Web brands are often slammed for their poor customer service - and the travel sector is no exception.
A study by Tealeaf and eConsultancy was recently highlighted in eMarketer, using a fabulous expression: preventing customer struggle.
Let's be honest, the customer experiences such frustrations A LOT. And it is totally unnecessary.
Should we be surprised? Well, according to the study, a whopping 41% of execs admitted to not having processes in place to address customer service issues. OUCH!
So, yes, your customers are struggling to deal with you. As online customer service represents one of the nine epic web battles of instant vs personal service, the lack of any service is a terrible indictment on what should be the greatest channel for customer service known to man.
This does not just apply to online travel products but for all forms and channels for selling travel.
Any self-respecting company today has a website, but so many just fail to leverage it well when it comes to customer service. Now, for fear of tarnishing the entire industry, some do the simple things very well. But they can, why do others fail?
Here are the eight cardinal sins of online customer service. This applies to just about any industry but we are focusing on the travel marketplace.
We are also pointing out examples of Saints and Sinners, purely to illustrate each point. You can judge whether they are real saints or real sinners for yourself.
Sin #1 No online customer service
Not having any customer service channel online is a proper sin. This is so basic as to be downright stupid if you do not have a presence.
Saints: Delta (#DeltaAssist)
Sinners: Southwest used to be a sinner and did not allow email. Thankfully it now does.
Sin #2 No clarity
The confusing and complex array of options that confront a user who tries to find assistance makes customer service online a confusing web of stupid choices and dead ends. There are some who can reduce things to a simple and comprehensible set of options and make it easy for the consumer.
Saints: SeatacPark.com (If you live in Seattle you will know what I mean).
Sinners: Expedia, Travelocity
Sin #3 No response aka denial. Coupled with SLOW response.
No response is unforgivable – today everyone expects to receive a confirmation with useful information via email.
The issue of whether you should or should not reply is not the issue. Everyone should have customer service procedures that acknowledges the user. An email with helpful hints is a good thing.
After setting up the ability to post information and then ignoring it without reply at all, especially when you have a system to reply and then you fail to reply, is bad.
Saints: JetBlue (after getting a bloody nose on the subject)
Sinners: Old style airlines. Keep ‘em in the dark still seems to be the policy for many airlines.
Sin #4 No escalation/no updates.
"Enter your information here". But we will decide if we will get back to you. No commitment to escalate the response is so common as to be an epidemic of bad behaviour.
For the majority of cases there is no escalation process online - the only way to escalate is to start again and get a live answer via the telephone.
Emails and Tweets are the worst examples of this. Most customer service suits have an automatic escalation process, yet few actually deal with it.
Even worse is when brands appear to have no standard procedure for when they will get back to a customer. In the ADD world of the customer, give him/her an expectation of when you will get back to them. Then if nobody does, auto-escalate it.
Saints: Nobody
Sinners: Just about everyone
Sin # 5 Ignoring the customer
Generally thinking, if you ignore things they will go away… BAD policy. While I have listed Ryanair as a Sinner here, you have to applaud them for being consistent and honest about it.
Saints: Jetblue
Sinners: Ryanair
Sin #6 No coordination of customer service
I spent six months in customer service hell, trying to get a response from a mortgage company to get a house loan fixed.
The appalling nature of the human and machine customer service systems interface is so easily fixed. We have some great tools – many, such as chat, are free.
Yet each of procedure presents different answers and different paths. For most services there is no single place and no ability to coordinate my activities. Solution – have a single contact system. There are so many great solutions out there.
Saints – British Airways Executive Club, but then only in small bursts.
Sinners - Everyone else.
Sin #7 No metrics
With the web capable of tracking everything, there are several issues here. Many companies do not have a metric for their web activity. Few accurately measure their input. And even fewer even do meaningful things with the data that they have.
I am sure there will be howls of protest over this one, but the vast majority of you know what I mean.
Saints: Not allowed to reveal
Sinners: Too many to name
Sin #8 Failure to update information and provide real time updates particularly in a crisis
With Twitter, there is no longer any excuse for this. If you have no way to broadcast your information via the social web then you deserve to be spanked and slayed in public.
The ash cloud episode of 2010, plus during bad weather such as the the current hurricane season, have seen things improve enormously. Twitter is a fabulous tool for getting information out.
Saints: Led by Delta – everyone in the airline industry now knows how to do this.
Sinners: Hotels in general.
So how do you do? Ask yourself the basic questions raised above.
Then, something we recommend to each and every executive who works for any travel company: attempt to understand customer service within your own company, and in that of your competitors.
Better still, sit with someone who is not familiar with your business and let them try and do this. In my consultancy business we do this as a matter of course on all our clients.
There is no excuse for this. And many brands worry why they have so little brand loyalty. Try the old fashion way. EARN IT!