The customer journey of a traveler can be complicated and leverages many disparate technologies. The process of researching a trip via the wide variety of channels and third-party providers, booking, paying, moving through a transportation hub, and arriving at a destination of choice provides many opportunities to provide outstanding customer experience (CX) or fall short of expectations. Each touchpoint in that journey is an opportunity to build brand loyalty, trust, and positive emotion. A traveler’s customer journey presents both a challenge and an opportunity for implementing CX technologies and services. During times of high travel volume, the highs and lows can be particularly dramatic as the stress placed on operations, employees, and customers collide.

The travel and hospitality market, at its core, has been about the personal touch of experience. However, the industry has always needed to walk the line between internal operational and cost efficiencies and personal attention to the guest or traveler. The global pandemic exposed many outdated and inefficient travel-related technology stacks across all parts of the business, and in that time, many companies, particularly on the airline front, have simply had to focus on operational issues. To its credit, the market as a whole, including these airline carriers, hotel chains, and rental car companies, has been turning its attention to providing better CX.  

However, there is still a disconnect between what consumers expect and what some travel and hospitality companies are capable of delivering due to market and labor shortage constraints. Many who traveled frequently through the season termed this past summer The Summer of My Discontent. Weather, scheduling, and operational issues plagued the busy travel season and caused a steamroller effect as people complained via word of mouth, social media, or whatever channel they could about lost luggage, missed events, and sleeping on cots at airports.

In our latest Market Insight Report, ‘Tis the Season: CX “Must Haves” for High-Volume Travel Periods, we dive into the five must haves for high-volume travel periods: 

• Communication
• Omnichannel and self-service
• Feedback options and follow-up
• Personalization
• An eye on frontline EX and empathy

High-volume travel, particularly during a holiday, is an opportunity for those in the travel and hospitality sector to, at one end of the spectrum, exceed, surprise, and delight customers. But as things go awry during a travel journey, as they often do, there is still room for companies to keep the relationship as positive as possible for their customers with supporting CX technologies and strategies. If you are interested in learning more, be sure to download your copy of ‘Tis the Season: CX “Must Haves” for High-Volume Travel Periods, today.