Despite rising fuel prices, the travel industry is expected to experience a boom this summer.
According to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, airline ticket sales are soaring, with ticket sales for U.S. domestic flights in February exceeding those for the same month in 2019 -- a first since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to an article in The New York Times.
A new study from customer-experience platform Emplifi -- which analyzed comments from 81,815 brands on Facebook and 8,954 on Twitter and the reliability of airlines' responses to consumers across various social media networks -- breaks down the speed and reliability of airlines’ customer services.
Compared to other industries, Emplifi reports that airlines are second only to telecom in terms of providing timely social-media responses. However, the company found that 76% of airlines' customer questions went unanswered on Twitter between January 1 and April 28 of this year.
Response rates for social-media complaints were even lower, with 85% of Tweets going unanswered over the same time period. And when responses were given, they tended to be short.
The report shows that for the leading 14 airlines, the average response time to questions posed was 1.7 hours on Twitter and 5.4 hours on Facebook.
Emplifi found that most consumers rated 24/7 customer-service availability and quick response times as the topmost factors for driving positive brand perceptions, with 86% of consumers leaving a brand they trusted after two negative customer experiences.
“While brands now understand the importance of good customer service, they still have the challenge of keeping up with how quickly customer expectations are evolving,” said Emplifi Chief Experience Officer Shellie Vornhagen in a recent statement. “It's so important to constantly evaluate and adjust their CX strategy to align with the customer's view of outstanding service. As successful CX leaders know, great experiences build advocacy, deepen customer loyalty, and ultimately increase profit.”
This should not be a surprise. In an industry where there is very limited competition, the players are not particularly customer oriented unless you are at the top level of their loyalty program.