Travelocity Commits to 'Customer Championship'; Sweeping Initiatives Aim to Redefine Relationships with Travelers, Travel Provid
May 02 2005 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Imagine the frustration of checking into a hotel on a hot summer
day only to find out that the pool is closed. Or that the room with
an ocean view you thought was reserved instead overlooked the
parking lot of the fast food restaurant across the street. Or even
worse, imagine getting to your hotel and having no room at all. For
the past 18 months, Travelocity(R), in its pursuit to differentiate
itself from all travel providers, has carefully considered a new
way of working with travelers and travel suppliers to prevent these
problems from ever occurring and working to quickly fix them when
they do happen. To achieve this goal, Travelocity has invested
nearly $20 million in technology and training programs aimed at
backing its promise "that everything about a traveler's booking
will be right or we'll work with our partners to make it right,
right away." As a result of this intensive work, Travelocity today
officially introduces "Customer Championship" in the U.S., a
program unlike any other in the travel industry, backed by each of
the company's 2,300+ employees and one that promises to set new
expectations for travelers in how they deal with any travel
provider. Customer Championship advances Travelocity's leadership
in working closely with its travel partners in eliminating
on-the-road inconveniences while giving travelers relevant
information that helps ensure that their expectations are met. Some
of the tools that have already been in place include: -- Technology
connecting directly into hotels' reservation systems that helps
avoid lost reservations and allows customers to select the hotel
room best for them; -- The total price of a rental car; -- More
than 40,000 unbiased reviews of hotels and cruises from actual
travelers; -- Alerts built into the advanced Flight Navigator
shopping engine that show consumers how many seats are still
available on a flight at a certain price; -- Expert advice ranging
from airport weather delays to the best "Local Secrets" in all 50
states and Canada. "It was time for us to build on this foundation
and take the notion of being the customer's champion to a whole new
level," said Michelle Peluso, Travelocity president and CEO.
"Travelers who use our site deserve the absolute best in customer
care, from pre-trip shopping and planning through their entire trip
to when they return home and begin sharing memories. We have spent
the past 18 months overhauling every aspect of Travelocity to
deliver on that promise for our customers." Customer Championship
is Born in the U.S. Thousands of hours and millions of dollars have
been invested in the technologies, training, processes and policies
serving as the foundation for Customer Championship to identify how
Travelocity can further excel for customers once the trip has been
booked. Some of these areas include: -- New technology that routes
travelers to the best agent for their situation, in order to try to
solve customer issues in a single call; -- Adjusting 20 policies
including the ability to change or cancel flights within 24 hours
of booking for emergency situations and follow-up phone calls to
hotels to help ensure all reservations are being held as originally
booked; -- Developing a two-day training course for Travelocity's
more than 1,000 agents that transforms their mindset with customers
from order takers to empowered problem solvers. Agents now have the
ability to make more judgment calls immediately, further minimizing
a customer's time on the phone. The first set of agents who went
through the new training received immediate and positive customer
feedback. Measured by Travelocity's internal customer satisfaction
survey, it indicated a 22 percent increase in satisfaction. "This
was very significant for us," Peluso said. "Customer Championship
boils down to customer satisfaction, and this is only the
beginning. The bottom line is to show customers that on top of
great prices, there is a personal side to Travelocity and that we
will stand behind our customers every step of the way." Customer
Championship has already had a big impact with Travelocity
employees. Elizabeth Acuna, an agent in Travelocity's San Antonio
customer care center, said she thinks the Customer Championship
training was a good experience. "I feel the new policies encourage
us to show our customers that we are willing to go the extra mile
for them," she said. "We now quickly and efficiently reassure our
customers that we will meet their expectations instead of other,
often less-efficient, means of resolving the situation." Most
significantly, the positive vibes of Customer Championship are also
being felt by Travelocity's customers. "I am so over-the-top,
blown-away, impressed with Travelocity," wrote Sierra Lesjack, a
Travelocity customer from San Francisco, in an e-mail to the
customer care team in March of this year. "For a recent trip to
Hawaii, I felt like a valued customer whom Travelocity was truly
concerned with. That experience was invaluable and I have been
telling everyone I know about how nice Travelocity was in fixing
our problems and providing excellent customer service." Being
Proactive with Customer Championship - A Real Life Example In
February 2005, a customer accidentally booked a flight with a
return date one month to the day later than they had wanted. When
the customer alerted Travelocity to the situation, the agent
resolved the issue immediately at no additional cost to the
customer. And then, in the spirit of Customer Championship, the
agent notified supervisors on his team, who ran a query to
determine if others might have made a similar error. Travelocity
then proactively resolved the same issue for a number of other
customers. Had the problem gone unnoticed, the customers would have
arrived at the airport for their return flight home one month too
early. Since then, Travelocity has continued to research this and
notify customers who may have unintentionally booked the wrong
return date. The Fruits of Customer Championship To reinforce
Travelocity U.S.'s long-term commitment to Customer Championship,
the company also has introduced the Travelocity Customer Bill of
Rights (www.travelocity.com/billofrights) and The Travelocity
Guarantee (www.travelocity.com/guarantee). "The Travelocity
Guarantee and Bill of Rights is the direct message to consumers
that we are a different kind of company," Peluso said. "They are
not, however, slick marketing copy weighed down in fine print.
Rather, together, they firmly cast in stone our renewed focus on
delivering the best travel experiences one trip at a time." About
Travelocity Travelocity's industry-leading technology and
straight-talking, honest information help travelers take more
rewarding and affordable trips. With millions of registered users
and booking $4.9 billion of travel in 2004, Travelocity(R)
negotiates thousands of low-priced deals with the world's most
reputable travel providers -- top airlines, hotels, car rental
companies, cruise lines, and other destination attractions and
services. Additionally, Travelocity offers deeply-discounted rates
for weekend getaways and dynamic packages through its Last Minute
Deals and TotalTrip(SM) shopping engines, and provides customer
service support over the phone 24 hours a day. Based in Southlake,
Texas, Travelocity also operates Travelocity Business(SM) for
corporate customers, powers international travel Web sites in eight
languages, and has been recognized for its consumer advocacy and
global leadership in online travel. More information about
Travelocity is available at www.travelocity.com. Travelocity is
owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE:TSG), a world leader in
travel commerce. More information about Sabre Holdings is available
at www.sabre-holdings.com. Cautionary Statement Statements in this
release which are not purely historical facts, including statements
about the expected benefits of the Customer Championship program to
Travelocity or other statements about anticipations, beliefs,
expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may
be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon
information available to Sabre Holdings Corporation on the date
this report was submitted. Sabre Holdings Corporation undertakes no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from the events or results described in the
forward-looking statements, including risks or uncertainties
related to competition from search engine companies and other new
competitors entering the online travel marketplace; and Sabre
Holdings Corporation's revenues being highly dependent on the
travel and transportation industries. Sabre Holdings Corporation
may not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further
information regarding factors that could affect our financial and
other results can be found in the risk factors section of Sabre
Holdings Corporation's most recent filing on Form 10-K with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
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