Customer Dissatisfaction with Travel Customer Experiences Soaring

While the customer experience has become important across all industries, the hospitality industry faces a unique challenge: a single poor customer interaction could lose airline, hotels, and other companies nearly all of their repeat business.

This is according to new research into the customer experience sponsored by Mitto, a provider of global omnichannel communications solutions. The study, which surveyed customers of the travel and hospitality industries, found a strong correlation between the standard of customer support and consumers' attitudes toward those brands. Poor customer support has the potential to drastically affect an airline or hotel brand's bottom line. Overwhelmingly ( 90 percent), consumers who experienced a negative interaction would choose not to give business to that specific airline or hotel in the future unless there was no alternative.

It's no secret the travel industry is experiencing setbacks for a number of reasons: including trying to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic when many travelers stayed home, and the resulting labor shortages. Fuel costs and labor woes have increased prices at the same time, leaving customers paying more and getting less. Nightmares of delayed and canceled flights appear in the news headlines daily, and hotel guests have experienced the problems of inadequate staffing levels first-hand.

While it may not be possible for airlines and hotels to recover quickly from inflation pricing, sky-high fuel costs and inadequate staffing, they can control how they communicate these issues to customers. Experts note that the speed and method of how these delays are communicated play a key role in consumers' overall experience. For most companies, this means have a faultless cross-channel customer engagement and communications platform in place.

"The travel and hospitality industries are uniquely poised to surprise and delight consumers. Even with 55 percent of travelers expecting delays during the Labor Day weekend, airlines can still foster positive customer experiences by reconsidering how they communicate with customers," said Andrea Giacomini, CEO of Mitto. "Our research shows quality customer support would create a better experience even in the face of flight delays and other vacation disruptions. It is critical that the travel and hospitality industries understand the preferences of travelers and adopt a wide range of communication channels to be able to connect with customers on the channels they prefer and create these positive interactions."


Edited by Erik Linask

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