Part A
Year 2022!
Its scorching summer of May at the heart of India, as Kunal has just landed
from the NYC and is coming out of Indra Gandhi International Airport to swiftly
reach his parents place at Noida. It took approximately an hour for Kunal
to collect his luggage, complete his immigration process and walk out of the
airport. He is very happy to have experienced an enriched flight journey and
was thankful to XYZ Airlines to push their New Gen App (let us call it as “Sevak”) into his mobile as Kunal did a
Web Checkin. (Off Course with proper consent from Kunal).
To
appreciate the context let us step few days back, as Kunal was performing the
Web Checkin using his mobile (ABC make which he bought a year back preloaded
with a personal guide, “Sooth”.)
 |
| Kunal performed Web Checkin and accepted to download XYZ airways travelling assistant Sevak |
So
as this new member (App) Sevak landed in his mobile, Kunal had to introduce
Sevak with Sooth (i.e. permissions with Allow, Deny notifications) Sevak starts
syncing up with Sooth after the first handshake,
wherein Sooth gave a complete download on Kunal’s digital records / history,
depending upon what permissions Kunal has granted to Sevak and its capability
(features) off course. Within few minutes, Sevak consumed Kunal’s habit /
records, such as time he gets up in the morning, bed tea, jogging/work out,
freshen up, dress up, breakfast etc. Sevak took a special note that Kunal is a
diabetic patient and take a mild pill before breakfast.
 |
| Sevak is syncing up with Sooth |
During
the start of his journey, the cab which Sooth has booked for Kunal (after analyzing
the offered rates, drivers’ ratings, cabs health, fuel records and stuff…. We
must understand that the Cab is connected with the internet and all its records
are posted live in near real time. So in a sense, Sooth actually spoke to this
Cab, negotiated rates and arranged for the booking) arrived 10 minutes earlier.
Sooth informed Kunal and helped him to lock his apartment (ensuring all the
required electrical / electronic household gadgets are shutdown, doors across
areas are properly closed and bolted, CCTV cameras are ON and able to send out
picture shots at configured intervals etc. to Kunal’s Cloud storage/drive).
Sooth advised Kunal that he should move to Lift #7, as it would be fastest one
(based on Sooth’s analysis on the present congestions and stoppages across
levels). In the background, Sevak get a handle on Kunal’s luggage identifiers (courtesy
Sooth) and tagged them to his passenger ticket number. As Kunal came out of the
lift making his way out of the apartment, driver brought the cab in front of
the main gate (The cab was notified by Sooth about their approximate time of
arrival).
 |
| Sooth managing with Auto Cab Booking |
 |
| Sooth assisting to lock the apartment and board on the cab |
Cab
was smart enough to connect to the internet and make its way to the airport
based on the most optimized route (as suggested by the traffic map service).
After reaching the airport the cab invoice was paid by Sooth (it selected one
of Kunal’s m-Wallet). During the course of the travel to the airport, Sevak
kept informed the airline authorities about Kunal’s movements and updates on
ETA. Based on the information gathered from Sooth on Kunal’s travel profile,
Sevak was quick to analyze that Kunal is a frequent traveler, who doesn’t mind
to spend few extra bucks for getting personalized attention. And, this analysis
had already been shared with the Airline new customer acquisition team.
 |
| Kunal completely relaxed enjoyed the ride to airport (with connected things) |
As expected,
Ms. Lucy, Sr. Sales Executive of XYZ Airlines was already there at the Airport
entrance to receive Kunal. The moment he got down of the cab, Sevak told Kunal,
that the lady in red dress flashing that placard on your name, is there to
receive you. Kunal was nearly dumbfound as has never experienced this sort of a
personalization in any of his earlier travels. In utter excitement he collected
his luggage and walk up to the lady and introduced himself. Sevak from Kunal’s
handset authenticated its counterpart residing on Ms. Lucy’s handset. The
authentication was done! Ms. Lucy greeted
Kunal and without wasting any further time signaled the staff to take over
Kunal’s luggage. She escorted Kunal through the gate and walk up to a reserved ticketing
desk. No queue, Kunal was feeling on top of the world to experience this
personalization touch. At the reserved ticketing desk, Ms Lucy asked Kunal what
luggage he would be carrying inside the cabin. Kunal signaled his laptop bag. So
all other luggage were properly tagged and sent through security checks to the
aircraft cargo, while Kunal received his boarding pass. And Ms Lucy thereafter,
guided Kunal into a small make shift cabin and asked his first reactions on
this newly rolled out customer service program. Kunal was not able to control
his excitement and showered complements on this newly launched customer
oriented pack. That was it. Ms Lucy was waiting for this moment and could now
easily sell their Loyalty Program. And
within next 40 minutes, Kunal happily signed up to Airlines XYZ, Customer for
Life Program and started towards the boarding area. On his way, Sevak (who keep
on connecting to the item databases) keep updating him items that Kunal would
like to pick from any of these custom shops. This was really interesting and Kunal without
stepping into any of these shops, could get the list of items (with full
descriptions), however he was not interested to do any
shopping at this point in time. He went through all the security checks and
immigration process, and finally arrived at the boarding lounge. He picks a
coffee, took the corner seat and started recalling all the new kind of
experiences he had…All of them, right from the moment he initiated the Web
Checkin, with the new app Sevak (courtesy XYZ Airlines) being downloaded with
its highly interactive and learning features, complete incident from home to
airport on that connected cab. Kunal was highly excited to get a taste of this
new Digitalized & Connected travel experience and murmured “Amazing new age travel. Let me see how
many more interesting things come up as I get to meet my parents”
Please watch out for the Part 2 (to be
published soon)
