Beacons have a tremendous potential for disruption and innovation in the travel industry. Both travel customers and employees have slews of information to process, and since terminals can be quite a hectic environment, techniques to cut clearly through the noise are invaluable.
Beacons work brilliantly at isolating individual people and giving them distinct information on a one-to-one scale, so they are helping airlines and customers get the information they need to make decisions while ensuring a more enjoyable travel experience for everyone.
Here are some of the creative ways beacons are being applied throughout the world to transform travel:
Helping You Find Your Way
Airports and train stations are notoriously tough places to navigate. Travellers in danger of missing their flight need to avoid getting caught up in the maze, and maps or signs do not always help as much as they should.
With beacons, travellers can receive turn by turn directions that account for precise distances or shifts from area to area. Unlike GPS technology, the small boundaries of beacon ranges allow for more precise pathing as well as near-instant feedback when a wrong turn is made.
The London Underground is using this application of beacon platforms to help not just the average passenger, but also passengers with visual impairments. An app called Wayfindr sends location information from the user’s smartphone into a set of bone-conducting earphones so that they can hear instructions while also paying attention to auditory cues around them.
Airport Point of Interest
San Francisco International Airport is not only using beacons to help travellers with wayfinding, the app also alerts travellers when they pass by points of interest. Anyone on the hunt for a coffee shop or an informative display can get a clear digital nudge that they have come close to their intended destination. Someone could even use the beacon platform to locate an outlet when their phone or laptop is about to die.
Taking Customer Service to Whole New Heights
Virgin Atlantic is using beacons in conjunction with wearables to instantly glean data from travellers. Information on the beacon app is broadcast to Virgin employees’ Google Glass or smartwatch units in order to greet the customer by name and expedite their check-in process.
Japan Airlines is even more ambitious with their initiative. Their employees are tracked using beacons to monitor staff levels throughout the terminals. If the manager notices that an influx of passengers are arriving at an understaffed terminal, they can re-assign duties to handle flight boardings so that no one gets overwhelmed and all customers have a positive experience.
Information on Tap
American Airlines recently launched a pilot program at the Dallas airport that aims to reduce wait times for passengers and increase overall efficiency. App users have access to up-to-the-minute boarding information as well as wayfinding information and location-relevant alerts.
These applications of beacon technology help close information gaps between passengers and airlines while keeping them digitally connected within a more cohesive customer experience. Businesses that want to tap into the rich functionality of beacons can take the lead of these brands and implement new and creative ways to add to the customer experience while making their businesses more efficient.
Take a tour of our products to discover more about how our beacon platform can harness the power of beacon technology and bring your brand to the cutting edge of technology.
