PASSENGER AND CREW CONNECTIVITY
FEATURE
A connected world
How digital technology is being used to improve and enhance passenger and crew communications by Yves Laffiché*
. W ith the digital
transformation impacting our way of working and communicating, the
cruise industry has had to adapt to attract increasingly more connected holidaymakers in a competitive environment, by working on improving the onboard passenger experience.
Bringing their own devices on board, passengers are demanding communications services accessible from their smartphones and tablets whilst at sea that respond to their needs ashore.
The experience aboard cruise ships must remain unique while offering the same communication capabilities as at home.
Despite technological developments over the past few years, ensuring communication at sea isn’t all plain sailing.
Coverage restraints, reliability, costly equipment and lengthy installation were a deterrent a few years ago to some operators that tended to focus instead on onboard services and entertainment.
However, with travellers using technology in daily lives and bringing their devices onboard, cruise operators need to adopt technology to provide a personalised travel experience while on and off the ship.
Ensuring onboard communication is therefore not an option anymore. Nevertheless, new advanced technologies
seatrade-cruise.com
enable operators to provide innovative on-board communication services, relying on flexible and performant cruise-specific solutions that do not represent heavy nor costly installations.
Enhanced communication between passengers and the crew is of crucial importance, even more than in a hotel, considering the size of some of the ships, and the deployment of digital platform supports the operators’ customer relationship strategy by helping to monitor and analyse passengers’ needs.
Beyond offering access to entertainment services and high-quality content, these solutions help cruise lines to both diversify their on-board means of communication and create a rich and digital experience.
This is an important detail for cruise operators who want to attract new generations of passengers by ensuring a truly memorable experience in restaurants, entertainment areas, but also in the privacy of the cabin.
These digital solutions enable operators to increase brand awareness, as well as create additional revenues while realising operational efficiencies.
Connected to a dedicated ship’s server, communication solutions enable passengers to connect to a digital platform accessible from their personal devices (smartphones, tablets, laptop). This provides many ways to
ensure communication between passengers and crew/cruise operators relying on a broad range of personalised services, including room service, restaurant reservation, chatting with staff, shopping functionalities with digital catalogue and products of interest based on previous searches.
This technology has the advantage to combine on one same portal all the information related to the passengers’ stay on the cruise ship and inform them instantly about ship news and events.
It proposes also to collect passenger opinions about their stay, allowing the crew to react accordingly.
The deployment of a digital portal enhances crucial passenger communication with cruise operators, enabling them to upgrade their onboard services, improve customer relations and engage passengers.
In a connected world where everything is immediate, understanding passengers’ needs and responding to them quickly is key for cruise operators’ development and digital solutions enable them to better understand their passengers during the cruise and ensure an enhanced cruise experience.
*Yves Laffiché, is business development director of MOMENT, developing innovative entertainment and passenger solutions for cruise and ferry operators including Corsica Lines.
Seatrade Cruise Review 109
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