Matt Parker, chief executive at technology specialist Babble, says automation can ease pressure on staff and help customers
As travel delays continue to cause havoc across the country, tensions are understandably high.
Commuters and holidaymakers are having to navigate uncertain journeys and change their plans, while those in the industry are having to quickly adapt to ever-changing situations and unhappy customers.
As the industry has struggled to find viable solutions, there has been a lot of finger-pointing about where the blame lies for delays and cancellations.
Staff in contact centres are often left to feel the brunt of angry customer complaints, and they are no doubt feeling the heat now due to the recent travel chaos.
Though travel companies face unprecedented levels of uncertainty and disruption, they also have automation, AI and customer management tools available to manage these stresses that weren’t around five or 10 years ago.
In our recent Travel Benchmarking Report, we found that 48% of travel companies are looking to invest in automation technologies, yet 32% of businesses are still to review their technology stack since the pandemic began.
So, with the number of travel complaints being higher than ever, isn’t it time that the travel industry starts to leverage these new technologies to ease the strain on under pressure staff and consequently smooth the process of dealing with current disruption?
Automating the travel contact centre
When people think of automated customer service, they often picture machines taking the place of humans. But that’s not the case.
We like to think of it as a mutual relationship between people and tech, to maximise efficiency.
So, businesses should be thinking about how they use these technologies to support their staff and reduce the number of issues they are being inundated with by unhappy travellers.
For example, automation solutions can digitally carry out the repetitive, time and labour-intensive tasks, or help direct customers to relevant resources to resolve their issues before they get on the phone to a member of customer service staff.
Not only does this free up time for workers to address more urgent or complex queries, but the lighter load should reduce their risk of burnout under such intense circumstances.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as text chatbots, is another tool that can be used to divert workloads from under pressure staff, by answering simple customer queries and providing intelligent online responses.
This technology has rapidly developed in recent years to be more intuitive and conversational.
AI can also be integrated into daily interactions, with call recording and tracking allowing help-centre managers see who is under the most pressure and adjust accordingly.
Analytics can also help improve agent performance, with managers able to identify skills gaps and react with appropriate training, coaching and additional support.
With so many fluctuations and unexpected changes in the travel industry at the moment, this sort of adaptability is essential.
Investing to face disruption – now and in the future
Travel is one of a number of industries that has been slow to update its IT systems, investing spare cash elsewhere and consequently lagging behind.
Now, having had the enormous shock of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 followed by a boom that has triggered current disruption, travel companies are facing a perfect storm.
The pandemic forced almost all industries to adapt to remote working and adopt new technologies, but the journey has only just begun, as the current situation has highlighted.
We’ve seen in the news that airports and airlines are hiring large numbers of staff to fill gaps.
However, this strategy not a fix-all solution to the industry’s problems.
There is an opportunity now to push forward much needed digital transformation and leave a more permanent mark, by making customer service in travel smarter and more agile at a time when it needs it most.
By modernising their systems and embracing smart technologies, travel organisations can ease the burden and protect their staff amid the chaos.
The result will not only be improved service for customers and greater customer loyalty, but a workforce that feels more supported and empowered, and therefore more loyal for years to come.