Customer Research

Foviance survey identifies gap in travel industry. Market research reveals how businesses are missing out on sales by using outdated means to understand customers.

London, UK, 24 November 2008 – Foviance, the expert in digital customer experience, has found that singles aged between 31-45 years old cannot find a holiday which suits their needs. Foviance’s research demonstrates how a focus on customer experience can help to create markets, drive sales and increase customer satisfaction, as 68% of respondents said they would travel on their own if they could find the right holiday.

A survey of 530 respondents, with an even breakdown between men and women, all of which had travelled at least once in the last year, found that half had in the past chosen not to go on holiday to avoid what they feared would be the typical ‘singles’ holiday.

The full research report entitled “Making the intangible tangible” found the travel sector is missing out on a massive opportunity by not understanding the needs of a large potential market. While most travel companies know the basics about customers such as their age, sex and where they live, they fail to understand who these people really are and what they want out of a holiday.

The main reason behind this age group choosing not to travel (as a single person) was that they had no one to go away with (31%). 10% of people also admitted to being embarrassed that they were single. This embarrassment was not only felt during the booking phase but also while on holiday. Location, meeting like-minded people of a similar age group and being away from younger singles’ parties were all cited as priorities. They felt what was on offer from the travel industry does not suit their needs.

Creating a positive customer experience depends on providing a holistic experience which supports every step of the customer interaction. While companies are finding it difficult to design consistent customer experiences that differentiate them as an organisation, by understanding customers and creating products that meet their expectations, there is also a significant opportunity to become a trusted advisor and ultimately maximise the relationship in monetary terms.

Currently, friends are seen as the most trusted source of information on singles holidays (25%), with websites coming a close second (21%). The least trusted source of information came from direct marketing (21%), blogs (18%), TV (13%), lifestyle magazines (11%) and travel press (11%).

Marty Carroll, Consultancy Director, Foviance said: “Organisations’ lack of understanding means that most focus on selling products and services rather than concentrating on delivering customer experiences. The end result is a fragmented product or service experience, delivered to a target audience which has been defined by a marketing tool developed for a market environment that no longer exists. Once organisations start focusing on who their customers really are what they love and hate and what they are missing out on, real customer experiences can be created. Companies that do not evolve and deliver exceptional customer experiences risk losing sales and market share to those that do.”

Download the full research report

Press coverage

Precision Marketing From brochure to browser
By David Reed, December 11, 2008

TravelWeekly Agents sign up for single travel site Someone2travelwith.com
By Chloe Berman, December 03, 2008

eTravelBlackboard Gen-X wants grown-up singles holidays
By Travel Blackboard, November 28, 2008

HotelMarketing.com Survey: Singles can’t find the right holiday
By Hotel Marketing, November 26, 2008

asap.co.ukNews Solo travellers say their needs are not being met
By Andrew Bones, November 26, 2008

Skyscanner.net Half of single travellers wouldn’t want to book flights abroad
By Skyscanner Ltd, November 26, 2008

Travolution.co.uk Foviance survey identifies gap in travel industry market
By Foviance Press Release, November 25, 2008

GoLearnToTravelBlog Time for new singles holiday ideas
By Vanessa, November 25, 2008

C&M.co.uk Industry ‘failing singles’
By C & M Recruitment, November 25, 2008

ulookubook.com Travel industry doesn’t cater to middle-aged singles
By Travel Industy News, November 25, 2008

WorldNewsNetwork links through to full story from Travel Daily News
TravelDailyNews Foviance survey identifies gap in travel industry market
By Travel Daily News International, November 25, 2008

NetImperative.com Travel industry missing trick with 30-something singles
By Net Imperative, November 25, 2008

For further press information please contact:
Melanie Hesketh / Becky Cheers
Prompt Communications for Foviance
+44 208 996 1638 / +44 208 996 1636
foviance@prompt-communications.com

In this study we researched three airlines and their respective hotel partners plus three online travel agents (OTAs). Due to recent legislative changes in the travel industry, Airlines are now able to compete more directly with OTAs by offering packaged holidays.Travel is one such sector which similar to retail has a multi-channel tradition. Before the advent of the Internet the travel sector relied on call centre, travel agents, Teletext and intermediaries as channels to market and we wanted to learn whether this experience has proved as valuable in travel, as mail-order has been to retail.

Our research has shown that the travel sector is on a par with the average level achieved by retail in online execution but failing when it comes to call centre and multi-channel customer experience. Only one of the organisations researched provided an acceptable level of call centre service. To help address these failings, this white paper gives recommendations that travel companies should adopt to improve their overall Customer Experience ratings.

This white paper is available now for download.

In the fiercely competitive world of mobile technology, customer experience is crucial for determining brand differentiation, loyalty and the purchase decision.

Our research provided Nokia with a deeper understanding of its global audience and supported its strategy of building long-term customer relationships, which has underpinned Nokia’s growth in the market.

Foviance, the expert in digital customer experience, and call centre management consultant RXPerience, today unveil the results of a ground-breaking study into multi-channel selling in the UK. The study reveals that only a handful of retailers are managing to integrate their various sales channels effectively, and provide a consistent level of customer service across channels.Foviance & RXPerience jointly tested 25 leading UK retailers, including supermarkets, department stores, catalogue companies, music/books specialists and high-tech retailers. The research used their ‘expert view’ process to look at both the online and offline customer support received, by email and telephone, at peak shopping periods.

The study found a wide range of strategies being employed across sectors and retailers, but only in a few cases were the online and offline channels truly integrated. John Lewis, Amazon and Argos were the top performers for their overall quality of customer experience. John Lewis delivered an excellent online experience and handled calls very well. Amazon provided virtually no way of contacting them by phone but the online experience was so good and its response to email so fast that the overall experience was positive and consistent. Argos had good response times and knowledgeable call centre agents who seized the opportunity to cross-sell.

There was enormous variation in contact handling quality outside of the catalogue companies, whose call centres were generally very good. The retailers who performed poorly included Asda, who failed to respond at all to enquiries by email and phone in the run-up to Christmas; Woolworths who required registration before it was possible to email about general product enquiries; and HMV whose out of hours IVR call handling was very poor. Yet Selfridges, who does not have a transactional website or a call centre, still provided a great experience consistent with the brand. After getting contact details from the website, callers were put straight through to the store.

Many of the problems encountered throughout the Foviance/RXPerience research were due to people-related issues. The representative at Agent Provocateur didn’t have any product knowledge, didn’t up-sell or cross-sell and delivered very poor experience. Based on the research either customer service staff were not trained well enough, not rewarded correctly or simply not available in sufficient numbers to cope with seasonal peaks in demand.

Paul Blunden, CEO of Foviance, comments: “Most retail organisations are organised by channel or product silos. As a result few if any have a single view of the customer or a clear understanding of how their customers want to interact with them through the various channels available. Multi-channel is high on many retailer’s agendas but so far the solutions have only extended to simply creating additional channels rather than designing a seemless brand experience.”

Paul Weald, managing director of RXPerience, adds: “Retailers need to consider the multi-channel customer experience more holistically using a contact strategy that reinforces their brand.”

Foviance and RXPerience have produced a white paper detailing the research findings, including five top tips to achieve best practice. This is now available.

Foviance, the expert in online customer experience, has collaborated with airline bmi to re-launch the www.flybmi.com website, ensuring it meets the highest standards in usability.

The new bmi website has been designed to fulfil the needs and expectations of the modern traveller, with a view to increasing online booking ratios. This has been achieved by enhancing the content and quality of the site to create an engaging and rewarding user experience.

Foviance took a lead role in this project by working directly with bmi’s customers to objectively establish their needs, and translate them into actionable insights for bmi’s web design team. The testing incorporated feedback from bmi business, leisure and diamond club customers, who are part of the UK’s most generous frequent flyer programme, and are highly valued and experienced travel website users.

During the research phase, a usability audit of the existing bmi website was conducted to identify user expectations, requirements and experiences. Foviance usability consultants then looked at partner sales sites to understand any issues with the customer’s journey, before working with bmi to complete a full usability evaluation of the new website prototype. This guaranteed that all recommendations had been fully implemented.

Christopher Wood, senior manager e-marketing for bmi, comments: “The bmi website is the favoured channel to both research and book a flight for the majority of our customers, and so it is imperative that their user experience is first class. Foviance are recognised as the usability experts in the UK, and their track record of working with top travel brands means we are confident in their abilities and understanding of both our product and the marketplace.”

Marty Carroll, director of consulting at Foviance, adds: “Those that only consider their user’s experience at the end of the website design process are simply throwing their money away. Usability and user experience are the foundations for any website and bmi had the foresight to bring us in at the start of their development process, meaning we can constantly assess the bmi site’s effectiveness from the consumer’s perspective, with a view to continually improving the user’s online experience.”