Hello? Is anybody there? Travel companies are often ignoring customers

The summer leisure travel season is upon us. As travelers start booking trips, catching flights and overnighting in hotels, there is even more pressure on travel and hospitality companies to provide exceptional customer experiences.

The pressure to improve customer support was already hitting the industry pre-COVID, and the demand for quick, personalized and effortless interactions has only taken off.

roviding good customer service doesn’t just impact reputation (and earn public praise), but also revenue: 82% of customers have stopped doing business with a company due to poor support and 32% have done this multiple times. Stellar customer service in the travel industry is even more necessary now in the post-COVID world.

So how is the travel industry delivering against these expectations today? The Customer Service Benchmark Report analyzes how 3,000 of the world’s airlines, hotels, cruise lines, online travel agencies and ground transportation companies provide support on two of the most popular digital platforms: email and Twitter.

It reveals that travel companies are failing to meet the demands of the modern traveler and are at risk of losing revenue and loyalty as a result. 

Guests can’t get quick support on their channel of choice 

Customers want to reach out on their channel of choice, and these preferences change based on a person’s context and issue. Only 12% of travel and hospitality companies offer support on both channels, nearly 38% of companies don’t offer email support and only 46% have Twitter profiles.

Even worse: companies ignore 70% of emails and 46% of social messages.

There is a difference amongst industries, however. The Support Performance Index (SPI) is a 360-degree analysis of what matters most to travelers when it comes to customer service: responsiveness, empathy, personalization and thoroughness/relevance of a response.

On average, the best-performing industry for omnichannel support is cruise lines (with an average SPI of 34.23 out of 100), followed by ground transportation companies (busses, car rentals, trains - 31.77), airlines (30.77), hotels (31.77) and OTAs (27.35). 

The best performing companies on both channels are OTAs - Wakanow, Thomas Cook and Almosafer - and hotels - Trident Hotels, Yotel and Address Hotels + Resorts. 

Ground transportation provide the best email and social support

Travelers looking for support will be most satisfied with the responses from rail, bus and rental car companies - the highest performers on the email-SPI. Airlines provide the worst email support. 

On the Social-SPI, ground transportation companies also provide the best responses. This is followed closely by airlines and cruise lines. Hotels and resorts, on average, are the worst providers of Twitter support.

Spirit Airlines, Almosafer, airBaltic and Premier Inn provide the best support on Twitter. 

Travel companies leave questions unanswered 

Even if companies do respond, though, the customer is not fully satisfied with the response. This leads to increased support costs as a traveler would likely follow up for a complete response on a different channel.

Surprisingly, more than half of companies that responded to emails (53%) and 72% of Twitter direct messages did not include key information that would answer a person’s question.

On-time responses: Travel companies are quick to respond 

When it comes to customer service, two-thirds of customers say valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do. Responsiveness is one area where travel companies are performing well.

Overall, 57% of emails are responded to within the first three hours and more than one in five companies respond to direct messages within the first 15 minutes. 

On email, the fastest responders are ground transportation companies (9.20 hours), compared to hotels and resorts (12.43 hours); OTAs: (12.53 hours); airlines (16.36 hours); and cruise lines: (23.16 hours). Interestingly, the largest travel and hospitality companies (5,000+ employees) were the slowest responders on email, with an average response time of over 27 hours.

On Twitter, airlines are the fastest responders, with an average response time of 8.52 hours. This compares to ground transportation (9.93 hours); cruise lines (12.87 hours); hotels and resorts (19.82 hours); and OTAs (21.62 hours).

The fastest responders are Address Hotels + Resorts, Network Rail, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ryanair and SpiceJet. 

C/X is the new loyalty program 

Nearly half (46%) of customers take loyalty programs into consideration, but even more - 60% - say great customer service is critical.

To effectively compete in an increasingly competitive market, travel companies need to reprioritize the support they provide travelers across the most popular digital support channels: email and social.