By Suhaib Zaheer SVP, Managed Hosting at DigitalOcean & GM, Cloudways
Issues at airports – both foreseen, such as strikes, or unforeseen such as fires, can swiftly transform the anticipation of a holiday into frustration, as travellers continuously refresh their web browsers, scouring travel company websites for alternative routes to their destinations. Revising travel itineraries already carries its inherent stress, and this stress escalates when a travel operator’s website succumbs to a crash under the strain of a sudden surge in web traffic, or when tickets are unavailable as fellow travellers swiftly secure them before the final checkout.
For the airline, this situation underscores the importance of expanding their bandwidth and minimising disruptions during critical periods, like airline strikes, to prevent inefficiencies and negative reactions from passengers. The impact of such disruptions can be particularly significant, serving as a stark reminder of the need for a seamless booking experience in the face of unexpected labour disputes or other operational challenges.
Empower mobile transactions
With people frequently accessing transportation websites on the move, often limited to their smartphone or tablets, ensuring a seamless experience is vital, highlighting the importance of having a mobile-friendly website design. By guaranteeing compatibility across various devices and platforms, businesses can extend their reach to a broader audience and deliver a consistent and user-friendly experience, irrespective of the customer’s preferred digital platform.
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The potential of personalisation
Travel companies should prioritise investment in advanced analytics and data-driven insights. By analysing user behaviour, preferences and travel history, businesses can provide tailored recommendations and services that directly cater to the individual needs of each traveller.
M-commerce establishes personalised connections with travellers directly through their mobile devices, offering features such as real-time notifications, one-touch booking, location-specific services and tailored travel suggestions. These capabilities open new opportunities for travel companies to enhance customer loyalty and drive growth in bookings. This level of personalisation has the potential to significantly elevate traveller satisfaction, making it particularly attractive to travellers who value a seamless and tailored travel experience.
Elevate the customer service experience
A core way to mitigate disruptions caused by travel strikes is to supercharge proactive customer support. When strikes occur, the surge in inquiries and concerns can be overwhelming, potentially leaving customers feeling neglected or exasperated. To address this, travel providers can enhance their customer service resources by expanding their support team or implementing AI-driven chatbots, ensuring swift responses to customer inquiries. Additionally, proactively addressing common concerns through well-crafted FAQs can help assuage anxieties and furnish customers with readily available information. Tailored support not only resolves immediate concerns but also diverts unnecessary traffic surges from websites to call centres, resulting in a more seamless and satisfying customer experience.
Anticipating travel disruptions can be challenging. However, proactively fine-tuning websites ensures that travel providers have a consistently outstanding online customer experience whatever issues happen outside of their control. This commitment becomes even more crucial when travellers find themselves rebooking, rerouting, or seeking refunds. During these high-stress moments, travellers, often already feeling the strain, are in urgent need of swift solutions, such as purchasing new tickets or making critical transactions.
