How to win in crisis: an interview with Wizz Air

Comnica has been a telecommunication and customer service partner of Wizz Air since 2015. In 2020 the company chose Comnica again for supporting their international call centre activities in the forthcoming 3 years. The aviation industry has a tough year behind and 2021 seems to be pretty challenging too. We have interviewed Ewa Danecka, Head of Customer Experience on Wizz Air’s winning strategy and the secrets of a good partnership.

– Although the industry has suffered severe losses Wizz Air has faced the first part of the crisis remarkably good. What was the key to surmount those challenges caused by the pandemic ?

Wizz Air has world class talents and a very agile company culture which has kept the airline running even during the hardest periods. We never fully stopped flying, but were looking for alternative businesses such as charter and cargo flights. Due to the ultra low-cost carrier model we have a very strict cost control management and have a strong financial focus on our cash flow. We have been doing so in the past 16 years, thus the company has a substantial amount of free cash that is estimated to cover the cost of running the airline for 2 years even without launching a single flight.

– What’s more, Wizz Air has even expanded their businesses this year …

That’s right. We added 15 new bases and almost 300 new routes and took delivery of 13 new aircraft during 2020.  With the latter we are (and will remain) the lowest cost producer in the industry. We are managing the current situation confidently making everything possible to overcome the challenges. At the same time we are already preparing for the after-pandemic era. With its low cost base, professional crew and modern aircraft fleet, we believe that Wizz Air will be a structural winner of the current situation.

– Comnica has been Wizz Air’s partner since 2015. Have you received all the support from our team you needed to nail this year?

Comnica is our long term and valued partner who has proven itself in several occasions. Our cooperation is very smooth and we work together seamlessly. I would highlight three points. The first one is platform scalability and reliability: when we experience increase in traffic the Comnica CC platform works smoothly and manages the volumes perfectly. I also would underline the availability of the Comnica support team. Whenever we have a request they react quickly and manage the situation exquisitely. I also really appreciate Comnica’s agility. When we ask for setting a new number in a new or existing country, the service is provided on time and in right merit.

– What are those fields and KPIs you managed to improve with the help of Comnica?

We definitely see our talk time decreasing, thanks to the developments connected to categorization of the incoming customer calls. Our reporting improved visibly and contributed to an increased oversight on the call centre partners, as well as to an overall supervision by Customer Experience Department. What I consider a big game changer we achieved together with Comnica is our integration with Navitaire and the introduction of secure payments via IVR.

– What are the very three words that come to your mind first regarding Comnica?

Reliable, trusted, agile.

– Speaking of agility: what are your plans for 2021 in customer experience development?

The more customers we need to serve, the more flexible we need to be. We are introducing new channels like chat and continuously broadening the languages our passengers can choose to reach out to our customer service.  It’s also very important to listen to the voice of the customer, thus we definitely will give more focus on customer feedback measurements too.

– What are Wizz Air’s long term plans to strengthen their position in the region and beyond?

To strengthen our position we certainly have to follow our strategy based on cost consciousness. At the same time we will continue to focus on Customer Experience and building a reliable customer journey across all stages. We would like to improve our digital experience and provide a wide portfolio of customer friendly, automated self-service options, available 24/7. Our main goal is to develop a professional omni-channel environment that will satisfy all of our clients.