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Human touch returning to travel
While surveys show that many consumers like the money-saving technical features that are increasingly found in travel bookings, others say there may also be a renewal of the old-fashioned human touch — at least in small ways.
The latest example is Delta Airlines, which has announced in a newsletter that they are adding 700 airport customer service employees, and 300 additional reservations agents, primarily to deal with flight disruptions.
“A human is generally much preferable to one of the airlines’ much-touted kiosks,” writes Janet Hough in Consumer Travel.
She admits that carriers can use kiosks for routine tasks but if there are any problems, the kiosk is not much help.
Admittedly, Hough is a travel agent but she says automation has led to more work for people in her profession because of disgust with non-service when things go wrong.
“What’s less important here are the details than the fact that Delta has acknowledged a problem and is now spending actual money to fix it,” she writes.
Years ago, Delta was famous for their “Red Coats,” customer service agents empowered to fix issues on the spot. They canceled the program in 2005, and brought it back in a more limited capacity a few years ago.
Whether these new agents will be “Red Coats” or not, it means more humans in case of a problem — which Hough says is a positive move.
By David Wilkening
David
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