How can travel operators make sure that they bullet proof their profits and continue to keep attracting and retaining customers in this time of change? Here are a few key steps to follow in order to provide a seamless customer journey and to keep travellers happy and booking more trips.
Recent terror attacks in Paris, Berlin and Brussels have highlighted security risks which consequently are making people far warier about selecting these key European destinations. A recent survey by travel deals site Travelzoo found that 30% of UK travellers now rate the security and safety of a destination as the most important factor when booking a holiday1. Although a good proportion of city-breakers will revert to another location, lessening the impact on travel operators, airlines, hotels and conference centres based in cities that have been subjected to an attack will be harder to quell. This is confirmed by a 70% slump in hotel bookings in Paris after the 2015 attacks2. In addition to this, anxiety about travelling to destinations such as Turkey is shifting popularity towards Spain, Greece and Portugal3. This only adds another challenge to the mix for tour operators, along with rising competition and the looming repercussions of Brexit.
How can travel operators make sure that they bullet proof their profits and continue to keep attracting and retaining customers in this time of change? Here are a few key steps to follow in order to provide a seamless customer journey and to keep travellers happy and booking more trips.
Offer channel choice
There are a range of channels that a customer can choose to get in touch with a company ranging from email, to social media platforms, or even automated channels, such as online artificial-intelligence (AI) powered chatbots. No matter which channel the customer has used, they will expect the business to have a seamless record of all their previous interactions. Therefore it is vital that customer service representatives are equipped with access to a central repository of customer data to enable them to provide seamless customer service.
Don’t dither on responses
Fast response times should not be neglected. Responding to customers quickly could not be more important, particularly when travellers air their complaints on social media. Travel operators can’t afford to solely rely on AI to provide first-rate customer service. If customers are unhappy, they can quickly vent their frustration online, resulting in a tarnished brand reputation. Therefore, travel operators should be keeping an eye on all social media interactions and be prepared to integrate this into their over-arching customer experience strategy. In fact, customers who receive responses from a business on Twitter are 30% more likely to recommend the brand to others4.
Make the most of all interactions
The importance of live agents for customer service should not be underestimated. While technology is playing a pivotal role in providing travellers with more choice it is important that businesses don’t eliminate human interaction altogether. In fact a study by Accenture confirms that 83% of consumers who switched providers say if the company had provided better live support then they may have retained their business5. Instead, technology should be used to prepare customer service representatives to handle complaints or requests by providing a clear view of the customer’s preferences and history with the company; lining them up to respond to customer queries quickly and even grasp cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
In conclusion, it is important that travel operators use technology to enable a completely omni-channel customer experience and to provide their customers with more channels and more choice, but it is also important that human interaction is not eliminated completely – particularly at key stages of the customer journey. In fact, both live and automated interactions need to be seamlessly connected to guarantee great customer experience and avoid damaging brand reputation – this could not be more important for the travel industry than it is now.
1.The Guardian, Terrorism fears see UK tourists opting for 'safer' holiday destinations, 2016
2. New York Times, Terrorism Scares Away the Tourists Europe Was Counting On, July 2016
3. The Guardian, Terrorism fears see UK tourists opting for 'safer' holiday destinations, 2016
4. Customer loyalty statistics 2016, Access, August 2016
5. Customer loyalty statistics 2016, Access, August 2016
Graham is an entrepreneurial CRM & marketing leader with extensive industry recognition. Obsessed with increasing customer value and ROI through innovative data-driven customer experience solutions, he helped pioneer CRM during the early 1990s within the UK automotive industry through the creation of Ion Group, a contact centre led business. Ion rapidly became the recognised leading agency within this space winning a number of prestigious marketing industry body awards. Since then he has covered key leadership roles at Moonriver Group, Arvato Loyalty, where he was CEO, Caddyshack Marketing, Go Response, and most recently, Yonder Digital Group.
