以流程視角的觀點探討顧客導向之服務設計－以臺灣航空業為例

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(1)國立高雄大學國際企業管理碩士學位學程碩士論文. 以流程視角的觀點探討顧客導向之服務設計－以臺灣航空業為例 Examining Customer-oriented Service Design from a Process Perspective- the Case Study of the Airline Industry in Taiwan. 研究生：吳岱玲撰指導教授：李亭林博士. 中華民國 103 年 6 月.

(2) 以流程視角的觀點探討顧客導向之服務設計－以臺灣航空業為例指導教授：李亭林博士國立高雄大學亞太工商管理學系學生：吳岱玲國立高雄大學國際企業管理學位學程摘要航空業是個著重於服務的產業。在搭乘飛機的流程中，旅客經常會因主觀的感受而受到影響，而這樣子的觀點通常是無形的。本研究的目的為探討過去因量化研究對顧客解析所產生誤解的差距，以洞察航空服務流程中旅客內心的感受和行為引導出更優質的顧客導向的服務設計。除此之外，利用像人物誌、同理心地圖、及顧客旅程地圖一系列具功能性質的方法拼湊出創新服務的起點。本研究首先以人物誌針對持有相同的目的、性格、和觀點的目標族群顧客描繪出一個虛構人物，再以同理心地圖描繪出旅客的六種感官：看、聽、說與做、想法、痛苦、和期待，最後以有別於以往的角度加以深入的洞察旅客的行為、想法、和感受去了解整個服務流程和重要的接觸點。本研究結果從顧客分享的飛行經驗中以整合性的研究方法:問卷、一對一訪談和觀察法，並以圖解說明的方式加以呈現。未來期望航空公司及相關航空產業透過顧客旅程的解析和利用這三種連貫的質性方法來激發顧客導向創新服務的起點，並了解所提供的服務中有無達到顧客的期望並探索出新的策略來解決。除此之外，以此研究結果確認航空服務業的顧客關係和價值的維繫。. 關鍵字：人物誌、同理心地圖、顧客旅程地圖、顧客導向設計. I.

(3) Examining Customer-oriented Service Design from a Process Perspective- the Case Study of the Airline Industry in Taiwan Advisor(s): Dr. Lee, Ting-Lin Institute of Asia-Pacific Industrial and Business Management National University of Kaohsiung Student: Tai-Ling Wu Institute of International Master of Business Administration National University of Kaohsiung ABSTRACT. Airline industry is a high-intensive service industry. Customers can be influenced by many subjective perceptions that are not physical objects and, in fact, intangible. The goal of this study is to discover the gap that might be misunderstood from the previous quantitative studies. The main objective of the research is to address the customer-oriented design based on the observation of customers’ close reaction of every touch points and inner thoughts of the journey process and to provide functional route of design a customer-oriented service for Taiwanese airline industry or industry related to airline industry through qualitative approaches such as: persona, empathy map and customer journey map that could be penetrated by distinct angles. The portrayals of target passengers whom possess common behavioral characteristics by persona; the feeling, expectations, perceptions and conversation by empathy map; and the analysis of service touch points by customer journey map from the passengers’ service process perspective can aid the design of customer-oriented service of airline industry and associated industry. The results of this study presented in visualized graphic which can act as a reference mode of customer-oriented service designer. This study provides valuable qualitative tools for firms/airline service designers to find out determinate elements of the enhancement on customer relationship and value. Keywords: Persona, Empathy map, Customer journey map, Customer-oriented design II.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS. ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. VII CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 1.1 Research Background.................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Motivation ...................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research Objective ........................................................................................ 4 1.4 Research Questions ........................................................................................ 5 1.5 Research Process ............................................................................................ 6 1.6 Operational Definition of Airline Industry .................................................. 6 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 8 2.1 Airline Industry in Taiwan ........................................................................... 8 2.1.1 The Service of Airline Industry .......................................................... 10 2.2 Persona .......................................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 Proposed Benefits of Personas ............................................................ 16 2.3 Empathy Map ............................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Proposed Benefits of Empathy Map ................................................... 19 2.4 Customer Journey Map............................................................................... 20 2.4.1 Former Studies Proposed Benefits of Customer Journey Map ........... 21 2.5 Customer-oriented Service Design ............................................................. 22 2.5.1 User-centered Design .......................................................................... 22 2.5.2 Service Design .................................................................................... 23 2.6 Remarks ........................................................................................................ 24 III.

(5) CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ................ 26 3.1 Research Framework and Structure.......................................................... 26 3.2 Research Design ........................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 Data Collection ................................................................................... 29 3.2.2 Interview ............................................................................................. 29 3.3 Persona .......................................................................................................... 30 3.4 Empathy map ............................................................................................... 35 3.5 Customer Journey Map............................................................................... 37 CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................... 40 4.1 Questionnaire Design ................................................................................... 40 4.2 Descriptive Statistic in Each Stages ........................................................... 41 4.2.1 Remarks of Descriptive Statistics ....................................................... 49 4.3 In-depth Interview in Each Stage ............................................................... 50 4.3.1 General Questions ............................................................................... 56 4.3.2 Booking ............................................................................................... 57 4.3.3 Check-in .............................................................................................. 58 4.3.4 Boarding .............................................................................................. 60 4.3.5 In-flight ............................................................................................... 61 4.3.6 Post-flight ............................................................................................ 62 4.4 Persona .......................................................................................................... 63 4.4.1 Persona- Business ............................................................................... 63 4.4.2 Persona- Study .................................................................................... 66 4.4.3 Persona- Travel ................................................................................... 68 4.5 Empathy Map ............................................................................................... 70 4.5.1 Empathy Map-Business ...................................................................... 70 4.5.2 Empathy Map- Study .......................................................................... 71 IV.

(6) 4.5.3 Empathy Map- Travel ......................................................................... 72 4.5.4 Remarks for Empathy Map ................................................................. 73 4.6 Customer Journey Map............................................................................... 74 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...................................... 80 5.1 Research Conclusions .................................................................................. 80 5.2 Managerial Implications ............................................................................. 82 5.3 Limitations .................................................................................................... 86 5.4 Future Research Directions ........................................................................ 86 5.5 Research Contributions ............................................................................... 87 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 88 APPENDIX-A ............................................................................................................. 91 APPENDIX-B ............................................................................................................. 96 APPENDIX-C ........................................................................................................... 100 APPENDIX-D ........................................................................................................... 102. V.

(7) LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 Former Studies of Airline Industry .............................................................. 10 Table 2-2 Proposed Benefits of Personas..................................................................... 16 Table 2-3 Technological User-centered Design Process .............................................. 22 Table 3-1 Empathy Map Questions.............................................................................. 36 Table 3-2 Customer Journey Map ................................................................................ 38 Table 4-1 Results of Research Questionnaire- Section 1 ............................................. 42 Table 4-2 Results for Questionnaire of Booking Process ............................................ 43 Table 4-3 Results for the Questionnaire of Check-in Process ..................................... 44 Table 4-4 Result for the Questionnaire of Boarding Process ....................................... 46 Table 4-5 Results for the Questionnaire of In-flight Process ....................................... 48 Table 4-6 Results for the Questionnaire of Post flight Process.................................... 49 Table 4-7 Details of Interviewee Basic Information .................................................... 51 Table 4-8 In-depth Interview Sections ......................................................................... 53 Table 4-9 In-depth Interview Question ........................................................................ 54. VI.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1 The Flow Chart of This Research ................................................................ 6 Figure 2-1 Airport Passengers Trends in Taiwan ........................................................... 8 Figure 2-2 Passenger Ratio of International Flight of Domestic Airline Firms ............ 9 Figure 3-1 Research Framework ................................................................................. 28 Figure 3-2 Difference of Personas Prototype and Formal Persona ............................. 30 Figure 3-3 An Example of Persona Prototype Turn into a Foundation Document ..... 31 Figure 3-4 An Example of a Statements in a Foundation Document Supported by Factoids ..................................................................................................... 31 Figure 3-5 Example of Persona Fiction Character-1 ................................................... 34 Figure 3-6 Example of Persona Fiction Character-2 ................................................... 34 Figure 3-7 Example of Empathy Map ......................................................................... 37 Figure 3-8 Example of Customer Journey Map of Rail Europe .................................. 39 Figure 4-1 Persona-Business ....................................................................................... 65 Figure 4-2 Persona-Study ............................................................................................ 67 Figure 4-3 Persona-Travel ........................................................................................... 69 Figure 4-4 Empathy Map-Business ............................................................................. 71 Figure 4-5 Empathy Map- Study ................................................................................. 72 Figure 4-6 Empathy Map- Travel ................................................................................ 73 Figure 4 7 Airline Service Customer Journey Map ..................................................... 79. VII.

(9) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION. 1.1 Research Background Nowadays, firms have to consider the requirement of customer expectation in order to design the products or services that are oriented into the future. Kandampully and Duddy (1999) argued that besides the quality and achievement of market leadership, innovations of service have acted as a superior value and competitive advantage of the firms. Firms having the ability to enhance the value of the customer and to provide customer oriented products and service tend to have more effective establishment of customer relationship. To think for the customer, and to visualize and fulfill novel approaches on the behalf of customers’ need are some of the most important factors for firms to maintain a long term customer relationship. User-centered design has emphasized the process of product and service design and focused on the customer need and anticipation (Miaskiewicz & Kozar, 2011). Based on the Design Thinking of Brown (2008) clearly highlighted the generalized concept of design: “a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity” The former studies emphasis greater on both product design, on the other hand, service focus more on quantitative measurement of service quality. Airline industry is a high-intensive service industry. The relationship between customers and employees of airline service is often considered the main determination of satisfaction and quality. Customers can be influenced by many subjective and inter subjective contexts that are not physical objects and, in fact, intangible. Former 1.

(10) academic researchers emphasized more on the measurement of service quality and degrees of airline service dimensions, and satisfaction levels. Many studies have pointed out the service quality and customer relationship in the airline industry. The result from Aksoy, Atilgan, and Akinci (2003) has revealed the variation of factors underlying service expectations of Turkish domestic and foreign airline passengers by defining the customer demographics of service dimensions, the understanding of satisfaction level and discrimination. Chen and Chang (2005) examined Taiwanese airline service process which is separated into ground service and in-flight service, of the gap between actual services provided and perceived. Moreover, Pakdil and Aydın (2007) used SERQUAL scores to measure airline service quality of Turkish Airlines. The study suggested that future research could inspect the reasons that the actual perceptions of passengers were lower than expectation.. 1.2 Research Motivation Studies on customer-oriented service design of the airline industry in Taiwan are limited. A number of studies addressed the measurement or framework issues based on the Taiwanese airline industry. However, these studies aimed to measure service quality by statistical data. The frameworks of the survey from the previous studies were presented with similar dimension. Thus, field of study for deeper linkage and penetrating analysis from qualitative methods has been neglected. Qualitative approaches allow researchers to deal with complexity, context, personality factors, and relationships phenomena. Conventional statistical methods fail in all these aspects. With interview, survey, and observation, this study use qualitative methodologies such as persona, empathy map, and customer journey map to describe the process of passengers’ journey. First, the concept of persona is used in research to represent human aspects, 2.

(11) individual personalities, collective consciousness, roles, and research environment. In the practice of service design, data and their relationships are incomplete. Yet, designs related to all functions, such as external relationships, level of organization strategy. Personas portray compile of target users who possess common behavioral characteristics. Clearly addressed and introduced by Cooper (1999), personas have been integrated into the design processes of prominent firms. The former studies or consultancy firms with practical examples suggest that persona aid functional designs. In fact, a persona is not a real person. It is merely a fictional representative with selected name and a picture. Also, persona is designed to describe in narrative form. The narrative of a persona began with illustration of background information, characteristic, lifestyle, goal and value, likes and dislikes emotion and attitude, and so forth. This part of the narrative brought the persona to be vivid and actual. In addition, the persona’s specific needs and personal goals in the context of the service or product being designed are defined. The variety of the narrative forms helped to inform the resulting design decisions (Pruitt & Adlin, 2006). Second, empathy map was developed by a visualization company XPLANE. It was a solution for researchers to seek beyond demographics and develop a better understanding of the environment, behavior, concerns and aspirations. Empathy Map is a tool to integrate observations and draw out unexpected insights. Creating “Empathy map” such as customer profiles could bring advantages for both firms and business model designer in numerous ways. First, it informed the development of more targeted value propositions, and it guided the execution of customer relationship management and strategies. Empathy map layout a four quadrant and populate the map by taking note of the following four traits of user as review notes, audio, and video from the interviews and observation: say, do, think, and feel. Finally, customer journey is a tool used to track and analyze the user experience 3.

(12) and figures approximately the quality of a process or service. Also, the representation of linear, time-based showed the main stages of passengers’ interaction with service processes. In the latest years, it was used as a design tool by interaction and service designers. From the former study, Brugnoli (2009) focused their attention on the customer experience which is an important determent to success of an ecommerce website. This article provided the model that is based on a customer journey map and aims to measure, distinguish, analyze and evaluate in a quantitative or objective way through different phases. (Brugnoli, 2009).. 1.3 Research Objective The primary purpose of this study is to address the customer-oriented design from highly service intensive airline industry in Taiwan. The goal is to discover the gap that might be misunderstood from the previous quantitative studies. Instead of number and objective ranking score, qualitative approaches penetrated by distinct angles. From the stage of empathy map, persona, and customer journey map, substantially formed a conceptual framework of customer-oriented service for the reference of airline industry. Firstly, persona improved communication about the target representatives of the airline passengers. A primary focus of persona is to discover the perceived of customer behavioral preferences. The proposed benefits of personas were to communicate information of customer through the organization.. Secondly, with. empathy map, customer service perception observations and unexpected insights could be synthesized. Rather than statistical analysis, empathy map created a layout of passengers’ insight feeling, concerns, expectation, or most considerable “demand”. Finally, customer journey map represents the distinguish aspects and expectation service route of passengers. 4.

(13) The goals of this study are to combine three main approaches, and provide alternative choices of customer-oriented service design in reference. In fact, to provide suggestion to firms or airline service designer to base on these qualitative tools as future determinates of enhancement of customer relationship and value.. 1.4 Research Questions 1.. What are the portrayals of target users who possess common behavioral characteristics that are suggested by persona?. 2.. What are the feeling, expectations, perceptions and conversation of the passengers’ service process at different stages identified from empathy map?. 3.. What can be analyzed the user experience and the quality of a process or service through customer journey map? Are there any places for improving?. 4.. What can persona, empathy map, and customer journey map can aid the design of customer-oriented service of airline industry?. 5.

(14) 1.5 Research Process. Figure 1-1 The Flow Chart of This Research. 1.6 Operational Definition of Airline Industry This study originally was design to analyze the opportunities for airline firms solely. The results of the research concluded with innovated ideas and solutions from the perspective of the passengers as reference for the airline firms. However, as the research progressing, the implications of the study were lead to wider range that reach correlated service industries of airline industries including: airplane designers, 6.

(15) airplane seat designers, airport engineers, airport architects, airline service providers, and etc. Due to the contents of interviews did not restricted to a certain boundary, most interviewees pointed out the matters that is directly or indirectly associated with other correlated airline industries or even governmental organization. For example, most interviewees consider “seat comfort” is the most important part of in-flight service. However, seat comfort can associated with industries like airplane seat manufactory, airplane manufactory to design suitable and comfortable seat, and airline firms to decide the seat size and the seat arrangement for the best budget and financial profit. Therefore, for airline service associated industries, this research act as a trigger for the designers to design customer-oriented services or products and tries to find solution for the pain points and goals of the passengers. Despite constrained by funds, government policies, and management strategies, the managerial implications still provide the direct solutions from passengers’ viewpoints.. 7.

(16) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Airline Industry in Taiwan In 2012, there were 45.4 million of passengers benefit from the air flight service in Taiwan, which increased 9.7 % compared with 2011. 23.9 million Passengers were destined for international areas, and 10.6 million of passengers were carried to domestic air flight. Annually, Taiwan has approximately 80,200 scheduled international flights depart, destined for 106 airports in 33 countries and 81,300 flights available to passengers destined for domestic 18 domestic airports (Economics, 2010).. Airport passengers trends in Taiwan Thousands/ People. Total. International Flight. Domestic Flight. Border Crossing Year 1994. 1995. 1996. 1997. 7. 1998. 1999. 2000. 2001. 2002. 2003. 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. 7. Figure 2-1 Airport Passengers Trends in Taiwan Source: Civil Aeronautics Adminstration ROC (2012). 8. 2008. 2009. 2010. 2011. 2012. 2010.

(17) Taiwanese Domestic airline firms in have carried 27.8 million of passengers in 2012. Around 80% of the passengers which are 22.5 million of passengers are taking international routes or to China. The rest of 20% of the passengers are significantly dropped due to the implement of Taiwan High Speed Rail. There are seven Taiwanese domestic firms have provide the international flight routes: China Airline, Eva Air, Trans Asia Airways, Mandarin Airlines, Daily Airline, Uni Airline, Far Eastern Air Transport. China Airline and Eva Air line have the market share of international flight approximately about 84%. The rest of 16% are Trans Asia Airways, Mandarin Airlines, Daily Airline, Uni Airline, and Far Eastern Air Transport.. Figure 2-2 Passenger Ratio of International Flight of Domestic Airline Firms Source: Civil Aeronautics Administration ROC (2012). With the instinct of the service characteristic of airline industry, Airline has 9.

(18) minor attributes to their product. In fact, airline industry has been focusing more of complex of intangible service. Mutual contacts, communication, and service providing has been the critical consequence of passenger’s perception and satisfaction of quality of service. Former literature research of airline industry has profoundly emphasized on relation the service quality and customer satisfaction or value.. 2.1.1 The Service of Airline Industry Due to the invisible, heterogeneous, non-divisible, and easy-passing of service quality of the airline industry, satisfactory factors are difficult to measure, therefore former research stressed on analyzed the airline service quality satisfactory of airline industry mostly. Also, identify the main loyalty factors or incentives to maintain relationship with the passengers. Previous research also tried to form a framework or identify gap of service perception and expectation. Table 2-1 provided specific former research issue, methods or model, and implications of the airline industry.. Table 2-1 Former Studies of Airline Industry Authors. Issue. Methods or model. Implication. Aksoy,. Airline services marketing Demographic profile,. Various patterns for group. Aitlgan,. by domestic and foreign. of customer classified in. Akinci. firms: differences from the characteristics, airline the foreign airline. (2003). customers’ viewpoint. behavior service dimensions. passenger and domestic airline passenger. Gaps between passengers’. Chen &. Examining airline service. IPA. Chang. quality from a process. (Importance-performan expectation and received. (2005). perspective. ce analysis), PZB gap among the service model. Pakdil &. Expectations and. SERVQUAL. Aydin. perceptions in airline. opportunities throughout. (2007). services: An analysis using. the service delivery. weighted SERVQUAL. processes 10. Alert for improvement.

(19) scores. Chang, Yeh A survey analysis of service Fuzzy multicriteria. performance evaluation. (2002). quality for domestic airlines analysis (MA). Dolnicar,. Key drivers of airline. Multi-step nature of the Requiring different loyalty. Grabler,. loyalty. airline choice process incentives for different. Grun,. segments of the market. Kulnig. such as business travelers. (2011). and leisure travelers.. Wu, Cheng A hierarchical model of (2013). Conceptual framework Valid analytical tool for the. service quality in the airline Measurement scale. measurement of passengers’. industry. perceptions of service. Hierarchical model. quality. Liou (2009) A novel decision rules approach for customer. Variable Consistency. demonstrated the. Dominance-based. customers’ behavior for the. relationship management of Rough Set Approach. airline market in Taiwan. the airline market. Source: organized by the author. Previous references had indicated the customer value and satisfaction is the core value of many businesses. In fact, to conceive the expectation and requirements of airline passengers are immeasurable and difficult to emphasize. The study from Aksoy et al. (2003) has based on the demographic profile, behavior characteristics, and airline service dimensions to test the factors of differences between Turkish domestic and foreign airline firms . The result has revealed the various patterns for group of customer classified in the foreign airline passenger and domestic airline passenger. From the service dimension, the domestic airline passengers have stressed more on the price and with varying expectation of foreign airline passengers who emphasize on the other nine dimensions of airline service (food and beverage service, personnel, cabin features, internet services, in-flight activities, traditional airline 11.

(20) quality) rating with correspondence analysis. Previous empirical studies measured airline service quality by weighted SERQUAL scores for statistically interpreting. With general framework from the data collection of Turkish airline, the result shows the dimensions between expectations and perceptions did not reflect a higher value. The study had drawn the conclusion that the profiles of various consumer and expectations are the essential part for understanding consumers and so as to design marketing strategies. It has suggested future research should find out why and how the airline management could improve for service delivery process. In Dolnicar, Grabler, Grün, and Kulnig (2011), study revealed and identified loyalty drivers from responses of 687 passengers. The result suggested aggregate level, frequent flyer membership, price, the status of being a national carrier, and the reputation of the airline as perceived by friends are the best factors for describing passengers’ behavioral loyalty to airline. In addition to that, differences in drivers of airline loyalty for a number of segments were identified.. Loyalty programs play a key role for business travelers. whereas airline loyalty of leisure travelers is difficult to trace back to single factors such as price and nationality of airline firms. Moreover, the study indicated implications for airline managers: significantly factors that associated with higher passenger loyalty are not the same across the entire market, thus requiring different loyalty incentives for different segments of the market such as business travelers and leisure travelers. The study of Pakdil and Alydin (2007), focus expectations and perceptions in airline services with application of weighted SERVQUAL scores. On the basis of the service quality gaps, the study pointed out that none of passengers’ perception responded to their expectations in any of dimensions. Therefore, the research implied airline management should be more committed to performance improvement and alert for improvement opportunities throughout the service delivery processes. The study 12.

(21) highlights the expectation factors on which airline firms’ marketing function should be focused when designing their service delivery processes. In addition, passengers’ gap scores significantly differed by educational level, the frequency of flight, and flight purposes. This also supports a more general observation that service policies can be perceived in different ways by individuals with different educational backgrounds. Also, the study indicated the impact of frequency and purpose of flight shows the importance of treating each customer as a unique individual. The research of Chen and Chang (2005) examined the airline service quality from. a. service. process. by. the. application. of. PZB. gap. model. and. importance–performance analysis. In their study, air travel was firstly divided into ground and in-flight service stages. Then, the study continually examined the gap between passengers’ service expectations and actual service received and the gaps associated with passenger service expectations and the perceptions of these expectations by frontline managers and employees of a Taiwanese airline. With importance–performance analysis, the study was able to develop service attribute evaluation maps in order to identify key areas for improvement. The result indicated that there are significant gaps between passengers’ expectation and received among the service. Moreover passengers were more concerned about the responsiveness and assurance dimensions from airline frontline staff. In fact, an important finding implied even frontline managers that interacted with passengers regularly misjudged the customers’ expectations. The formation process of customer service standards and specifications should be incorporated customer information in order airlines frontline staffs can provide the satisfaction of service in response to customer needs. The tangibles dimension such as seat comfort was considered more important when evaluating in-flight service quality than when evaluating ground service quality. For in-flight service, most passengers consider the cabin crew’s professional knowledge 13.

(22) and emergency handling abilities are the key points to smooth their anxiety and frustration throughout the flight. Also, Comfort of the seats was the first priority for improvement. The study from Liou (2009) demonstrated the customers’ behavior for the airline market in Taiwan by the application of the factor analysis and the Variable Consistency Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (VC-DRSA). The results of the study’s’ survey, customers are separated into three groups, loyal, potential, and to be developed. For loyal customers which mostly are government employees and medium income customers, it indicated that low price is drivers by most of the loyal customers. Superior services and facilities are the main suggestion for airline firms to retain loyal customers of high income. Moreover, the research also implied better timetable and the facilities, over 80% of the participants were willing to consider using the airline. Therefore, if airline firms should provide better services and more attractive incentives to draw potential customers in order to maintain its competitiveness. On the other hand, for the ‘‘to be developed group” reliability and safety record are the keys for them to hesitate. “Taiwan’s domestic passenger airline market has become a major transport service sector with an annual average growth rate of nearly 20% since deregulation in 1987.” (Chang & Yeh, 2002). With Taiwan domestic airline market provided similar fares and flyer programs, Taiwanese airline firms are in tough competitive status. In the empirical study by Chang and Yeh (2002), it reveals the issue of service quality performance evaluation that is from passengers’ survey. Forming fuzzy set that is based on the criteria weights and perceived performance rating of Taiwan’s domestic airline, the study was able to form the performance evaluation (Chang & Yeh, 2002). Also, the research of Wu and Cheng (2013) is based on the conceptual framework and measurement scales in the airline industry to measure the gap between passenger’s 14.

(23) expectation and perceptions of the service quality of the airline industry. The hierarchical framework developed for Wu and Cheng’s study enables mangers to identify the most and the least important dimensions underlying passengers’ perceptions of service quality. According to the comparative importance of the dimensions, practitioners can allocate different weights to the dimensions and efficiently use their limited resources Overall, Former study about the service of airline industry has heavily emphasis on definitions of service quality, and what methods can the measure the service quality. These studies addressed more on the quantitative and statistical methods. Most of the studies tried to test through discover the satisfactory factors and factors to retain customer relationships. As former study indicated the process of airline customer service should be standards and specifications of customer information. Also, the airline service satisfactory can be highly influence by education, income level, and travel purpose. The primary object of this study is to address the customer-oriented design from highly service intensive airline industry in Taiwan. To provide customer-oriented design service or product, airline service can fulfill the goals of the customers. In additional to that, the goal of this research is to discover the research gap that might be misunderstood from the previous quantitative studies. Instead of number and objective ranking score, qualitative approaches penetrated by distinct angles. From persona, empathy map, and customer journey map, the research could substantially form the conceptual framework of standard customer-oriented service in different stages.. 2.2 Persona The method of person was mentioned by Cooper (1999) in his book The Inmate Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to 15.

(24) Restore the Sanity. During the design process, Cooper has addressed high-tech products are likely design of the features enhancement or technology improvement rather than concentrated on the need of people. Creating a fictitious, precious, and assumptions of target audience that has been chosen, Persona helps organization or designers to plan or design a product or service to a greater degree of User-Centered Design. User-centered notion was common to explain as considering the consumer needs as the core subject of the design processes.. 2.2.1 Proposed Benefits of Personas Table 2-2 Proposed Benefits of Personas Source. Specified Benefits. Cooper (1999). -. Increase focus on the users and their goals Facilitate effective communication about users. -. Reduce necessary changes at the end of the development process the method assist that the designer to remember they are differ from the end user enables designers to envision the end-user’s need and wants Build consensus and commitment to design Help to measure a design’s effectiveness Define the product’s feature set Facilitate effective communication within the. Nielsen, Nielsen, Stage, and Billestrup (2013). -. Grudin and Pruitt (2002). Long (2009). Miaskiewicz and Kozar (2011). -. project team Help other related efforts such as marketing plans Strengthen focus on the users during the development process Lead to more user-friendly designs Make the user needs more explicit Guide decision making An alternative method for representing and communicating customer needs 16.

(25) Pruitt and Adlin (2006). Sauro (2012). -. Ability to focus product design team on the actual goals of target customers Established a truly consumer-centered design attitude Make assumptions about users explicit Narrow the users being designed for Lead to better design decisions Increase engagement among the design team Build empathy for the users Defining a specific user's goals and needs Giving design teams a focus with a common understanding Identifying opportunities and product gaps to drive strategy Concentrating on designing for a manageable target who represents a larger group. Source: Miaskiewicz and Kozar (2011) and the author Even though persona has been popular since 1990s, the inadequate evidence of empirical study and testing result has consequence with extensive experiences of many firms to consider persona as part of their product design. By Nielsen et al. (2013), the empirical research measuring the knowledge and using as tool for developing software with 69 companies. The survey results in 45% of respondents know about persona. 11.5% of respondents’ usage persona as tool for software development. Although this information has been limited of the survey size and the data was conducted at a small geographical area, it gives the fact that persona has obstacles for implementation. On the other hand, Miaskiewicz and Kozar (2011) study of identified the benefit of persona for product design practice through the method of Delphi methodology by 19 experts who have used persona extensively. The benefit of audience focus, product requirement prioritization, and audience prioritization considered to be the top three benefits of using personas. Other benefits 17.

(26) have been suggested by the study of Long, Long has experiment with three groups of students from NCAD for 5 weeks. Students had been separated into associated design tools. The group using persona as illustrated image and storyboard scenario data had better scores on Nielsen’s usability heuristics and structure a consistent pattern. It has been highlighted that the group that is using personas have distinguish about the problems that the user will probably encounter and find solution for it as customer need (Long, 2009). In the book The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind throughout Product Design by Pruitt and Adlin (2006), personas should be considered to be the tool to aid the entire process of user-centered design. In fact, the book has suggested the tool can be enhanced and integrated with other user-centered design and development process. Persona, instead of aiming the universal design for everybody, have focus on the specific users (Pruitt & Adlin, 2006). From studies of product design, personas could also as marketing strategy. In the Herskovitz and Crystal (2010) study, storytelling has been recognized great effect on branding. Brand is the integrated mix of both customers’ behavior and communications to others. Storytelling not only can construct customer experiences but also bond with narrative, characteristic and type of factors of your target customer. In fact, the sentimental connect that is creating by brand persona is to be considering longer and easily recognized, for example: Nike, Disney, and McDonald (Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). From the former research papers and books, there are four major frames of references on personas (1) Goal-directed perspective by Cooper (1999); (2) role-based perspective by (Pruitt and Adlin (2006)); (3) engaging perspective; (4) fiction-based perspective (Billestrup, et al.). As the study by Nielsen et al. (2013) addressed, “Persona increase the focus on users and their needs, the method is an effective communication tool, at the persona description get direct design influence and lead to better design decision and definition of the product’s feature set” (Nielsen et al., 18.

(27) 2013). Many potential of how persona usage has not yet been identified. It has advocated as communication tool for deeper linkage with target customer. Recent and former empirical study has used persona at the usage of technology or product development. In this study, airline service is considered an integrated composition of perceptive process. Service design comprises of high-level of intangible standards and process that is difficult to speculate. For this reason, the aim of this study is to focus on integrated the benefit of practice persona as tool to develop customer-centered design service.. 2.3 Empathy Map The Empathy Map was developed a consulting company XPLANE. XPLANE was founded in 1993, and it evolved composition of the design, business insight and experiences within innovating style of consultancy. It was later introduced in a book Business Model Generation by Osterwalder and Peigner (2010). It was a collaboration of exploring customers’ environment, behavior, concerns, and aspirations to gain insight about them. The method is simple and easy to practice (Osterwalder & Peigner, 2010).. 2.3.1 Proposed Benefits of Empathy Map The goal of the firm Xplane was to create unique methods integrated innovated ways to precise, improving and accelerate plan and visual tools to gain solution for business leaders. Empathy map was one of it.. Empathy Map is an implement sketch elusive understanding of customer. Creating Empathy map could be beneficial for managers and business model 19.

(28) designers in various way of exploring customers’ insight. Empathy map layout a four quadrant and populate the map by taking note of the following four traits of user as review notes, audio, and video from the interviews and observation. The four sight perspectives: say, do, think, and feel are being record down (Bratsberg, 2010). According to the book Gamestorming: a playbook for innovators, rulebreakers and changemakers by Gray, Brown, and Macanufo (2010), empathy map was presented in six different perspectives: see, say, do, think, feel, hear, gain, pain/top challenge.. The academic studies of empathy map were lack of measurements, precisely standards, and process for doing it. However, the technique has brought the deeper linkage and exploration on customer. Müller (2010) pointed out “Meaning that there are relevant aspects and needs that are not articulated by the customer in an interview and can only be determined in a multidimensional evaluation process.” From service perspective, customers’ ideal expectation and perceptions could not view transparently with quantitative methods or data. Empathy map could emphasize on the dimensions that is truly reflected to customers’ need.. 2.4 Customer Journey Map “Customer Journey Map is a tool used to track and analyze the user experience and assess the quality a process or a service” (Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009). Derives from Customer Relationship Management sector, Customer Journey Map was initially present as means for customer-oriented design for synthesized with user experience. It is often used to examine the user experience of the linkages, connection, or touch points during the process. In the recent years, it has been popularized as a method for customer interaction design. Customer journey map is representation of a flow process and consisting stages of user experience (Richardson, 2010). 20.

(29) 2.4.1 Former Studies Proposed Benefits of Customer Journey Map Customer journey map has been adapted by many former empirical studies and practice from real world. The focal points of customer behavior, intention, perception, and the destination of customer can be reveal during examine the composition stages. Previous study has revealed customer experience of an eCommerce website (Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009). Based on Customer Journey Map, five major stages of shopping which included: landing, product identification, product presentation, cart, order completion and payment on a B2C eCommerce websites have testified with at least 15 variables or factors and formed “experience curve”. Each phase has been examined precious and knee. The study has structure as a quantitative representation to identify the particular part for improvement (Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009). Other study by Brugnoli (2009) has addressed the design process could associated with user experience and dispense to service or applications. Interaction designers can emphasis on the key components of system and standards: role of the user. The interaction processes should be flexible enough to associate the random and unpredictable connecting points that are made by the customers (Brugnoli, 2009). By mapping the system, different components could by analyzed and create higher level of vision for connections these segments. In this study, customer’s journey map has been setting out an example of using digital camera. The matrix of route from capture, manage, publish, and share could reveal figures of user behavior and characteristic. At the result, this study highlighted the unexplored connections of many service systems or applications that could be reconsider and refine to the design procedures. Customer journey map has enhanced of firms to reconsider toward an experience-based differentiation. The plan for a customer to get a better experience is to build the core cultural in the firm. According to Temkin (2008), experience-based differentiation 21.

(30) maturity model could consist with five levels: Interested, invested, committed, engaged, and embedded. With five stages till maturity of experience differentiation model, customer experience is fully absorbed and been considered as the core strategy of the firms (Temkin, 2008).. 2.5 Customer-oriented Service Design 2.5.1 User-centered Design User-centered design (UCD) is a notion identified as the expectation of target customers have cooperated with the design process. Raised by Donald Norman in the 1980s’, User-centered design tools and model has been utilized abundantly on engineering and design in the 1990s. Norman addressed the concept that the designer should think as what user is expecting, and the product could reduce the time for user to learn and use it (Norman, 1988). In the book User-Centered Design: An Integrated approach by Vredenburg, Isensee, and Righi (2002) address the importance of design process along with user experience. It creates a linear association with user needs and process of design and development. The implements of UCD aid the firms to abolish technology-oriented process in support of engineer-used operations.. Table 2-3. Technological User-centered Design Process. Technique. Purpose. Stage of the Design Cycle. Background Interviews and questionnaires. Collecting data related to the needs and expectation of users; evaluation of design alternative, prototype and the final artifact Collecting data related to the sequence of work to be performed with the artifact Include a wide range of stakeholders to discuss issues. At the beginning of the design project. Sequence of work interviews and questionnaires Focus group. 22. Early in the design cycle. Early in the design cycle.

(31) On-site observation Role playing, walkthroughs, and simulations. Usability testing Interviews and questionnaires. and requirements Collecting information concerning the environment in which the artifact will be used Evaluation of alternative designs and gaining additional information about user needs and expectations; prototype evaluation Collecting quantities data related to measurable usability criteria Collecting qualitative data related to user satisfaction with the artifact. Early in the design cycle. Early and mid-point in the design cycle. Final stage of the design cycle Final stage of the design cycle. Source: Involving users in the design process (Preece, etc. 2002) 2.5.2 Service Design User-centered design is often used in the area of development of hi-tech or software development. Focusing on the tangible products that is been using as designing process, User-centered design or customer-oriented design for service has not yet be properly and well used. According to the empirical study by Temkin (2008), there are six customer-centric DNA for firms to cooperate in strategy and culture which are collective celebrations, commitment to employees, clear beliefs, constant communications, compelling stories, consistent tradeoffs. He suggested, the firms that want to enhance the quality of customer experience, should ingrained with these six components in order to get the maturity in his model (Temkin, 2008). This study discussed industry with high-density service – airline industry. The entire process perspective will be examined with three customer-oriented design tools that are originally used mostly on product design process. The qualitative approaches can give deeper linkage and communication about personality trait and expectation. The service quality overall integrated with customer experience and the psychical 23.

(32) reaction of the customer.. 2.6 Remarks The strength of the quantitative and qualitative methods led to the aim and the purpose form descriptions into diverse aspects of phenomenon (Cormack, 1991). Whereas quantitative methodologies emphasis more on deductions that test the existing knowledge, by forming hypothesized relationships and proposed result of the research, qualitative approaches are led by ideas, feeling or behaviors regarding the subject to be investigated (Cormack, 1991). Quantitative methodology tested theory or hypothesis in objective manners. There are potential of result that is not able to determined and examined of the quantitative methodology. Unpredictable human behaviors increased the difficultness of explanations in measurable terms. This study could provide airline service design with the deeper and relevant linkage with the passenger (Merriam, 1998). In order to provide high-standard service, airline firms and associated airline service industries must first understand customers’ needs and expectations and focus on how to deliver the most convenient service to meet customers’ needs (Pakdila & Aydın, 2007).. Airline service is composed of a set of processes. Passengers may have distinct expectations at different stages of the service chain (Chen & Chang, 2005). Some of the former studies classified passengers by age, education, income level, career, and travel purpose; other former studies analyzed airline service process such as: ground service, in-flight service, or certain part of airline service. This study is examined through the combination of three different qualitative approaches to discover the in-depth analysis of different group of passengers. Persona and empathy map can identify the different goals and service incentives of certain groups based on their 24.

(33) travel purpose. Customer journey map can provide complete perception of passengers through all the stages. Instead of separated different group of customers, identified the gap of passengers as general or lack of separate service stages that are not yet been analyzed, this research can provide full and complete discovery of perception and expectation gaps from passenger’s insight.. 25.

(34) CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY. This study is carried out in three stages (1) questionnaires, (2) in-depth interviews, and (3) observation. Research framework, research design (including persona phases, empathy map, and customer journey map), data collection, and interviews are introduced in this chapter. These three stages of qualitative study have arranged to acquire different data to various reactions in order to examine the airline industry service design from a broader perspective.. 3.1 Research Framework and Structure In qualitative study, verbal and non-verbal observations have been analyzed as to form data. “The interest is in process rather than outcomes, in context rather than specific variables, in discovery rather than information” (Merriam, 1998). As mentioned in previous chapters that previous studies are lack of conducting quantitative data. However, the information that is precisely recorded and analysis into the form that is clarify and simplify. The data extended into an experience design for customer. This research has focused on how to create a customer-oriented design based on the customer journey map has presenting. The structure of this research is divided into three parts. In the initial stage, the study is categorizing the existing passengers of the airline industry in Taiwan and based on the travel motivations of the passengers, such as: business trip, go aboard for education, and leisure or VFR traveling. In this stage, information of conducting questionnaire was illustrated into three fiction characters. In the persona phases, the fiction character is keenly described of its background and emotional perspective. In the second stage, deeper 26.

(35) perception was analyzed through empathy map by interview and observation. Final stage, for customer journey map, the behaviors, communication, opportunities and gap were probed in a process perspective. The evaluation of the final customer journey map from representative groups and was processed at the last stage of this research by creating structure of combing persona, empathy map, and customer journey map, the aspects of customer-oriented service of airline industry could be fully analyzed and pictured.. This study contributed for airline industry or other. service-intensive industries as a model to be consider in the service design. Figure 3-1 shows the research framework of this study including research process, participants, data collection, and the expected research results.. 27.

(36) Figure 3-1 Research framework 28.

(37) 3.2 Research Design This research tried to integrate the results from the following qualitative approach: persona, empathy map, and customer journey map. First, 100 passengers were randomly assigned from each categories which are business, study, and travel to fill out surveys. In addition to that, this study created the prototypes of persona from the result of the questionnaires. Persona identified the specific representations of target passengers. It represented the goal and value, need, and obstacles of the fiction characters. For the secondly phase, the interviews with the randomly selected respondents from questionnaires to complete formal persona and empathy map, and prototype of customer journey map. The empathy map identified the six perceptions among three representative groups. The entire airline service sketched in the customer journey map and emphasized the touch points and sentiments among the passengers through all five stages: booking, check-in, boarding, in-flight, and post flight.. 3.2.1 Data Collection Due to the unique traits of persona, the roles that are represented could base subjectively on the observation and context analysis of the researcher. However, it is widely recommended basing on the physical data in order to have connection from the real world. The data collection regard as primary data from the interviews with the passenger have taken flight for the last six months. The passenger is categorized by their purposes of taking flight, such as: business, study, travel,. Part of the data collection based on observation and analysis of the researcher.. 3.2.2 Interview Due to the qualitative characteristic of the approach for this study, One-on-one Interviews were required to record with recorder. The interviews outline of this 29.

(38) research based on the primary data which the author was collected from the contents of the interviewees. Based on the selection of the fiction figures from the persona, an in-depth observation is consisted to form empathy map. This research selected 6 interviewees to form a solid context of persona and empathy map. The data analyzed through the process perspective of customer journey map.. 3.3 Persona The data collection is separated into two phases to create prototype persona from the data collected by the questionnaires, and formal persona. In the prototype of persona, foundation document will be included and transfer into factoids. Fulfilled the formal persona by the factoids from the interviews, and summarized it into concrete fact, phrase, or sentence. In order to make the character actual and real, the attribute and traits of the persona reflect as similar as the highlighted information provided by the interviewee during the evaluation process. Between the phase of persona prototype and formal persona, the characteristics of the character turned more concrete and specific (refer to Figure 3-2~3-4).. Figure 3-2 Difference of personas prototype and formal persona Source: Team Eris, and the author 30.

(39) Figure 3-3 An example of persona prototype turn into a foundation document Source: Adlin, Pruitt (2006). Figure 3-4 An example of a statement in a foundation document supported by factoids Source: Adlin, Pruitt (2006). There are three important elements developed by Bødker, Nielsen, and Orngreen (2007) for creating persona: (1) Data collection: using diverse methods collecting data, and used population statistical data for further verification. 31.

(40) (2) Fiction character description: persona is a tool for designer to develop or design a structure that is based on the requirements of the customer. By organizing data deductively, and construct fiction character under its behavior model. Creating context that has the main roles, setting, actions, goal, interaction, and the obstacle that the fiction characters might counter. (3) Buy-in from the organization: with the participation of the stakeholder of the design process, the ratio of producing a successful product or service will be higher. The diversification of the design environment, the product could raise the usability and have clear-cut of solution for the design. The organization required to be fully cooperating and understand the concept of the persona. This study followed the steps and phased by two former studies. First this study divided the process based on three steps that is according to (Goodwin, 2009): (1) Data pre-process: collecting primary or secondary data of the stakeholder, service, and customer behavior model, and other statistical resources. (2) Data filter-process: filtrate and organize the data, and construct a prototype for the fiction characters. (3) Construction process: Defined the final fiction characters, described the characteristic of the figures at the preliminary step. Next, supplement the initial prototype figures with details. The steps for fully constructed the characters will be described at the below table:. Base on the analysis of all the contents of the interviews, the fiction character constructed with details in order to bring the true reflection of the airline customers. Building details of persona prototype. Constructing fiction character is the key phase among all the persona design process. The service design can be more focus with the initial descriptions of the 32.

(41) fiction characters. The key factors of the character descriptions of the persona can be portray in body, psyche, background, emotions and attitudes, and personal traits(refer to Figure 3-5~3-6):. (1) Body: Use a photo that is representative of the appearance, shape and figures of the fiction characters. The descriptions can be also including posture, dress, and performance pattern as to construct the reality of the characters. This will result in more engagement and involvement to the service design process (2) Background: construct complete social behaviors which including: age, family members, education background, gender, occupation, and lifestyle model. The (3) Emotion and attitudes: with habits and preference, the contents should analysis the perspectives of the characters toward environment, knowledge, and objectives. (4) Personal traits: create character that is round character composed with complex and multiple personal traits. As the higher complexity of the character, the reaction and perception will be less to predict. Therefore, when constructing a fiction character, stereotypes are suggesting to neglected. To create an high involvement is the essential to the whole design process.. 33.

(42) Figure 3-5 Example of Persona fiction Character-1 Source: The website of Webcrediable -Customer experience design (2013). Figure 3-6 Example of Persona fiction Character-2 Source: Night Beacon (2009) 34.

(43) 3.4 Empathy map Empathy Map is a constant and straight forward model to reveal the sentiments of the airline passengers during the whole airline process. Empathy map has brought the deeper linkage and exploration on customer with their six perceptions: see, hear, think and feel, say and do, pain, and gain. The procedures for creating an empathy map is direct and simple. First, four lines connecting it to the corners of empathy map chart. On the bottom, draw to squares: one for customer’s pain and one for their gain. By answering the following questions and answer in the appropriate block, an empathy map is completed (refer to the Table 3-1 and Figure 3-7).. 35.

(44) Table 3-1. Empathy Map Questions. SEE a. b. c. d. e. f.. What does customer SEE? What does customers’ environment look like? Who surrounds customer? Who are customers’ friends? What types of offers is customer exposed to daily (as opposed to all market offers)? What problems does customer encounter?. HEAR a. b. c. d.. What does customer HEAR? What do customer heard with its’ partner/spouse/lover/random hookup? What really influences the customer, and how? Which media Channels are influential?. THINK and FEEL a. What does customer really THINK and FEEL? b. What is really important to customer (which customer might not say publicly)? c. Imagine customers’ emotions. What moves customers? d. What might keep customer up at night? e. Try describing customer dreams and aspirations? SAY and DO a. b. c. d.. What does customer SAY and Do? What is customer attitude? What could customer be telling others? Pay particular attention to potential conflicts between what a customer might say e. What customer may truly think and feel. Pain a. What is the customer’s PAIN? b. What are customer biggest frustrations? c. What obstacles stand between customer and what customer wants or needs to achieve? d. Which risks might customer fear taking? Gain a. What does the customer GAIN? b. What does customer truly want or need to achieve? 36.

(45) c. How does customer measure success? d. Think of some strategies customer might use to achieve ones’ goals.. Figure 3-7 Example of Empathy Map Source: XPLANE Design Consultancy (2010) 3.5 Customer Journey Map The customer journey map is directed graph that forms the journey of a passenger by illustrating the different touch points that describe ones’ interaction with the service (refer to Figure 3-8). The interaction is fully presented step by step. The complexity relationship of different types of stakeholders such as: public bodies, service provider, staff, administration manager can be identified through the map. At the end, the gaps, pain points and opportunities of the experience, both from the perspective of the user and the provider could be easily highlighted after map the journey. Building a customer journey included the observation of the user experience 37.

(46) and the illustration of that experience through its touch points. These touch points can be physical, virtual or human. The starting point is the identification of the touch points as the elements of the service interface that establish the relation between the user and the organization. For each of the touch points, the customer will complete several actions and activities, which will be different for each industry and business. The procedure of the study will follow by a professional customer experience company called Touchpoints Dashboard (see Table 3-2).. Table 3-2 Customer Lifecycle Phases Customer Lifecycle Phases: At the stage, the study need to identified the customer lifecycle for the airline industry. Different companies label the phases differently depending on their products and/or services, such as: (1) Booking, (2) Check-In, (3) Boarding, (4) In-Flight, (5) Post Flight. Channels: The next step is defining all the ways a customer could come into contact with airline service. Next, listed the detailed touch points, including ways of customer can encounter or receive information from it. Touch points: List all the touch points associated with that channel. Customer journey: Roughly plot out the journey a customer taken for each channel and lifecycle phase. What is the first thing customer do during the entire airline stages? How does that process work? What does the experience look like from the customer’s perspective? -. What touch points are involved in this process? What are the opportunities for improvement and redesign in each stage?. 38.

(47) Figure 3-8 Example of Customer Journey Map of Rail Europe Source: Adaptive path (2011). 39.

(48) CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. In this chapter, three different kinds of personas which are fiction characters were categorized for the purpose of taking flight: business, study, and travel. Based on the persons of those three fiction characters, three empathy map were identified. To synthesis the results of persona and empathy map, customer journey map was evaluated through the entire process, to discover the opportunities for service design process solutions.. 4.1 Questionnaire Design An online survey was conducted through My3q website. It took about one month to get a total of 300 respondents with 100 respondents from each of the three categories: business, study, and travel. All respondents were asked to express their opinions based on the flight that they have taken at the last 6 months. The research questionnaire is designed into two sections: in the first section, personal information such as: gender, age, occupation, and education level. Second, three categories of respondents were asked to answer their last flight experience. The questions are in sequences of airline service process: booking, check-in, boarding, in-flight, and post flight. The questions were design to let respondents answer what’s their most concerns or what matter to them the most for each stage. The result of the questionnaire is expected to identified the differences among the three categories of passengers toward every stage. The result of questionnaires is crucial for the interview as the next phase of the research. The differences can be drawn for the author to design different interview questions, or focus on the subject that category of 40.

(49) passengers concerned the most. In additional to that, questionnaire can bring adjustment to the interview questions to be more focus and related to the result this study want to present. 4.2 Descriptive Statistic in Each Stages The results as shown in Table 4-1 indicate that respondents for business travelers account for 53% of male. The age appears the highest frequency in 20-29 years old (31%), followed by 30-39 years old (24%), 40-49 years old (22%), and 50-59 years old (19%). The occupation of these respondents ranged from business sector employees with the highest frequency (53%) followed by academic and teacher (15%), and manager (10%). The education level of these respondents ranged from bachelor degree with the highest frequency (52%), followed by master (27%), and doctor degree (10%). In additional to that, the respondents for education or working holiday travelers accounts for 69% of female. The age of these respondents ranged from study sector 20-29 years old with the highest frequency (81%), followed by 30-39 years old (12%), and under 20 years old (6%). The occupation appears the highest frequency in students (43%), followed by employees (40%), and others (10%). The education level for study travelers ranged from bachelor degree with the highest frequency (61%), followed by master (31%), and two year college (5%). Finally, the gender of respondents from the travel sector accounts for 66% female. The age appears the highest frequency in 20-29 years old (74%), followed by 30-39 years old (17%), and 50-59 years old (4%). The occupation of these respondents ranged from employee with the highest frequency (50%), followed by students (27%), and other (14%). The education level of these respondents ranged from travel sector bachelor degree with the highest frequency (70%), followed by 41.

(50) master degree (17%), and high school (5%).. Table 4-1 Result of Research Questionnaire-Section 1 Section 1: Personal Information Gender. Age. Occupation. Education Level. Business. Study. Travel. Male. 53%. 31%. 34%. Female. 47%. 69%. 66%. under 20 years. 0%. 6%. 2%. 20 – 29 years. 31%. 81%. 74%. 30 – 39 years. 24%. 12%. 17%. 40 – 49 years. 22%. 0%. 2%. 50 – 59 years. 19%. 1%. 4%. over 60 years. 4%. 0%. 1%. Self-employed/ own business. 4%. 1%. 1%. Employee. 53%. 40%. 50%. Government employee. 3%. 1%. 0%. Academic/teacher. 15%. 4%. 4%. Student. 8%. 43%. 27%. Housekeepers/ Retired. 4%. 1%. 1%. Manager. 10%. 0%. 3%. Other. 3%. 10%. 14%. Middle school. 1%. 0%. 2%. High school. 3%. 2%. 5%. Two year college. 6%. 5%. 4%. Bachelor Degree. 52%. 61%. 70%. Master Degree. 27%. 31%. 17%. Doctoral Degree. 11%. 1%. 2%. The results as shown in Table 4-2 indicate the booking process. For the process of booking process, all the three categories of business travelers identify China Airlines as the Taiwanese airline company they chose to take (46%), followed by Eva Air (43%). In the booking process, professional service identified to be the main consideration for business sectors (33%), followed by price (26%), and convenient flight schedule (22%). For business travelers, 49% of respondents accounts to 42.

(51) reserved and purchased flight ticket by travel agencies. For study sector, they have higher frequency chose Eva Air for flight (58%), followed by China Airlines (36%). The approaches to reserving and purchase flight ticket of these respondents ranged from travel sector, travel agencies within the highest frequency, followed by online (33%). Business travelers consider reservation and ticketing service process are convenient for the booking process with in the highest frequency, followed by clear and precise of booking website (26%), and courtesy of traffic agents (25%). However, study sector has higher frequency of price as their main reason to choose airline company (34%), followed by price (29%), and convenient flight schedule (17%). In addition to that these respondents depend mostly on travel agencies (56%). Also, the reservation and ticketing websites are clear and precise identified to be the main consideration (32%), followed by convenience of the ticketing process.. Table 4-2 Results for the Questionnaire of Booking Process. Section 2: Flight Experience. Business. Study. Travel. Which Taiwanese airline. China Airlines. 46%. 36%. 40%. company did you chose to. Eva Air. 43%. 58%. 46%. take?. TransAsia Airways. 8%. 4%. 11%. Far Eastern Air Transport. 3%. 2%. 3%. 1. 1.. 2.. 3.. Booking. What is the main. Price. 26%. 29%. 33%. reason you chose that. Professional Service. 33%. 34%. 17%. airline company?. Convenient flight schedule. 22%. 17%. 17%. Comfortable and clean facilities. 7%. 11%. 11%. Other. 12%. 9%. 22%. How did you reserve. Travel agencies. 49%. 49%. 56%. and purchase your. On-line. 32%. 33%. 31%. ticket?. Through friend or relatives. 12%. 6%. 7%. Over-the-counter. 3%. 6%. 6%. Other. 4%. 6%. 0%. Reservation staff responding. 9%. 7%. 4%. Which of the. 43.