Online travel firms are intent on closing the gap in customer service standards on traditional agents. By Lee Hayhurst
There’s a widely held assumption that holidaymakers are faced with a pretty stark choice.
Either they opt to give their business to an online travel agency selling on price but offering little in the way of customer service.
Or they go with a more local, probably smaller, brand they have heard of, pay more, but in return get great advice and reassuring after-sales support.
It’s what some observers describe as the dichotomy between being transactional and relational.
Although web retailing does not necessarily equate to a customer service-free zone, expectations of that human touch when dealing with a website are naturally lower.
Relationship counselling
The dilemma for those firms on the relational side of the equation is ensuring enough people value the service they provide to shun the tempting offers of the big online players.
For those considered to be purely transactional, the challenge is to demonstrate enough of a customer service ethos to secure the business before the customer weighs up other options.
Innovations like ‘live chat’ and more intelligent FAQs is automating some customer service activity, but speaking to someone on the phone remains fundamental.
Not many online players are as unapologetic as Sunshine. co. uk, which makes a virtue of not having a phone number, but can ‘faceless’ web retailers challenge this stereotype?
Ominously for its rivals, Booking.com, the prized asset of the world’s most valuable travel firm Priceline, thinks it can.
Paul Hennessy, Booking. com’s chief marketing officer, said: “Customers are entitled to outstanding customer service, so we don’t view it as a cost centre – when the phone rings, we answer it. If you believe customer service leads to loyalty you see it as a revenue opportunity rather than a cost.”
Although Booking.com does not promote a phone number for people to book, it actively encourages customers with issues to call. Its call centres offer support in 21 languages, enough to cover the 41 countries it operates in, and calls are directed to the most appropriate operator.
“We find loyalty is higher when customers have had some sort of hiccup and we sort it out,” said Hennessy.
Read all about it
Online review service Feefo has responded to this need for firms to shout about their customer service by adding ‘Feefo Places’ retailer reviews to its product reviews.
One of its biggest client wins has been Expedia, which Feefo managing director Andy Mabbutt said analyses the feedback it receives weekly – during ‘Feefo Fridays’ – to hone its service.
“If you are running a high street store now and feel these OTAs will never be able to match what you do, then you are wrong,” he said.
“Technology is improving all the time and moving the experience closer to the traditional high street model.
“There is complacency among some people, but the day you do not try to add that extra dimension of customer service is the day you put your business strategy at risk.
“If you did not get this right a few years ago the worst that could happen was that your customer would go down the pub and tell a few mates. Now if you get it wrong you risk upsetting the wrong person and hundreds of thousands will read about it.”
As even Ryanair has concluded of late, good customer service helps attract consumers.