Travel Industry COVID-19 analysis and Insights - REPORT BY CHATTERMILL - HubSpot
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Travel Industry
COVID-19 analysis
and Insights
R E P O R T B Y C H AT T E R M I L L
Page 1The Covid-19 outbreak has left travel providers in
shock, wondering how they can possibly combat
the decline in travellers in the coming months.
In order to help find opportunities to minimise
negative fallout, build long-term brand trust and
to recover from the crisis; we have analysed data
from 15 companies. Since the start of the
outbreak, the data has shown the following trends
and insights to support brands through this
difficult time.
Page 2Our findings and recommendations…
Double Down on Customer Service without Increasing Costs
Think of ways to improve customer care experience without increasing costs. For example; providing dedicated
COVID-19 help/contact pages and information. And automation of information (i.e which countries are no
longer accessible, which flights are cancelled) via app notifications and emails.
Clarify Customer Compensation
Have a clear COVID-19 compensation policy in place. This should include how to claim, what the terms are, the
time frame for cancellations and how long refund payments will take to process. This will help ease the strain on
customer services.
Aim to Remain Competitive
Continue to remain price competitive in markets that are safe for customers to travel to. Encourage booking
modification by making it easy and inexpensive.
Page 3Travel Industry decline in
Customer Engagement by 29%
Volume of responses YoY*
The following graph illustrates a
4267
decline in customer engagement
4500 4193 4115 in 2020.
3912 3954
4000 3656
3500
3111
2847 2866 2926 2932 2961 2881 The increasing uncertainty of
3000 2805
2605 2631 2647 2612
2522 2460 when the COVID-19 pandemic is
2500 expected to come to an end and
2000 the addition of international
1500 states closing borders;
customers inevitably became
1000
reluctant to book trips.
500
0
01 02 03
2019 2020
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 4Travel Industry decline in
Customer Sentiment
Net sentiment YoY* There is also an expected decrease in
sentiment towards travel providers.
100
75
An influx of concerned customers
50 41 36 41 38 41 36
35 32 34 looking to cancel, reschedule and
25 35
request refunds on upcoming trips in
28 29 32 30
26 24 25 26 7 the next few months are being met
20
0
with misinformation, long delays
-25 reaching customer care agents and
-50
difficulty finding appropriate contact
channels.
-75
-100
01 02 03
2019 2020
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 5Where is COVID-19 causing the most damage?
Net sentiment per category MoM
100
Customer Care has seen the
biggest decline in customer
75
60 62 61 sentiment since January (-35
51 51 47
50
37 40 pts) followed by Booking
Net sentiment pts
25 Experience (-18 pts)
25 15 19 19 21 18
5
0 Areas in which do not seem to
be impacted by COVID-19 are
-25
App Experience (ease of use,
-50 design layout) and Service
-48 -45 -48
(value for money, quality)
-75 -61 -63
-83
-100
Customer Care Booking App Content Company / Vendors Service App
Experience Brand Experience
Jan Feb Mar td Page 6
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020What is driving decline in Customer Care?
Net sentiment per them MoM
Quality of customer service has
seen the biggest decrease MoM (-
0 46 pts). Contact Methods and
-1 Responsiveness are also low in
customer sentiment.
-16
-25
Customer data suggests it’s difficult
Net sentiment pts
for customer to find contact
-50 -47
numbers and email addresses
-53 online. Phone lines are backed up
causing huge delays in
-64
-75 -70 responsiveness.
-77 -79
-82 Customer do not like to be directed
-90 to chat bots and prefer to talk to
-100 -95 -94
Contact Methods Responsiveness Problem Resolution Quality
customer agents as COVID-19
related issues often require
Jan Feb Mar to date immediate action.
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 7Increase in volume for cancellation (115%)
and modification (91%) of bookings.
250 235
Volume of responses 200
145
150
123
95
100 84 85 88 86
81 80
73
57
40 40 39 43
50 31 36
27 25
0
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
1/
1/
1/
1/
1/
2/
2/
2/
2/
3/
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
01
08
15
22
29
05
12
19
26
04
Cancellation / Refunds Modifications
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 8Decline in sentiment for booking refunds &
modification Booking modifications seem to have
Net sentiment per theme* experienced a steeper decline than
cancellations/refunds. This suggests
0
it is more difficult to make
modifications than it is to cancel
-25 bookings.
Net sentiment pts
Reasons for decline include the following:
-50
Ø Unable to receive refunds for
-61 -63 cancelled flights/bookings.
-67 -67
-70 -70
-76 -76 Ø Cancellation fees.
-77 -79 -79
-75 -82 -80 Ø Additional fees to update/reschedule
-86 -86 -88
-90 -89 -89
-93 existing bookings.
Ø No clear ownership of who is
-100
responsible for customer.
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
compensation resulting in customers
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
1/
1/
1/
1/
1/
2/
2/
2/
2/
3/
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
getting sent back and forth between
01
08
15
22
29
05
12
19
26
04
Cancellation / Refunds Modifications vendor and travel provider.
Page 9
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020COVID-19 impact on Company Brand
Negative sentiment per theme* Data suggests that travel companies that
are unable to resolve COVID-19 related
80 issues for customer leads to a negative
impact on their perceived brand. We see
70 the biggest negative sentiment for Brand
Mentions and Intent to Reuse.
60
50 Customers are less likely to reuse a travel
provider that has refused a refund or
40
made it difficult to cancel/modify
30 bookings. Customers lack trust that
future compensation will be provided.
20
It will become increasingly important for
10
companies to take measures to help
0 customers at their own expense (e.g
Advertisements Brand Mentions Comparisons Intent to Reuse Recommend refunds for closed borders). This will pay
General comments COVID-19 comments off in a big way for brand loyalty in the
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 long term. Page 10Current landscape for Travel Industry per
company
Net sentiment per company*
100
75 66 67 67
58 61 59 61
54 56
52 46 49 48 47 46
50 38 40 42 38 39
38 33 32
24 24 26
22 23 24 26
25 23 23 20 21 20
25 14 13
Net sentiment pts
7
-3
0 -12
-25
-50
-75
-100
01/01/20 08/01/20 15/01/20 22/01/20 29/01/20 05/02/20 12/02/20 19/02/20 26/02/20 04/03/20
Expedia TripAdvisor Hotels.com Agoda Priceline
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 11It’s not all bad news...
Sentiment distribution per category*
Aside Customer Care and Booking
25000 Experience, other areas within the
company are overwhelming seeing
20000 positive sentiment. App Experience and
Service seeing the biggest proportion of
positive sentiment.
15000
10000 The data suggests that customers are still
looking to travel and appreciate apps that
allow easy comparison of pricing and
5000
facilitate bookings.
0
Customer Booking App Content Company / Vendors Service App
Offering competitive deals and packages
Care Experience Brand Experience with quality vendors is also a driver for
Positive Neutral Negative positive sentiment among customers.
*Date range 01.01.2020 – 15.03.2020 Page 12Appendix
31, 702 comments analysed over 10 travel companies*
Net sentiment definition: A measure of the overall customer sentiment .
Calculated by subtracting the proportion of negative mentions by the proportion
of positive mention within the comments analysed for this report.
[*Agoda, CHECK24, CheapTickets, Expedia, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Kayak, On the Beach, Priceline, Travelocity, Trip.com, TripAdvisor, Tui, eDreams]
Page 13You can also read
