Why Query Resolution Takes Too Long in the Travel Industry: The Real Problems Behind Delayed Customer Support
Why Query Resolution Takes Too Long in the Travel Industry Travel agencies are experiencing a new kind of crisis: customer queries that should take minutes are stretching into hours or days. Your customers want instant answers but the average reply time for emails in travel is well over 12 hours, and many (70%) don’t even get a response. This is more than just making customers happy, this is survival. Studies show that 62% of millennials will stop doing business with a brand after one poor customer service incident, and in the competitive travel industry, that lost customer is unlikely to become a repeat customer Understanding Query Resolution in Travel Query Resolution is an end-to-end activity, from the time when a customer asks a query till they get a satisfactory answer. In travel, that includes everything from a basic booking confirmation to an intricate multi-city itinerary change. Today’s customers have compressed expectations. Recent customer service statistics show that 90% of customers want an immediate response upon contacting a company while 60% consider “immediate” to mean within 10 minutes. But for travel agents, the lead time is much longer because of various industry issues. The travel industry’s customer service performance reveals concerning gaps: Travel Industry Query Resolution Benchmarks You can’t make improvements if you don’t know how your agency is stacking up to industry standards. Specialized travel benchmarks show huge disparities between various business models and operating specifics. Resolution Time for Type of Travel Business: Travel Agencies: 4.2 hours on average (6.8 hours peak season) With Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): 2.1 hours per user on average Hotel Chains: 3.5 hours average Airlines: 1.8 hours average During peak periods, there are long delays through all areas. The figures demonstrate that average resolution times soar by 35-60% for all travel companies in the December holiday and summer seasons. The quickest resolution time occurs in January-February, with an average of 2.8 hours, but July-August and December are the slowest months with an average delay of 5.2 hours. Geographic and Language Impact: Single language agencies: 3.2 hours mean resolution Multilingual support organizations: 5.1 hours on average Multi-country operations: 4.7 hours average These benchmarks enable agencies to know how they compare and establish achievable targets for improvement that are relative to their unique operation. The Hidden Causes of Poor Query Resolution Performance Unlike e-commerce or software companies, travel agencies work in an industry full of suppliers and systems that do not talk to one another very well. When a customer books a holiday package, they’re not buying one service from one company they’re buying a complex bundle of services provided by multiple independent suppliers. A typical international vacation involves coordination between: Airlines for changes in flights and schedules Hotels, for living and room makeover ground transportation by car hire firms Local operators for things to do and activities Travel Insurance Cover information from the insurers themselves Government agencies for visa requirements Travel agents turn into coordinators dealing with dozens if not hundreds of personal relationships at once. An average cancelled flight creates a domino of needed changes that may require hours to properly coordinate across all impacted ops. Root Cause Analysis Framework for Travel Query Delays To address slow resolution time efficiently, agencies also must have systematic processes to trace the causes of delays and reduce them. Most travel queries also fit into one of three broad categories, which pose distinct resolution challenges. Query Type Breakdown: Booking-related: 45% (confirmations, modifications, cancellations) Service-related: 30% (special requests, policy clarifications). Problem-resolution: 25% (disruptions, complaints, refunds) The process of diagnosis brings out the sources of delay in current workflows. GDS response time is around 3-8 seconds for a search which is quite okay. But, supplier portal access is up to 30-120 secs per login a big latency point. Analysis of the communication channel reveals that there is considerable efficiency variation in resolution. The resolution time of single-channel is 4.7 hours on the average and multi-channel handoff delay is up to 2.1hours which are major problem factors. Add on escalation requirements and an additional 90 to 180 minutes per query is tacked onto resolution times. Common Root Causes and Solutions: Supplier integration too slow → Establish API connections to leading suppliers Policy mismatch confusion → Keep policy databases, updated weekly, that are very dynamic Third- party system timeouts → Setup alternate routing with re-try setup configuration Legacy Technology Systems Create Bottlenecks Almost all travel agencies have GDS carriers like Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport for booking management. These systems were created in the 1960s for airline reservations automation and never considered modern customer service expectations. When a customer wants to revise their booking, agents have to log into multiple siloed systems. They conduct GDS searches of flights for potential alterations and fare changes. They consult separate hotel reservation systems for room availability. They search in multiple,car rental systems for ground transport solutions and pay through separate financial systems. Agents complain that it feels like their sole function has transitioned to thrashing around in different systems. Reportedly, agents spend 3-5 minutes just querying systems with the intent of running a zero-assist query. Then they still need to spend additional time assisting the customer. Information Fragmentation Slowing Query Resolution A typical travel agency will have information that is fragmented on multiple systems which are not speaking to each other effectively. This fragmentation causes a particularly long delay in response to queries. CRM has customer details but booking systems don’t have access to them Payment data is subject to separate log-on and search steps Fragmented communication history in emails, phone logs and chat platforms Changes in Bookings need to be manually adjusted in many databases This is hours of wasted time for an agency that receives hundreds of requests a day, all time that could be used to actually solve other customer problems. The combined effect will have a severe impact on resolution duration and agent productivity. Even with technological advancements, travel operations are still based on many manual activities that slow the process