Heathrow to ease travel and grow revenue with agent-first experiences.

Heathrow Airport serves over 83 million passengers annually, connecting travelers to over 200 destinations. Recent record-breaking traffic and growth in East Asian and Middle Eastern routes are expanding its reach globally.

Providing smooth, connected experiences requires innovation and access to real-time insights. 

As one of the world’s busiest and most iconic airports, Heathrow Airport welcomes over 83 million passengers annually. With 4 terminals and a wide array of shops and restaurants, Heathrow feels like a city, but they are striving to deliver a stress-free experience. Heathrow wants to be the start of their passengers’ holiday, not just a place they transit through. To do that, they needed to deeply understand passenger needs and drive greater operational efficiency by integrating its data and technologies to boost customer satisfaction. “We have a vision to be an extraordinary airport fit for the future,” said Director of Marketing and Digital Peter Burns. “From a marketing and digital point of view, how can we create extraordinary experiences and how can we create the technology or the data platform to enable us to deliver that experience?”

Identifying passenger needs: 

In general, airports have access to very limited passenger information. Typically, only 5% of travelers are known before they arrive, as most data is held by airlines and travel agents. Over the past three years, Heathrow has made remarkable progress, increasing its customer knowledge base through their CRM and Rewards loyalty program, Wi-Fi, and digital bookings and feeding that information into Data Cloud. While this represents a significant leap, Heathrow recognizes the opportunity to learn even more about its passengers to deliver increasingly personalized and efficient services. 

Bringing efficiency to the whole journey:

Travel can feel hectic for most passengers, but Heathrow aims to make the journey easier by helping passengers quickly find information. With a mobile-friendly platform, passengers can easily access details on parking, where to buy train tickets, navigating the airport, and traveling with pets. 

Integrating disparate data and systems:

Empowering service representatives is another focus area. With access to real-time passenger insights like recent interactions, representatives will be able to provide faster, more tailored support and elevate service at every touchpoint. With passenger traffic rising steadily, Heathrow knows that refining their processes and enhancing services is one of the best ways to strengthen their position as a leader in global air travel.

​​Agentforce is providing real-time wayfinding and FAQs to enhance passenger support and satisfaction.

Heathrow is working toward making every journey better, and Agentforce — the agentic layer on the Salesforce Platform — plays a central role in that vision. Heathrow has recently launched two new features powered by Agentforce: FAQs and in-terminal wayfinding. These features will make journeys smoother by providing instant support to help passengers quickly navigate the airport and find answers to common questions on the spot. “Passengers can be at Heathrow at all times of the day, whether they’re checking in at 4AM or have a connection at midday. If they ask a question, they want an answer in the moment so they can plan for the next level of their journey,” said Customer Engagement Manager Tarra Johnson-Nash. By tapping into Heathrow’s Service Cloud knowledge base, live APIs, maps, and flight statuses, Agentforce will act as a digital travel companion and keep travelers moving with ease. 

Not only will Agentforce help passengers who are pressed for time, it will also help travelers make the most of their free time at the airport. For example, a traveler heading to their gate might want to find the nearest place to grab a meal before their flight. With Agentforce, a list of the closest options will be available on demand via WhatsApp. Whether the customer needs to know where the nearest charging station is for their laptop, or get the right link to customs, Agentforce will deliver instant, real-time answers, making every part of their journey smoother. And the more passengers use it, the smarter it gets, ensuring that each interaction is even more efficient than the last.

Travelers are able to ask Agentforce questions via WhatsApp, with plans to expand into in-terminal kiosks and their website for quick help finding restrooms, gates, and more. It’s an exciting step toward making every passenger's experience smoother and more enjoyable. “That’s what Agentforce is going to deliver," said Burns. “It’s effectively a digital concierge that holds your hand through your end-to-end airport experience.” 

Heathrow helps their teams deliver faster, more tailored service with Agentforce. 

Agentforce is also helping with the more complex service cases that get escalated to Heathrow’s customer service team. Previously, customer service teams had to manually gather data from sources like Heathrow’s knowledge base, Data Cloud, and live APIs to answer customer questions. 

Agentforce will automate this process by analyzing inquiries, extracting key details such as passenger preferences and recent interactions, and generating accurate, actionable case summaries with an expected accuracy rate of 95%. These summaries will equip customer service teams to resolve issues faster, address complex personalized needs, and give staff and passengers easy access to relevant information. As a result, the airport expects to cut live chat times by 30 seconds and handle more questions via live chat.

Data Cloud unifies millions of passenger records to establish a foundation for connected, AI-first experiences.

The first step in improving customer experiences was to use Data Cloud to unify passenger data across its previously siloed databases and systems using zero copy technology. This innovation connects data sources in real time, avoiding duplication and ensuring accurate insights without compromising speed.

For marketing, Heathrow integrates third-party tools, which captures data like campaign engagement and traveler preferences, with the data from their Salesforce systems. On the ecommerce front, Commerce Cloud powers parking reservations and duty-free shopping via Heathrow's app, while real-time flight APIs provide crucial third-party flight and baggage information. For customer service, Service Cloud centralizes passenger inquiries, while Heathrow’s knowledge base and live airport updates further enrich support interactions.

Unified data from these systems powers Agentforce, enabling Heathrow to deliver faster, personalized support across all touchpoints, reduce operational costs, and optimize for advanced AI applications like predictive recommendations and dynamic case summaries.

Heathrow Airport increases revenue by 30% with Commerce Cloud.

Heathrow Airport has added a range of new features, all powered by Commerce Cloud, as part of an upgrade to its app. Now, ‌passengers can reserve parking, explore shopping and dining, and even pre-order food and drinks‌ — ‌all from their phones.

With Reserve & Collect, passengers can shop on the app and easily pick up their items in the terminal. Commerce Cloud connects data to offer targeted recommendations. This is especially valuable for duty-free shopping, where cross-selling and upselling have driven a 30% boost in digital revenue over the past four years.

Heathrow has also transitioned all parking services to B2C Commerce Cloud, making it easy for passengers to get quotes and reserve spots directly in the app. Whether booking regular or valet parking, customers now enjoy a seamless experience from booking to takeoff.

Marketing Cloud drives personalized engagement, achieving a remarkable 49% open rate for customer emails.

Marketing Cloud drives personalized engagement at key points in a passenger’s journey, from pre-trip reminders to in-terminal shopping recommendations, by using real-time data from Data Cloud. Their tailored communications for each traveler achieve a remarkable 49% open rate — well above the industry standard. 

By analyzing individual preferences, travel history, and engagement patterns, Marketing Cloud ensures each email is relevant and timely. For example, travelers might receive curated dining options based on their terminal. These targeted messages not only boost engagement but also significantly increase average purchase values, contributing to a 30% increase in digital revenue over four years. 

Heathrow chose Salesforce for its integrated platform that could seamlessly address its unique customer service needs. With Agentforce, Heathrow will build a smarter, more efficient support system that grows with them. The ability to create and scale agent-first customer service experiences using natural language, without the need for custom code, is a key differentiator.

This flexibility will allow Heathrow to expand its support capabilities to multiple channels, from web chat to WhatsApp. Their agent, who they affectionately call 'Hallie', is already viewed as a member of the team. Their call center team was excited to be actively involved in uploading the 800 knowledge articles she can act on and supporting her training.

By integrating with Service Cloud and Data Cloud, Heathrow can deliver personalized, real-time passenger experiences while streamlining internal processes. The unified platform enables faster issue resolution, automates routine tasks, and reduces wait times, freeing up staff to focus on more complex cases. The seamless connection between AI, real-time data, and support tools will allow Heathrow to improve passenger satisfaction.