United Airlines
United Airlines keeps customer care flying with Cisco and Observability
Key benefits
Reduced time to resolve customer issues
Reduced time-to-resolution of system issues by 50%
Holistic coverage of critical fail points and multiple in-house and partner solutions
United Airlines’ Agent on Demand improves travel experiences by connecting passengers with agents via video, chat, or voice for help when flight disruptions occur. Cisco Observability gives United visibility into a complex environment to rapidly resolve any issues that can impact customer experiences.
“Previously, troubleshooting issues could take up to 30 minutes. But Cisco AppDynamics provides far greater visibility so we can now resolve issues in half that time."
Dan Field
Director of Platform and Network Engineering,
United Airlines
Challenge
Ensure a clear uninterrupted connection for passengers using the Agent on Demand service to speak to a United Airlines agent via video, voice, or chat.
Solution
Cisco AppDynamics and Cisco ThousandEyes offer end-to-end observability and swift issue resolution across a highly sophisticated communications environment.
Results
United Airlines boosts customer experience and loyalty by letting passengers rebook flights or find accommodations by connecting with agents using kiosks or mobile devices instead of waiting in line.
“We’re very excited by Cisco’s roadmap for generative AI that can proactively identify the root cause of issues. The opportunity to resolve problems fast without the need for manual intervention is highly attractive.”
Dan Field
Director of Platform and Network Engineering, United Airlines
Challenge
Give customers a better experience when travel is interrupted
As the world’s largest airline, United Airlines helps 140 million customers travel to more than 300 destinations across six continents every year. In this highly competitive sector, safety remains the absolute priority. However, United Airlines also strives to deliver an outstanding passenger experience, from ticket purchase to luggage retrieval at the end of a journey.
While United prides itself on outstanding service, unforeseen events such as weather disruptions can significantly impact flights and frustrate passengers. During these irregular operations (IROPS), United's skilled agents spring into action, assisting passengers with rebooking flights and finding accommodations.
To speed service to customers and lighten the load on employees, United launched Agent on Demand. The innovative day-of-travel service lets passengers use airport kiosks or the United app on their mobile devices to connect directly with a centralized pool of agents.
They can start a voice or a video call directly with an agent who will assist them with rebooking flights, locating luggage, and securing hotel accommodations.
Agent on Demand is fully integrated with United’s existing call center environment where agents use Upstream Works on top of Cisco Webex to deliver a customer-centric service experience to passengers. Customers benefit from a highly personalized experience and features such as Webex noise-canceling technology—handy when you’re speaking in a busy airport.
Solution
Clear communications in a complex environment
In a complex communications environment that can be impacted by factors outside of United’s immediate control, keeping Agent on Demand constantly available and performant while minimizing call interruptions is paramount. Dan Field, Director of Platform and Network Engineering at United Airlines, says, "The applications and systems powering Agent on Demand might be intricate, but the customer experience must always be straightforward, easy, and swift."
By using Cisco AppDynamics and Cisco ThousandEyes, United gains comprehensive visibility across the intricate digital ecosystem supporting Agent on Demand. This stretches from internal servers, databases and networks to external elements including the customer’s internet or mobile connection. Using custom dashboards, United engineers can accelerate root-cause analysis and reduce MTTR while making information available to agents that helps them improve the customer experience. For example, if a passenger has a weak mobile network or wi-fi connection, agents can proactively advise them on steps to maintain the connection and ensure a smoother interaction, such as switching off video or transitioning from Webex to a voice call or chat.
“Integration of Cisco AppDynamics and Splunk will allow us to make further use of Splunk AI features to analyze our security infrastructure and application data, identify trends and generate critical action items across environments.”
Dan Field
Director of Platform and Network Engineering,
United Airlines
Benefits
Take off for customer satisfaction and loyalty
Agent on Demand prioritizes swift resolution of customer issues and clear communication, so passengers can reach their destinations with minimal stress and delays. This focus has a positive impact on United’s reputation and its crucial NPS (Net Promoter Score), which reflects how likely passengers are to recommend the airline.
"The key benefit for customers is gaining fast access to an agent who can put their mind at rest," says Field. "Instead of waiting in line for potentially an hour, passengers can connect directly with an agent and resolve flights and accommodations within 15 to 20 minutes."
Field shares an example from when United Airlines transitioned Agent on Demand to a dedicated operations team. During this initial phase, there was a server malfunction within the system. However, with Cisco AppDynamics real-time insights, he pinpointed the exact source of the problem and removed the affected server from the load balancer swiftly.
"Previously, troubleshooting issues could take up to 30 minutes," says Field. "But Cisco AppDynamics provides far greater visibility so we can now resolve issues in half that time. By proactively notifying all relevant teams of potential problems, we foster a more collaborative and efficient approach."
Field also praises the scalability of Cisco’s communications ecosystem and the observability tools that support it, including Cisco AppDynamics. For instance, a winter storm could potentially disrupt dozens of flights with many passengers logging on to Agent on Demand simultaneously. The inherent stability and scalability of the Cisco architecture enables the airline to seamlessly adjust the number of available agents based on real-time call volume.
Field says, “Agent on Demand is a priority application that must be available at all times. With Cisco AppDynamics, we can ramp up to speak to hundreds of customers at any one time safe in the knowledge that we can immediately resolve any issues that prevent a clear connection.”
Field also looks forward to further combination of Cisco AppDynamics with Splunk. The United Airlines security operations center (SOC) uses Splunk to analyze infrastructure data and identify incidents, behavioral changes, and other security related events.
“Integration of Cisco AppDynamics and Splunk will allow us to make further use of Splunk AI features to analyze our security infrastructure and application data, identify trends and generate critical action items across environments,” he says.
The ability to gather and consolidate data from multiple sources also paves the way for AI applications and self-healing intelligence. “We’re very excited by Cisco’s roadmap for generative AI that can proactively identify the root cause of issues. The ability to resolve problems fast without the need for manual intervention is another important step on our journey to provide the best possible passenger experience,” he says.
About United Airlines
With U.S. hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., United Airlines operates the most comprehensive global route network among North American carriers and is now the largest airline in the world as measured by available seat miles.
Resources
View all resources
Achieving end-to-end visibility with Cisco AppDynamics and ThousandEyes
How to bring application observability and network intelligence together with ease.
A blueprint for the journey towards Cisco Full-Stack Observability
Gain practical tips, strategies and techniques to build a winning observability strategy.
The Age of Application Observability
Why technologists must act now to optimize application performance and deliver sustainable innovation within hybrid IT environments.