If you are a travel company and you have negative feedback, you asses if it is a one off or if there is a problem. If there is a problem, you resolve it with the client and drop the supplier. Most view that as pro-active enough.

I have stayed in 4 hotels in the past month. 3 of them sent me email surveys asking for feedback. I responded with negative feedback on one survey (the other hotels were great) and I got email directly from the manager. I thought that was pretty great, actually. . .

Darren - No it is not very pro-active. I expect by pro-active you mean travel companies should employ a whole team to assess each customers response and evaluate it then then with each element of the holiday give feedback to that supplier (airline, hotelier, transfer company), they in turn would be required to asses it and and send a report back to the TO. Once reported back, the TO’s team would act on it. Have meeting and evaluate it? But in truth, feedback is only of value if it is acted upon. You can send surveys and forms out, but if suppliers do not have the means and manpower to asses the feedback and create a response, it is worthless. And large TO’s do give guests surveys to fill in before they depart their destination. Airlines have complaint forms onboard. I have seen feedback boxes at many resorts, supplied by the TO for guests to use. What other business models send feedback forms with every purchase? I ams sure there are some, but I can’t think of one at the moment.

Many online web companies are adding Trip Advisor feeds to their own sites and adding blogs for their customers feedback, which is a great idea.

Darren,

The issue of customer feedback is one that we’ve been banging on about for a while (see posts here and here for example and it strikes me that one of the issues is actually understanding the feedback and doing something about it – especially if you get a LOT of comments.

So I don’t know that it’s an unwillingness to solicit comments because they might be bad rather than it’s an area that the company doesn’t see any need to invest in (in the same way that some companies have printed brochures and others don’t).

I suspect that the firms that do actually actively seek feedback (Travelodge springs to mind) have the resources and the willingness to gets to grips with this data. But it’s not just a question of size of company– we’ve worked with small organisations as well as large firms who get a lot out of feedback (apologies for the plug there!). But it does require an attitude that recognises that understanding feedback can be a serious commercial advantage and so requires money and effort to be thrown at it. I guess not all companies do think like this though.

Finally, I would also say that if you are not prepared to act on feedback then don’t bother collecting it. And in that case the only feedback you will get will be from your accountant and you won’t know what’s really affecting your business until it’s possibly too late.

Stephen’s right, obviously. But I also think the way companies go about gathering feedback is an interesting question.

I’ve been guilty of not responding to feedback requests on a number of occasions, even when I’ve received bad service - the psychology of it can range from “Doesn’t matter, I’m never going to use them again” (for small companies) to “Nobody will pay attention” (for large ones).

And when it comes to booking online, you’ve already done quite enough form-filling and box-ticking. The last thing you want to do after completing the transaction is take a survey.

You want a simple, non-invasive way of capturing feedback, and one that leaves the consumer confident that their feedback matters. That’s a tremendously hard thing to achieve.

Now I think of it, didn’t you briefly have a tab on the side of your template for feedback Darren? I remember quite liking that idea. Did it not work out?

Hi Nathan

I absolutely agree with those points and, for me, the big difference that the 2.0 world has made to this debate on feedback is to give customers a sense that they are now being heard (even if that is just by other customers). Previously, a letter of complaint would be filed in the trash but there is now a greater expectation that businesses will respond in some way.

Because of what you said about not bothering to complain, I’ve become a firm believer in the ‘tip of the iceberg’ school of thought that says that one piece of feedback could in fact be representing literally hundreds of similar pieces of feedback. Those firms that invest heavily in analytics tools (like the ones mentioned in the post mentioned above are able to monetize the impact of feedback and use it as an opportunity to improve sales or at least get an idea for what is a big issue and what isn’t.

I also agree with you about suffering survey fatigue and it’s something we’re always conscious of. My suggestion for the three quick killer questions (or sensible variants thereof) all tourism orgs should ask were:

* Why did you stay/visit here?
* Were you satisfied?
* If not, why not?

but I’m open to debate on whether these really are the best - any thoughts?

Whenever I am asked to fill in paper feedback questionnaires in ay arena, I cannot help but wonder if the whole excercise is just a waste of time money and trees. I would’nt mind betting most of them go straight in the shredder after they have noted my name and address in order to send me yet more unwanted junk mail. Cynical by nature I suppose but what is wrong with (a) complaining at the time to the offending provider and (b) if no satisfaction obtained from (a) voting with your feet, ie. not going back for more? Why should we the paying public act as unpaid research assistants for commercial organisations? On the other hand I am happy to send a quick email or respond to an email.

As someone who has implemented Trip Advisor on travel websites, I actually think it’s a bit of a cop out to an extent. Yes it is a great tool for those who are looking to book a holiday, and assess whether they would like to visit a hotel, but it rarely provides feedback on the operator/company who they are booking through and is indirect feedback which operators are less likely to see and deal with.

We must remember there’s a difference between customers having the ability to provide feedback and something actually being done about that feedback.

I’ve been fighting for over 12 months to have a clear “Feedback” form on our websites to allow for customers to tell us what is good and most importantly bad about their experience on our websites, so that I can look at ways of improving it - but it’s not a priority to be done.

We have recently implemented an online feedback system for customers returning from their holiday booked with us, and the response continues to be excellent. It’s all being fed into a large CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, which our customer services team can then filter for good/bad/mediocre comments, and response accordingly. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction for ensuring that customers experiences are improved.

Whenever I have stayed in a hotel in the past, I’ve got a feedback form (either they place it in the room beforehand or hand it out after you’ve checked out). The Four-and five-star hotels always did it, two- and three-star hotels sometimes, hostels never.

As for airline companies I can’t remember they’ve ever given me a feedback form or asked for feedback. I don’t really mind either. I’ve never had any bad experiences on flights. I’ve had delays because of bad weather, but that’s not any reason to complain.

To stay away from bad experiences, I make an effort to make use of hotels and companies with good reputation, suggestions from friends or go for a place that feels good. It’s been working great so far.

When filling out feedback forms I use to wonder who reads them and to what extent they “listen” to the feedback (good and bad).

By the way, Darren, I don’t really understand what you mean with jargon in the comments above. I understand what everyone means and I can’t find any jargon.

You’d think that with as much as everyone complains about airlines, they’d want to know what it is they are/aren’t doing to make everyone mad. Usually when people book flights, they want an airline that isn’t going to be super-expensive and one that is efficient, so it just makes sense that they would take into account what they’re customers are saying, so why they’re not, I have no idea.

Darren

Travel companies do use feed back forms and there not just used for collecting address. A lot of companies use this when it comes to choosing which property they want to keep or not. A few companies (TUI as example) publish these, others just monitor them. The best companies are members of AITO who we know because they responded in some cases and all read these forms.

As to online surveys back I wonder how many people are like me and do not bother with these, just gets in the way. I have even stopped using a couple of sites where there online survey kept bugging me. A feed back form on the website is a good idea, as long as it does not get filed in trash.

The main problem as I see it the people at the top of the tree just do not understand the internet and what customers want. Forms are example of this…maybe they will start to use focus groups and improve.

Hi Darren
We decided to implement customer feedback a while ago but we wanted to make sure that it was genuinely only open to customers - there have been too many bogus posts on tripadvisor by the hoteliers giving themselves rave reviews or by people with a vendetta. The way we do it is we only send out a request for feedback once a customer who has booked the hotel through us, has come back from their trip so we can guarantee it’s a genuine comment.
We also send feedback forms to anyone who uses our travel team to book a hotel so we get an idea of the service we are giving.
Customer generated content is great when it’s genuine and controlled properly. We have some fantastic tips on our site from users but I also think it’s important to show the complaints as well so they don’t get edited out.

Agree with Tamara. The important thing is that it is targeted and performs a useful role. I spent some time at Kirker Travel earlier this summer, talking individually to their sales team. They give their clients a holiday feedback form to use on their return. What surprised me is how every single one of their 30+ sales people enthused about the importance of the feedback they get, good or bad. I think some of that focus would be lost if it were an online free for all.

ps. If you get overwhelmed with rants, Darren, you can point them to menogo.com which I stumbled on yesterday.

Our company (a holiday villa company) asks (via email) all of our customers to complete an online feedback survey after their trip. About 70% of our customers complete the online form quite happily. We ask for specific feedback on the villa, the company, the service overall and ask for general comments (what should be improved? etc.). Our Customer Services team reads and personally replies by email to EVERY customer who completes a survey as they come in - usually within a day. The products and sales team review all the responses every month, and I (the MD) read them all and reply to quite a few. We take all that feedback and publish it to the villa owners and other suppliers - and follow up with them to ensure that issues are resolved.
Frankly, I don’t understand how most of the travel industry just goes through the motions with customer feedback. It is invaluable to us. Aside from obviously helping us to improve our service and quality, it leaves our customers with the right impression: that we care about service and quality. And we love it when the respond to our emails with “Wow - I didn’t think anyone would actually read it, far less respond to it!”.