The Evolution of Costumer Service

How is social media impacting the travel industry's costumer service?

In the past, if a costumer had a compliant about a hotel, they would personally call or email that hotel. In addition, they may complain to a few friends, but other than those few people, no one would know about their dissatisfaction. Unfortunately for hotels, this has changed because of social media.

The article “Hotel chains that get the most hate on social media”, states “for hotels, success is measured in large part, by positive ratings on social media” (Elliott, 2015, para 7). This implies that a hotel must have great costumer service, because in order to be successful, they must have a positive comments social media. If the comments are negative, it could be detrimental to the hotel's business.

The article “Hotels need to pay better attention to social media to drive revenue” states that “All it takes is one unsatisfied customer going viral to bring a lot of unwanted attention to your brand” (Hoisington, 2018, para 14). If one person who has a complaint about a hotel's costumer service, that compliant can go viral. Instead of complaining to a few people, one now has the power to complain to the world, and the world is willing to listen.

For example, the article "NIGHTMARE: 7 Costumer Service Blunders That Went Viral", discusses some costumer service fails that the travel industry has had, which has negatively impacted the company's brand, profits, and more.

The article begins by explaining how after a costumer name Dave Carroll "saw how United Airlines baggage handlers damaged his custom-made guitar from his airplane window, his band wrote a four-minute song about the incident and posted it on YouTube. Within 48 hours, it had more than 24,000 views (now it has 10 million)" (Laya, 2011, para. 6). According to the article, "the incident reportedly cost United Airlines $180 million (10 percent of share value) in 2009" ( Laya, 2011, para. 8).

Another example involves a man named Kevin Smith who "boarded a Southwest flight when he was told he was "too fat to fly." The Southwest captain had considered him a "safety risk" Smith, a film director, tweeted the whole incident, which was picked up by large national media outlets, including USA Today and ABC" (Laya, 2011, para 14). This had an extremely large negative impact on Southwest Airline's brand and revenue.

According to the article, "Hotels need to pay better attention to social media to drive revenue“, "sometimes just recognizing a person is enough to keep the conversation from turning negative. These customers don’t want to pick up a phone and call the customer-service line.” (Hoisington, 2018, para 12). If a travel company hopes to avoid negative costumer service, they must be ready to take action and respond to their costumers' complaints in order to maintain a positive image.

Overall, the travel industry must be conscious of online comments and must find a way to excel in a world where someone's comment can become viral in seconds.

Sources

Elliott, C. (2015, June 18). Hotel chains that get the most hate on social media. Retrieved from

http://fortune.com/2015/06/18/hotel-chains-complaints-social-media/

Hoisington, A. (2018, March 6). Hotels need to pay better attention to social media to drive revenue. Retrieved from https://www.hotelmanagement.net/sales-marketing/why-hotels-need-to-pay-attention-to-social-media-to-drive-revenue

Laya, P. (2011, June 17). NIGHTMARE: 7 Costumer Service Blunders That Went Viral. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/7-very-public-lessons-in-customer-service-2011-6