In truth, Travel is just one of the sectors we work with at Yomdel, helping clients understand the customer experience they deliver. And right now, just like in Travel, many sectors are experiencing a shortage of customers, due to enforced closures, ongoing restrictions and enormous uncertainty in the minds of those customers.
Well, when customers are scarce, no business can afford to see them go elsewhere for want of better service.
There are clear synergies emerging across all sectors, as companies and their customer service staff learn to adapt to a new world of customer behaviours and expectations brought about by Coronavirus. The learnings we have found can be beneficial to all sectors.
Successful travel and tourism businesses that deliver excellent customer service generate repeat business, and also attract new customers too, through word of mouth recommendations and great reviews.
We use Mystery Shopping to help businesses understand and assess their customer service offering, and it's worth looking closely at some of the different forms available for businesses to find out what their staff are doing well, and more importantly what needs improvement. This can lead directly to detailed feedback and positive training for immediate improvement, delivering a measurable return in repeat and referred business, badly needed right now
1. Face-to-Face, in-store assessment
Businesses returning to the high street are adapting to the new rules. This type of mystery shopping involves a shopper visiting a store or office location in person, experiencing how staff interact with customers and reporting back in writing on their findings.
In the Travel Sector, physical visits are not only for shops of course. Although it is common practice, and undoubtedly useful, for high street travel agents to review their in-store customer service compared to online holiday bookings, it is also essential for hotels and other accommodation providers to ensure they are making their guests happy every time and that those happy guests spread the word.
This type of visit can also be useful for tourist attractions. Nothing spoils a fun day out more than bad customer service. Visiting an attraction, experiencing and reporting on every aspect of the day out is the best way to discover what is working well, what needs improving and what needs to change.
2. Video assessment
If you want to use your physical mystery shops as an interactive training tool, offering first-hand feedback, then video visits are the way forward. A mystery shopper wears a hidden camera, usually in the form of a button on a shirt or hidden in a handbag, while they visit the business or accommodation in person. The recording not only allow management to ensure that staff are following policies and procedures (including any current covid-19 compliance processes) but also enables the member of staff to accurately review their performance first hand in terms of tone of voice, body language and general demeanour. It is crucial that this tool is used in a positive learning environment, where it will pay the highest dividends.
This technique can be beneficial for many Travel Sector areas including cabin crew and other airport staff to ensure they are delivering the high standards of service and safety now required. No customer wants their holiday ruined before it has even begun, and no business wants a poor experience to be tweeted everywhere.
3. Telephone enquiry assessment
Quick and effective to implement - every business should check this regularly. Our shoppers call a customer service number, enquire about a service or holiday, then submit a short report on their experience. The call is recorded so it can be reviewed in playback, ideally by the member of staff who dealt with the original enquiry. This should be delivered as a positive training experience, for best results.
This is a simple, effective tool for businesses who don’t have face-to-face customers or have a mix of virtual and physical touch-points. Now more than ever customers will have questions and anxieties when booking a flight or a holiday, and they must be handled faultlessly to maximise revenue.
4. Web enquiry assessment
Perhaps the most critical and important interface of all, as it is usually the first, and the place where choices are made between providers. A sale can often be won or lost right here before it has barely begun.
Our mystery shoppers will make a service or booking enquiry, via a chosen website, monitoring and reporting on immediate response and subsequent follow-ups. They will consider speed, accuracy and quality, and a host of assessment criteria which are necessary today to ensure a customer gets the best possible online experience and is inclined to make their booking with your brand.
Why not try a FREE web enquiry Mystery Shop below?
These are just some of the creative and practical ways mystery shopping can help businesses in the travel and tourism industry to improve customer service and keep ahead. Remember, keep your customers happy and they will come back, bringing their friends and family!
Do you want to see how you are faring with online customer response handling? We are offering a FREE web enquiry to one site where you can choose the enquiry scenario. If you'd like a FREE Mystery Shop Web enquiry, just get in touch with my colleague fern.cunnell@yomdel.com
