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April 05, 2017
High Customer Expectations Put Pressure on the Travel Industry
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It often takes just one bad experience to send people packing
Dreams are easily confused with reality in the luxury-tinged world of the travel industry, a segment where consumers often make purchases while imagining five-star hotels and palm tree-lined beaches.The problem for travel companies, however, is that meeting or exceeding these high consumer expectations can be exceedingly difficult. ItÕs a situation thatÕs leading more consumers to say they will switch to another travel provider if things go wrong.  Based on the results from a December 2016 survey of US and UK internet users conducted by The Harris Poll for Lithium, it often takes only one bad experience to turn off consumers from using a travel brand. When asked how many bad experiences it would take to stop using brands in different categories, the sharing economy and hotel sector were mentioned among the top four. Roughly 50% or more of respondents said it would take just one bad experience with companies in the travel sector before they switched, a situation that should ring alarm bells for companies like Airbnb, Uber and accommodation providers. This same willingness to Òjump shipÓ after a bad travel experience also comes through in a study by Aspect, which looked at US internet users who would stop doing business with a company due to poor customer service.  The percentage of total respondents who said they wouldnÕt tolerate poor customer service in the travel industry rose from 12% in Q4 2015 to 21% in Q4 2016, the largest increase of any category studied. In light of the growing ubiquity of user review websites and always-on social media, itÕs more important than ever for travel brands to make sure theyÕre ready to handle misunderstandings and complaints as they arise rather than after the fact. Last weekÕs series of social media complaints about United AirlinesÕ company dress code is just the latest in a series of ongoing examples. Copyright 2017 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved. From http://www.emarketer.com. By Jeremy Kressmann.
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