-in already at home, the machine is telling them to do it again. However, what the passenger don’t always know is that, it won’t actually do the check-in again and the previous settings and e.g. seating passengers had done, are still there. But this is something that has confused passengers a lot. Instead, the machine should say “Check-in and /or print bag tags” to be clearer. The passenger also wished more clearer instruction, possibly with pictures. Especially how to scan a passport was an issue and the instruction for that were unclear. The scanners should also be made better, because passengers had a lot of issues reading their passports and ID’s. This is important, because if the first step with the machines is already difficult and unclear, it can make passenger give up with them immediately. Little changes like that, can do a lot, and make the whole customer experience more simple and faster. Some passengers suggested to make the self-service process shorter, but a lot of the pages in the applications are security questions, which makes the process a bit longer. Since 9/11 and the growing amount of dangerous goods such lithium batteries people carry, the security questions are a must and can’t be changed.
Airlines such Finnair has hired guides to help with the self-service machines, but some didn’t have any. It can be very stressful for not only seniors but every passenger to have a problem with them, but not having help close by. They can’t really leave from the machine to look for help, because otherwise they will be leaving their personal information open to everyone to see or they would have to close the application and start again. Especially during rush hours there should be more guides available, to make the experience smoother and faster.
The self-service machines should be placed differently at the department hall, to make queuing better for passengers. At the moment, especially terminal 2 gets really crowded during rush hours and there is no smooth queuing system. This also makes guides job difficult because they are not able to reach the passengers who needs help or move easily
39 between the machines. However, as mentioned in chapter 5.1, Helsinki-Airport is under construction and they will be renewing the whole department area, so the layout for the kiosks will most likely change in a few years’ time and hopefully they will have more space then. There were also security issues that worried passengers. Since the self-service kiosks are placed very closely next to each other, people on the next machines can see all the personal information. This could be avoided by putting screen protections on them, so only the person in front of the machine can see everything. When passengers are in a hurry, they can forget things near the machines, even their bags. So, to improve the machines, they could alarm passengers, to remember to collect their boarding passes and bag tags, so no one can misuse them.
Overall, there aren’t huge changes to be made. Passengers appreciate simplicity, easiness and available help and in a busy and stressful environment such airport those factors should be improved and as a result customer satisfaction will grow.
6.3 Conclusion and further development
Digitality and self-service has grown rapidly in the past years and it will most definitely continue its growth. Nowadays it's possible to buy groceries through self-service machines or a bus ticket in just a few seconds through an app on a phone. Companies are starting to serve their customers through apps, online websites or self-service machines, and many everyday services have changed into these digital functions. This is often a cheaper option for the company and can be efficient, easy and quick to the customer. Though, this has resulted in personal service becoming rarer and more appreciated by many.
Many airlines and airports have also changed their services into self-service functions, from check-in and passport control machines to e-gates during boarding. The goal is to serve as many customers as possible in a short amount of time with less work force. Even though there have been major changes in Helsinki Airport, from the digital changes to the renovation of the airport, the customer satisfaction has not been affected – in fact it has been higher than ever before. So, it’s safe to say that the self-service machines don’t have that much of an impact on the customer satisfaction when it comes to the whole experience of visiting Helsinki Airport.
In the recent years there has been a steady growth in senior travellers. Many elderly outbound tourists in Helsinki Airport were local Finns, but there has also been growth in Chinese elderly travellers in either transferring in Helsinki Airport or coming to Finland for
40 a holiday. The seniors at the airport often need more personal care and assistance from staff, because they are physically weaker than others, and travelling for them can be more stressful and exhausting. These travellers also tend to appreciate personal service more than other age groups.
Many of the seniors travel a lot, which might have made them used to the self-service machines because majority of the senior travellers found the self-service machines easy to use and were mostly satisfied with the whole experience. They would still though prefer the personal service, if there was an option for it. Even though it might have not affected negatively their travel experience and customer satisfaction the majority do prefer personal service over self-service, simply because for them it's a nicer experience and often also an easier option.
For further development, it would be interesting to analyse the differences between all age groups, and e.g. to compare the different opinions of seniors and millennials on digitality and self-service. It would also be interesting to know whether there are differences between nationalities and how motivated or skilled people are in using self-service in other countries.
6.4 Trustworthiness and ethical issues of results
The authors find the results of their survey to be trustworthy, because they were able to get more than 100 elderly customers of Helsinki Airport to answer the survey. The survey was done face-to-face right after the customers had used the self-service machines, so they had an opportunity to give feedback, when their feelings towards the experience were still fresh. Another positive outcome of doing the survey face-to-face was that it made the process a lot quicker, because the authors asked and wrote the answers down for them. This way passengers didn’t have to try to use another device after the possibly stressful experience with the self-service kiosks and authors were probably able to get more respondents because of this.
Even though there were positive sides to the fact that the survey was done face-to-face the authors were concerned if the answers of the customers were honest or not. Many of the respondents would complain about the machines while chatting with them but would still rate a 4-5 in the survey question. This could be, because perhaps the customers were afraid to mark low numbers and give their honest opinions on the survey, despite the authors encouragements. Also, they’re complaints might not have been towards the use of machines itself, but to the whole self-service experience and forcing seniors to use them. Maybe that is why they marked high on the survey questions and were satisfied
41 with them, but just don’t like to use them. The authors also noticed many of the elderly customers struggling with the machines due to not knowing how to use them, but when asked to answer the survey they would still rate a high number. So, there could be a chance that some of the respondents didn’t dare to rate a low number or say anything bad about the experience. The authors would have liked to hear more constructive criticism, because some respondents answered the survey in a rush or said ‘’I don’t know’’ to some of the questions. The authors also felt that some of the survey questions might have been too similar. And for example, the comparisons between ages was a bit unnecessary, because there weren’t much of a difference since age gaps were quite small.
Overall the authors did find this thesis to be quite trustworthy and felt that most of the respondents answered truthfully and were honest about their opinions, and authors do think they were able to get the answers to their research questions. However, there are few issues with trustworthiness of the references though. Some of the references used were websites, that did not have mentioned the author or date of the publication. For future development these types of websites should be avoided.
Because the target of the research was people it was important for the authors to be extra cautious. Before surveying people in Helsinki Airport, the authors had to inform the respondents what they were participating to and what the answers and results were used for, even though the answers were anonymous, and the identities of the respondents were kept unknown. The results and answers of the survey were handled and published honestly and by respecting the respondents. The goal of the authors was to find out the elderly customers opinions about the self- service machines in the most respectful and harmless way possible, and without leaving them feeling discriminated. The outcome of the research displays senior’s tourism in a positive light and the results of the survey can be used in a way to improve customer experience in airports for the senior travellers.
6.5 Evaluation of the thesis process and one’s own learning
The process of the thesis went quite smoothly, considering the tight schedule and the amount of work. The hardest part for the authors must have been during the start, to get everything moving and started. But after the first meeting they had with the supervisor the process got a lot easier, because a timetable was drafted, work was divided, and they finally had a proper plan. Even though the authors had a short period of time to get the
42 whole thesis ready they managed to stick to the timetable like planned and were able to get the thesis ready by time with also being happy with the outcome. During the whole process both of the authors, were constantly connected through WhatsApp. They messaged each other almost every day and shared ideas and suggestions to each other, and the authors worked very well as a pair.
The collection of the data was done through a survey which was successful. The goal was to get 100 respondents and they were able to get this in two days, even though the plan was to go surveying for three days. The authors did face some setbacks with the survey though. Forming the questions was difficult and they thought some of them didn’t give them enough data and were quite pointless for the purpose of this research. Some of the survey questions might have also been too similar to each other which made the analysing a bit harder. So, for improvements for the future they would have to analyse and test their questions even more, to create a better survey.
Overall, this research was successful, and authors has improved their skills, including time management, organization skills, communication and teamwork. Through the survey the authors felt that they got the answers to their research questions and learned a lot e.g. about the elderly travellers’ behaviours, the benefits of self-service and what senior passengers think about self-service.
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8. Appendices
Appendix 1. Survey questions
1. Ikä/Age
• 55-64 • 65-70 • 70+
2. Gender
• Female • Male • Other
3. Nationality
• Finnish • European • Asian • North American • South American • African • Australian
4. How often do you travel by air?
• Less than once a year • 1-2 times a year • 3-4 times a year • More than 4 times a year
5. How satisfied were you with the self-service machines? Scale 1-5 1 = Not satisfied 3 = satisfied 5 = Very satisfied
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6. How easy did you find the use of self-service? Scale 1-5 1 = Not easy at all 3 = satisfied 5 = Very easy
7. Do you prefer self-service or personal service?
• Self-service • Personal service • No preference
8. And why?
• Open writing box
9. How could the self-service experience be improved?
• Open writing box
10. How likely would you use the self-service machines again in the future? Scale 1-5 1 = Not likely at all 3 = Neutral 5 = Extremely likely
Appendix 2. Pre-testing comments
Before going to Helsinki Airport, the survey was tested by the authors friends and family – approximately 10 people answered and gave their opinion on the survey.
• ‘’Good and short, but text colour is a bit difficult to read’’ • ‘’Would like to know how long the survey will take’’ • ‘’The word self-service kiosk might not be familiar to all’’ • ‘’The choice neutral sounds odd’’ • ‘’ Questions about the fastness of the machines would be good’’ • ‘’Below the choice Finnish there is also Other, from? But there is no box where I can answer’’ • ‘’More open answer questions so I can tell more about my own opinions’’ • ‘’Could have a picture of the machine’’
After the pre-testing the authors did some small adjustments to the survey and took the comments into consideration. The word kiosk was changed to machines, because it sounded better in both languages, especially in Finnish. The answers for the question about nationality was also changed, because it wasn’t possible to add a box
52 after the question ‘’Other, from?’’ in Typeform, so the authors had to put more answers to choose from and since they didn’t want to exclude any nationality, they had to put all continents of the world as options.
One problem with the pre-testing was the fact that some of the people who answered didn’t know that we would go to the airport and ask people the survey questions face- to-face and fill in the answers for them. So, that’s why some of the comments were a bit irrelevant.
Appendix 3. Excel figures Excel figure 1.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU TRAVEL BY AIR?
55-64 65-70 70+
60% 57%
50%
40% 34% 32% 32% 30% 25% 23% 25% 24% 20% 16% 14% 12% 10% 6%
0% Less than once a year 1-2 times a year 3-4 times a year More than 4 times a year
Excel figure 2.
HOW SATISFIED WERE YOU WITH THE SELF - S E R V I C E MACHINES? 1 = NOT SATISFIED 3=SATISFIED 5= VERY SATISFIED
55-64 65-70 70+
40% 36% 35% 31% 29% 30% 30% 28% 25% 26% 25% 23% 20% 20% 15% 9% 8% 8% 10% 7% 6% 5% 2% 0% 1 2 3 4 5
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Excel figure 3. HOW EASY DID YOU FIND THE USE OF SELF - SERVICE MACHINES? 1 = NOT EASY 3 = SATISFYING 5 = VERY EASY
55-64 65-70 70+
40% 37%36% 36% 35% 29% 30% 27% 28% 25% 26% 25% 20% 16% 16% 15% 10% 6% 7% 5% 4% 5% 3% 0% 1 2 3 4 5
Excel figure 4. DO YOU PREFER SELF - SERVICE OR PERSONAL SERVICE?
55-64 65-70 70+
80% 72% 70% 60% 48% 49% 50% 40% 30% 29% 30% 23% 23% 16% 20% 12% 10% 0% Self-service Personal service No preference
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