Customer Experience Turbulence

We’ve all had bad customer service experiences – probably too many to count. Despite all the great technology out there today, many organizations either fail to invest in and deploy tools and technologies to improve their customer service efforts, or they haven’t implemented best practices to improve the customer experience (CX).

There’s no secret to providing positive customer experiences – customers want fast, reliable service either through self-service or from knowledgeable and helpful agents. Businesses know that customer experience is key to retaining loyal customers. Research by Zippia found that improved CX can increase company revenue by 10-15%, while CX Index research found that 90% of businesses have stated that they have made CX their primary focus, and that customer-centric brands report profits that are 60% higher than those that fail to focus on CX.

Business in all vertical industries know the importance of CX and providing good customer service. However, despite the heightened awareness of the role of CX, many companies are still failing their customers when it comes to customer satisfaction.

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Airline Experience

Airlines have invested millions of dollars in contact center technology, and yet are notorious for poor customer service. I recently had an experience that brought to light some of the ways airlines do a disservice to their customers, and how it could have been avoided with the proper use of contact center technology.

When my flight from Newark to Las Vegas was cancelled due to bad weather affecting several parts of the country, the airline sent a text notifying me that I was rebooked on a different flight – for the following day! I needed to cancel that flight and get rebooked on a flight later the same day (and wasn’t able to change it online), and thus began my extremely frustrating customer journey.

Step 1 – Text Message

I immediately tried to respond to the text message, but the messaging system only allowed for one-way outbound notifications rather than two-way conversations, so that was unsuccessful.

Step 2 – Webchat

I then accessed the airline’s online webchat, entered my information and described my issue, but when I was connected with a webchat agent, he didn’t have access to the information I had entered and I needed to re-enter and repeat everything. The chat agent was on a different platform from the contact center and didn’t have access to the necessary processes and procedures to rebook my flight. When the agent eventually realized that he wasn’t able to help me he suggested I call customer service.

Step 3 – Call the contact center

When I called customer service, I was informed that the wait time was extremely long due to a high volume of calls. I spent the next 30 minutes in queue, as I repeatedly listened to the recording about how important my call is and that an agent will assist me shortly.

Step 4 – Customer Service Desk

While waiting on hold, I decided to walk over to the customer service desk to get assistance. I was already at the airport, so surely someone would be able to provide assistance. Imagine my surprise when the agent at the service desk told me that she couldn’t help and that I needed to call customer service!

Step 5 – Success!

Finally, after 40 minutes in queue, I spoke with a contact center agent who booked me on the next available flight, which was six hours later.

Heightening the Experience

Clearly this was arduous and frustrating, and no doubt thousands of other passengers had similar experiences. There are several ways the airline could have improved my experience:

• Better proactive engagement with two-way messaging: One-way notifications are fine for providing information, but not for interactions or engagement. When the airline sent the text about the flight cancellation, it should have presented an option to chat with an agent who could rebook my flight, as well as options such as “Accept this flight” or “Choose a different flight”
• True omnichannel capabilities and single platform for all agents: The webchat agent was on a different platform than the contact center agents, without access to the same tools and applications, and was therefore unable to rebook my flight.
  • Instead, the airline should have had a single, omnichannel contact center platform, providing the same tools as well as access to the airlines database and flight scheduling application, enabling all agents to provide the same level of service regardless of interaction channel.
  • In addition, once the webchat agent realized he was unable to rebook my flight, the interaction should have been escalated to a voice agent, along with the context and content from the webchat interaction.
• Context and Content Continuity: The information I entered in the webchat application on the airline’s website wasn’t provided to the webchat agent, requiring me to repeat everything when finally connected with the webchat agent. The agent should have had visibility and access to the information entered (thus eliminating the need for to repeat myself) which would have saved time and frustration.
• Consistent processes: The live agents at the customer service desk at the airport should have had access to the tools to actually provide customer service rather than referring passengers to the customer service contact center.
• Video option: Alternatively, the airline could have deployed a customer service video kiosk at the customer service desk to enable live video interactions with agents who can rebook passengers and provide the service required.
• Workforce Optimization tools to reduce call wait times with appropriate and adequate staffing: The airline knew about the storm well in advance and should have anticipated that hundreds of flights would be canceled. Using proper workforce optimization (WFO) tools for forecasting and scheduling, the airline could have adjusted staffing levels, ensuring that customers were able to reach agents in a more timely manner.
• Cloud-based contact center: A cloud-based contact center platform makes it easy to add remote agents to ensure the right staffing level for periodic high-volume needs. Knowing that the storm would disrupt travel and create a high volume of calls, the airline should have added remote agents to handle overflow and reduce the long hold times.

Final Thoughts

This was a very high-effort customer experience that created unnecessary frustration, which could have been avoided if the airline had deployed the right technology with the appropriate business processes.

A key issue was siloed and separate channels and business processes, with no single view of the customer, which prevented the various agents (webchat, phone, in-person) from providing the necessary assistance. According to CMSWire’s 2024 State of Digital Customer Experience report, 38% of organizations have challenges creating great customer experiences due to siloed systems, technology integration challenges and/or fragmented customer data.

Businesses (even airlines!) can better meet customer expectations with the right tools, technologies, and processes. With an omnichannel platform, supporting two-way text/SMS, as well as seamless handover between channels, and a unified desktop providing a single view of the customer across channels, the airline could have solved my problem much more quickly and easily, reducing my effort level and frustration while improving my experience.

We have the technology, but deploying all these tools is easier said than done. Perhaps it’s too daunting to fix all of this at once – which could in fact deter organizations from moving forward – but even small steps to gradually adopt newer technologies are steps in the right direction.

This post is written on behalf of BCStrategies, an industry resource for enterprises, vendors, system integrators, and anyone interested in the growing business communications arena. A supplier of objective information on business communications, BCStrategies is supported by an alliance of leading communication industry advisors, analysts, and consultants who have worked in the various segments of the dynamic business communications market.