How to stop travel’s sad customer-service slide

Christopher Elliott Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

It isn’t your imagination. The service is getting worse.

Almost every measure of performance, from the federal government’s numbers to independent surveys by the likes of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, suggests that when it comes to travel, customer service is circling the drain.

The most recent Michigan study even found that people think they get better service from the Internal Revenue Service than their airline. The tax collector running an air carrier? Imagine that.

Neglecting customers is nothing new to the travel industry. But what is new are the numbers the travel business — particularly hotels and airlines — is putting on the board this year, despite all that. The U.S. airline industry is expected to earn $4 billion in 2007, its best year since before 9/11, and possibly ever. Hotels will rack up $27.4 billion in profits.

Kind of makes you wonder if one of the most basic rules of business — the one that says good customer service translates into good earnings — is quietly being voided by the travel industry. The answer is yes, and if something isn’t done about this profit paradox, customer service might get much, much worse.

It doesn’t have to. Here are five things you can do right now to stop the customer-service slide:

Don’t reward bad service with your business.
As a consumer advocate, I see a lot of e-mails that end with, “I’LL NEVER FLY ON YOUR AIRLINE AGAIN!” But that’s quickly forgotten the next time travelers are shopping for a flight and find that the cheapest fare is offered by the airline they’ve sworn to never patronize again.

The travel business knows we’re bluffing. If we weren’t, then the airlines with the worst numbers would be flying empty planes (if you’re wondering which carriers those are, here are the latest figures reported by the government ). And the hotels with the worst customer-service records would be getting turned into condos.

It’s time to make good on our promises and boycott the bad travel companies.

Complain about substandard service.
How often have you heard this: A travel industry insider is asked about declining service levels and amenities. To which he says, “For what you paid for your ticket, what did you expect?”

Translation: shut up and be happy. You’re getting what you deserve. But just because travelers ask for lower prices (who wouldn’t?) doesn’t mean they expect awful service. The travel industry’s apologists have made their customers feel guilty for demanding competitive prices and competent service. As a result, many passengers feel shy about complaining.

Instead, they sheepishly accept shoddy service. But if enough travelers felt otherwise, they’d complain. And it would be far more difficult for travel companies to delude themselves into thinking they were doing a good job. (I have a whole section on my Web site that shows you how to file an effective complaint.)

Tell your friends when something goes wrong.
Travel companies are secretly relieved when you send a complaint to them — and no one else. Their worst nightmare? That you tell all of your friends, and that they tell their friends. And now, thanks to the Internet and a little phenomenon called social networking, you can spread the word even faster through Web sites such as Trip Advisor and IgoUgo. If you’re really ticked off, take a few snapshots and post them on Flickr or shoot a quick video and download it to YouTube.

Your opinion is important. Those aren’t just empty words printed on a guest comment card that collects dust in the corner of your room, or the rhetoric used by a bored hotel clerk. It’s a new reality the travel industry is only now beginning to fully understand.

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