The reputational cost of summer airport chaos

The busy summer holiday period is proving difficult for the UK travel industry to navigate. After considerable time spent at home due to pandemic-era international travel restrictions, the British appetite for overseas trips has been reinvigorated. Hailed as the golden return of foreign travel, 2022 was supposed to facilitate this increased demand, with promises of full airports and packed flights. 

Yet, as families prepare for their long-awaited vacations, pervasive staffing shortages and various industrial actions have created considerable disruption across UK airports, with photos of passengers queuing round terminals spreading across social media and the front pages of newspapers. The lingering impact of Covid-19 restrictions have prevented the industry from providing a much-needed resurgence in passenger numbers, delivering a further blow to consumer confidence.

The current chaos poses significant threats to the travel industry; while revenue loss inflicted via reduced capacity to operate flights will damage profit margins in the short-term, the far-reaching reputational impact is in many ways more severe and difficult to overcome. As consumers continue to lose faith in the ability of travel operators to deliver a service, the narrative surrounding airports and airlines is one of uncertainty, unreliability, and frustration. Although delays and cancellations have undoubtedly contributed to these sentiments, the way in which basic information is being conveyed to consumers is a likely source of dissatisfaction. It is this communication strategy that must be improved to re-build trust with passengers.

The wider reputational impact 

The perception of a business as incapable of providing the services it claims to is extremely costly and can prove difficult to alter once it has formed part of the wider consumer psyche. While stretched capacities and changes to services are to be expected in times of increased demand, preparation for such alterations is all part of a smoothly run operation. The communication of changes to the customer is where value is either gained or lost. With too many passengers facing uncertainty regarding the status of their flight, luggage and queue times, the travel sector is paying a high price for the recent disruption and must tackle issues head on to restore its reputation and minimise stress for customers.

Fortunately for the industry, and down the line the consumer, there is already investment set aside for making necessary improvements. In a recent public spat with the aviation regulator, Heathrow airport publicly defended its calls to maintain passenger charges at the higher levels initiated through pandemic lows. Regardless of the level of passenger charges, Heathrow will still be sitting on an additional £3.6bn in funds for significant investment into improvements – and they, along with other airports making investment, must not squander this opportunity.

While overcoming staff shortages is of course an initial priority, forward planning will facilitate longer-term resilience to future shocks. Moving beyond outdated processes and legacy technology will help to streamline the customer journey, with digitalisation and automation set to play a pivotal role.  

Investing in customer communications to improve resilience 

Investment in cutting-edge technology will improve efficiency, end backlogs and lead to better customer experience overall. Implementing such technology will enable operators to proactively tackle problems, rather than being forced to react to unanticipated issues. This shift will prove crucial to rebuilding lost customer trust in the long term. 

Digitisation

Digitisation can add value in various ways. One example of how this can be achieved is via improved conversational AI tools. Such technology can be used to answer customer queries accurately and efficiently, ensuring that fewer passengers are stuck in queues. The provision of proactive alerts makes customers feel valued, informed and prioritised at every stage of the journey, while also engendering the feeling of trust and assurance that operators are committed to delivering a hassle-free service. This will go a long way to repair reputational losses that have been sustained this summer.

Preference

Beyond keeping passengers in the loop, widening the number of entry points with which they can access information themselves highlights another way in which operators can restore consumer confidence. Gone are the days when passengers should be expected to huddle round a board in an airport waiting for a one-line summary of the status of their flight. Implementing simple and cost-effective technological solutions that allow customers to engage with your customer team via their preferred channel - whether that be SMS, Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp – facilitates information sharing based on passenger preference, rather than what seems best for the operator. Keeping customer convenience at top of mind via improved communication systems will demonstrate operators’ drive to improve relationships with customers, thus rebuilding trust. 

Avoiding complaints

The issue of unresolved enquiries is another major problem that airports and airlines must address, if they are to successfully restore consumer confidence. Unresolved complaints are causing considerable reputational damage, with recent data from The Institute of Customer Service finding that calls and complaints have hit an all-time high, costing UK companies more than £9bn a month in lost time. Although this is not unique to the air travel sector, unresponsive switchboards are an outdated way of dealing with customer questions and complaints. Adopting improved knowledge sharing tools such as internal chatbots can aid the smooth transfer of information from the airport to the customer, ensuring queries are dealt with at great speed. Providing consumers with concise answers and effective solutions will reassure them that operators are in full control of the situation, which will stand to improve their reputational perception and foster long-term loyalty with passengers.

Forgiveness 

While many passengers may be able to overlook delays and other operational issues associated with periods of intense pressure and demand, such forgiveness can only be expected if operators deliver a high-quality communication strategy based on proactivity and transparency. Slow uptake of this technology has contributed to the current disruption and exacerbated frustrations that may have been avoided if stronger protocols had been in place. Operators that are serious about restoring reputational losses should prioritise the implementation of improved customer communication systems - those that do will reap the benefits from regaining consumer trust, which will go a long way to restoring reputation in the long term. 

James Matthews is Country Manager, UK & Ireland at CM.com.

Featured image by izusek on iStock