Travel's email customer service - the best of the worst

Diane Clarkson | December 11, 2007, 02:59 PM

Every year we do a customer service web track where we email companies asking a very simple question and track how efficiently the email is answered. As my colleague, Zach McGeary, blogged about earlier today, the results have not always been stellar.

The travel industry is always a mixed lot with extremely efficient and helpful customer service meets with, well, let’s just say those who achieve less than best practises.

In previous years, the worst response I received was no response at all.

This year, ignoring me would have been a relatively positive customer service approach:

Hertz sent an auto-acknowledgement saying I’d receive a response within two or four business days, then asked me not to contact them again for five business days.

NWA followed a best practice of managing expectations by establishing a timeframe for a response – but the timeframe was 3 to 4 weeks.

Despite the very simple nature of our request, Marriot responded by volleying back asking for more information.

Expedia advised they were not authorized to provide the information (the information we requested would be known by all employees and has no confidentiality whatsoever, so I’m a bit confused about this one).

American Airlines responded to our email request with a quick and personalized answer. Kudos to American Airlines.

As Zach’s research has indicated, customers with unresolved email inquiries are most likely to pick up the phone – which means frustrated customers are reaching for the most expensive channel. Our results are preliminary and will be compiled into a report for early 2008. Which should be about the same time NWA answers my request.