Online customer service improvements needed in Travel
By Darren Cronian on Monday, July 28th, 2008

From previous experiences some travel companies use the internet to hide behind their website but I want to be able to communicate online, not forced to use a premium telephone number. I contacted five travel companies to see who was the easiest to communicate with and responded the quickest.

Online customer service improvements needed in Travel

Thomas Cook

The customer services link took me to a Q&A tool where I typed in my question. I didn’t receive the answer I wanted, so I attempted to contact someone online. I fished around for an email form but found that the only way I could get my question answered was to telephone them.

Ebookers

Unlike Thomas Cook, the Ebookers customer service link was easy to find. I could search through frequently asked questions or submit my question to customer services online. I was impressed that I received a response in 45 minutes.

Thomson

The Thomson contact us link was at the bottom of the page. Maybe that’s because they did not want me to find it easily. Like the other two sites, I was able to ask a question or view frequently asked questions. At the time of writing no response was received after 9 hours.

Expedia

The customer services link was easy to find. I typed in my question but it didn’t provide me with any answers, so like Thomas Cook, I searched for an online form to ask my question. The only way I could get my question answered was to telephone customer services.

Opodo

The customer services form was easy to complete, but I was confused why I had to register an account. Before I clicked on the submit button I was given a list of frequently asked questions, but none of them helped me so I submitted my question. Wow! 13 minutes it took to respond. Impressed.

The results

Opodo from the five companies tested had far the best response time, but I found Ebookers provided the easiest way of communicating with customer services, with no hurdles whatsoever. I’d like to see travel companies improving consumer communication channels, it’s not difficult.

I’d be interested to hear your comments on this road test and how effective travel companies are in communicating.


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11 responses to “Online customer service improvements needed in Travel”

Rohan | 29 July, 2008 at 5:41 am

Interesting to hear about Expedia. I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want to book a holiday with them. The website is difficult to use, the price of a holiday is expensive, and from past experience the customer service is poor.

Tricia Pearson | 29 July, 2008 at 9:20 am

It would be interesting to do a similar survey of travel insurance websites ?

Darren Cronian | 29 July, 2008 at 9:38 am

@ Tricia

Thanks for commenting. I think the issue of online customer services applies to any aspect of travel. Was there anything in particular with regard to travel insurance websites that you think needs testing? If it helps improve consumer experience then I am happy to help out.

The road test I did yesterday is very low level and doesn’t go into any analysis, I’ll leave that to the travel industry writers.

Erica Johansson | 29 July, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Interesting to read. 13 minutes! That was definitely impressing.

Jack | 29 July, 2008 at 5:03 pm

I find that customer service levels have gone *down* in the last few years.

Back in ‘98 I had Travelocity book me a ticket on spec when my credit card was acting up (being out of country at the time…) rather than have me lose the fare. That got them another £2500 in sales after that!

Of course, then Lastminute.com bought them and they turned to …. well, not so good.

Darren Cronian | 29 July, 2008 at 9:13 pm

@ Erica

I know, I didn’t use my travel rants email address neither!
For the record, over 24 hours and I haven’t received a response from Thomson yet.

@ Jack

When you say gone down do you mean that companies aren’t performing or that the number of consumers using customer services has gone down? I’m assuming you mean performance, but just to clarify.

Jack | 29 July, 2008 at 10:46 pm

Absolutely, the quality of service has gone down quite a bit… though I’m guessing the number of people actually using them has lowered too. For that reason rather than the delivery of goods sold having improved…

Budget airlines and bare bones packages have lowered expectations all around among consumers. Strangely, I’ve noticed that low end hotels etc have gotten better in the last few years.

Nick | 30 July, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Darren,

From a non-travel agents point of view (during working hours) what would you think was a good and also a maximum reply time?

For your information as an agent one of the best response times are Kuoni and Thomas Cook, both normally within 4 hours. TUI is poor for us to.

Darren Cronian | 30 July, 2008 at 3:02 pm

@ Nick

Different consumers will have different expectations – I would expect a reply to my question within 24 hours of me sending the enquiry, even if it’s to apologise for the delay and they will be in touch soon. The response time will depend on when you sent the enquiry, i.e. the date and time. Smaller companies I can understand may struggle to reply 24 hours.

There’s no reason not to have a frequently asked question page. This not only helps the consumer find the answer to their question but the agency could receive less enquiries. As a consumer I always check the FAQ’s before contacting a company, but I understand some won’t and will find it easier/quicker to email the agency.

Rohan | 31 July, 2008 at 7:06 pm

I would agree with Darren. 24 hours is plenty enough time to respond.

Have you received a response from Thomson yet?

Darren Cronian | 1 August, 2008 at 3:58 am

@ Rohan

No, it’s been over 4 days now, and no response. It’s okay providing a service for consumers to contact them but if they do not respond, then it’s pretty useless. 4 days is poor in my opinion.

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