Research and Markets: 2012 Customer Contact Experience BenchmarksOnline Travel Industry

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bsfp69/2012_customer) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "2012 Customer Contact Experience Benchmarks Online Travel Industry" to their offering.

This research study benchmarks various customer contact experience attributes such as customer satisfaction, customer experience, and customer loyalty for the online travel industry across contact channels including: live agent phone, IVR, email, chat, and Web self-service. A Web-based survey methodology was used for this study: N=1665.

Companies Benchmarked in This Study Include:

- Airfare

- AirGorilla

- CheapOair

- Cheaptickets

- Expedia

- Hipmunk

- Hotels

- Hotwire

- Kayak

- Orbitz

- Priceline

- Smartertravel

- Travelocity

Within the industry, the most popular contact channel is Web site self-service. E-mail and phone-live agent have been used by fewer customers, while Web site chat with live agent and IVR are the least popular.

Executive Summary:

Web site self-service is the most used contact channel in the online travel industry. Web chat usage, while low in general, is still relatively high in the online travel industry. E-mail usage rates are fairly high for customer contact in this industry.

Customer satisfaction is highest in Web self-service, and this is followed by e-mail and Web site chat with live agent. IVR has the lowest customer satisfaction among all channels in the industry. In general, the experience of getting through to a customer service representative is rated quite favorably. Most of customers who contacted an online travel agent by phone spoke with only one agent.

Ratings of customer contact experiences are fairly high in the online travel industry, as are the overall satisfaction and customer loyalty scores. Interactions generally meet or slightly exceed customers' expectations.

Although customer satisfaction scores are fairly high in absolute terms, e-mail, Web chat, and IVR are still not very effective channels for resolving customer issues and queries. Of those customers who initiate contact in one of these channels, many still resort to contacting a phone-live agent to resolve issues or queries. In the case of Web self-service, this repeat contact percentage is considerably lower than other channels.

Social media, while not covered in this survey, is another increasingly important customer contact channel. Furthermore, Web self-service usage on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is on the rise.

Smartertravel, Airfare, and Orbitz emerge as the top three brands in terms of overall customer satisfaction scores.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bsfp69/2012_customer

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager.
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Sector: E-Business, Travel and Tourism

Source: Research and Markets