HANG UP THE PHONE
Written record of travel complaints is usually more effective than calling customer service desk
The phone — by which I mean voice communication — puts travellers at a significant disadvantage when it comes to problem-solving. But there’s a notable exception, a time when you should pick up the phone and then maybe hang up. If you understand the difference, you’re well on your way to resolving almost any travel problem.
The phone is still the preferred contact method for most travellers. A report by Invoca, a call-tracking company, found that 65 per cent of consumers would rather use a phone than email to contact a business. A survey by Google showed that on any big-ticket vacation expense, which it defines as a purchase for more than US$320, consumers prefer contacting an airline, hotel or cruise line by phone. Attitudes are slowly shifting, but for many travellers, the phone is still the primary means of contact when there’s a problem.
Travellers favour the phone because it’s convenient and fast. I know that’s true because almost every day, I receive voice messages from consumers who have called me to ask for help resolving their problems.
My consumer advocacy site requires a paper trail like the one that Meg Aidekman, co-founder of District of Columbia tour operator Trip Tribe, advises her clients to keep. But many readers say they can’t do that, offering excuses like, “I’m not good with technology,” or “I’m a senior.”
Travel companies seem to like the status quo, too. When there’s no paper trail, it becomes much more difficult for you, the consumer, to resolve a travel complaint in your favour. That’s because when you contact a company about a service lapse or a delay, you have no evidence of your previous contact, no record of any response. It’s the company’s word against yours.
Travel companies hold all the cards. Bigger travel businesses, such as airlines and online travel agencies, have sophisticated call centre systems that record each customer service interaction. An employee can review the call, but unless you recorded it yourself, you have no access to it. A new federal law giving customers access to these recordings might tip the scales more toward travellers, but that seems unlikely.
A quicker fix: Get everything in writing. “Whenever possible, get it in writing and document everything,” Aidekman says. “We always advise customers to deal with issues in writing as it leaves a paper trail. You can use it to follow up on and hold companies to their terms and conditions and promises made.”
Customer service expert Chip Bell, author of The 9½ Principles of Innovative Service, says putting negotiations in writing can help retrieve facts that both parties can innocently forget: “We all say things that fade from memory as other facts crowd them out. Think of a written record as your reference library of what was agreed.”
A written record is possible even when you have an immediate request that would generally require a call. “Use private digital channels like Facebook Messenger and Twitter direct message to seek issue resolution,” advises Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial, a company that tracks airline performance on social media. “These channels are not only secure but offer a fast and convenient way to try to solve the issue while you’re on the go.”
More importantly, you can store and retrieve Twitter DMs and Facebook messages when you need to remind a company what it promised. I just handled a case in which a consumer saved every online chat. When the company reneged on a promised refund, he showed it the chat transcript. It quickly offered the full refund.
But there’s an exception to the hang-up-the-phone rule, and it’s equally important.
Sometimes, a phone call is the best way to reach a company. For example, when you’re planning a complicated cruise itinerary or trying to book an award seat. In both cases, an agent can sometimes offer options in a real-time phone call that you might not know about if you were booking online. Of course, after an airline cancellation, passengers instinctively dial the carrier’s toll-free number to get a seat on the next flight. That’s unlikely to change even if every passenger has a smartphone with the airline’s app on it. The phone still rules.
“When you have a travel problem, call the company, and if you don’t get it resolved, hang up,” says Greg Trosko, an office manager from Princeton, N.J. “Call back later, and speak with someone different. You’d be surprised how often you get a completely different answer.”
Trosko has used this strategy when trying to book an award ticket. One phone agent said no to his request, so he politely ended the call and phoned back. The second agent said yes.