My German CX diary IV.: Really should 95% of customers suffer?

A few days back I visited Frankfurt airport to take a visitors tour.

It celebrated its 86 years in operations in the summer.

Few fun facts to begin with:

• 4 runways.
• Two terminals and 410 check-in counters.
• 2nd biggest electricity consumption entity in Germany - used to be Nr. 1 but a few years ago Internet Hub in Frankfurt has been opened and it took first place.
• Biggest cargo airport in Europe?with 2300 tons a year (one of the top 20 biggest in the world).

• 120 airlines, on average 80 movements (landing or departure) per day.

• Serves more than 300 destinations on 5 continents, making it the airport with the most direct routes in the world.
• Size of 3224 football fields.

Even if the size is enormous, it starts to be not enough to welcome new passengers.

That is why two new terminals are being built.

They will be modern, spacious, and to large extent automated.

And here comes the twist.

The tour guide - otherwise a seasoned professional - says: "It will be supermodern and we will have automated baggage check-in too. But beware - take your baggage tag and put the small number tag on your passport or any other place with you. The check-in staff used to do it for you, but from now on you have to take care, and should you not do it, and your baggage is lost, is very difficult to find it. And unfortunately 95% forget to do so."

Really? This is a possible pitfall of digitization?

Should you check in yourself, cannot the baggage tag number also electronically automatically be attached to your digital boarding ticket in your mobile phone?

Design thinking in combination with digital tools can do miracles. But some processes need to be reframed, not just partially digitized. That requires customer-centricity, end-to-end solutions, and knowledge of digital tools.

The required competencies combo - IMHO - therefore is: Data Scientists in combination with Design Sprint (process improvement) and Customer Experience (getting customer data and feasibility & viability). With them, the sky is the limit in improving the customer experience.

Do you agree?