Hawke champions travel’s service ethos on Radio 4


Benjamin Coren


Te travel industry’s strong track record in complaint-handling was championed this week on national radio. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s


You & Yours programme, Cosmos chief executive Giles Hawke, who is also non-executive director of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), said the travel industry, alongside the leisure and retail sectors, dealt with customer complaints the “right way”. He was speaking aſter the


publication of the ICS’s Customer Satisfaction Index in July, which ranked 11 travel companies, including Jet2holidays, P&O Cruises and Expedia, among the top-50 organisations in the UK. “Tose [sectors] doing well


are doing the right things by their customers and approaching complaints and issues in the right way,” Hawke said. “A lot of the approach around


complaints is to try and prevent them happening in the first place. “Sectors performing well include


travel, retail, leisure and insurance.” Te ICS surveys about 10,000


people twice a year. Consumers are asked to rate companies across


InteleTravel and Tui probe ‘fraudulent’ activity on booking


InteleTravel has launched an investigation following reports of fraudulent activity relating to a booking made with Tui.


6 5 SEPTEMBER 2019 Tui has suspended its account


with the homeworking group while the investigation is ongoing. It is understood the investigation


Customer satisfaction scores for the travel sector are positive


Those [sectors]


doing well are doing the right things by their customers


25 metrics including employee professionalism, product and service quality, ease of dealing with the organisation, complaint-handling, timeliness, atitudes around trust and reputation, and consumer perception of company business ethos. However, the ICS has reported an


overall drop in customer satisfaction nationally over the last two years. “A large part of that is around


companies not delivering what they


say they will do,” said Hawke. “So it might be they say they


will be there at a certain time, or do something very specific and not deliver that. “It’s the basic, fundamental part


of the service with which people are having the biggest issues, and we feel it’s leading to that drop [in overall customer satisfaction score].” Despite consumers being able


to complain through more avenues such as social media, more than 58% of complaints are still made via traditional methods. ICS research revealed that


companies that handle complaints effectively can turn the customer into a brand advocate.


Abta reveals dates of free regional meetings on PSD2


Abta is hosting a series of free regional meetings for members to discuss the implications of the new anti-fraud online payment rules. Phase two of Europe’s second


Payment Services Directive (PSD2) comes into force on September 14, imposing new verification requirements for online payments of £30 or more. Abta staff will discuss this and


other industry developments, trends and policy updates at the events, which will be held in 11


locations: w South Wales – September 18 w North West – October 1 w Eastern – October 16 w Yorkshire & North Midlands – October 22


w Northern Ireland – October 23 w Scotland – October 29 w Greater London – November 13 w South – November 14 w Midlands – November 21 w South West – December 3 w North East – December 5


Members must book to reserve their place by registering at abta. com/regionalbusinessmeetings


relates to a single booking made with the travel giant last month. An InteleTravel spokeswoman


said the group was unable to comment while the investigation was under way, but confirmed it was investigating the incident with Tui. A spokesman for Tui said:


“We were made aware of some fraudulent activity and immediately agreed with InteleTravel to put the


account on hold, which is standard practice. We will work closely with InteleTravel to help with their investigation and ensure a process is put in place so that when the issue is resolved they can continue to sell through Tui.” InteleTravel gained Abta


membership in March and now claims to have more than 3,500 UK agents signed up.


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