This week is vacation planning week, apparently: I’m doing last-minute logistics planning for a cruise over spring break as well as scoping out private tours to take in Italy/Greece/Turkey for our honeymoon in the Fall and I have had two very different experiences.
I have emailed about 8 small tour companies in Europe and in every case, received a response in less than 10 hours (and in a few cases, an immediate email auto response indicating that I’d definitely get a response within 24 hours)—no small feat since there is at least an 8 hour time difference. The responses were personal, customized to some degree to respond to my specific questions, and very thorough. I had all of the information I needed within 10 hours of my request.
My experience trying to find a shuttle to the airport in San Diego for my Mom was entirely different. I still haven’t gotten a response to 3 different emails after 48 hours! And I have no idea whether I ever WILL get a response, meaning that if I’m really serious about needing a shuttle, I’ll need to get on the phone and probably will book the first company I talk to vs. making an intelligent decision based on several choices. Someone is going to get my business only because I don’t have the time to do more work on this…not necessarily because they deserve it.
In the case of the European ‘service delight’ examples, after the first response, I thought it was an exception…but when I received consistently amazing service from all 8 vendors, it made me think “Maybe they are really hurting for business there…” And then after the consistently disappointing experience re: the airport shuttle, it made me think that there may be something bigger at work here.
This challenging economy we are in has shaken companies up, however, I’m concerned that many companies are responding by slashing prices vs. providing more value. Understanding what your customers value and delivering on that very well is much more effective when it comes to customer loyalty than price cutting. But, obviously, not all companies practice that approach. Is it possible that Europeans in general, or at least those in the European travel business, understand this better than American companies?
Note: I definitely did not get the impression from the travel vendors I heard from that they were ‘desperate’ for my business and ready to bargain on price…they were proud of what they had to offer and eager to provide an exceptional experience, not only in the ‘shopping’ process, but extending to the actual tour.
I tried doing some Googling to see what I could find on European customer service levels vs. American customer service levels, but came up empty…perhaps some of you have personal experience to either confirm or deny my hunch? Would love to hear from you…and would love to see some major focus from our U.S. companies to make it easy to work with them vs. slashing prices. It may be key to our long-term recovery…