Travel Weekly features Working Solutions Survey

The customer-service demands of the global travel industry require contact center agents to be well-versed in this ever-evolving industry to serve more sophisticated travelers.

Jamie Biesiada in the Travel Weekly piece, “Survey illustrates advisor-agent divide,” recently reports on this fact. Her story features a new agent survey done by Working Solutions, polling about 1,000 of its customer reps who serve business and leisure travelers.

Citing the results, Biesiada points out how more reps (68%) see themselves as being travel advisors versus traditional travel agents (32%).

Working Solutions chief executive Kim Houlne said that many of its seasoned travel experts act as consultants, especially when customer self-service doesn’t provide the answers. She believes intelligent agents (IA) pick off where artificial intelligence (AI) leaves off.

No matter how they see themselves, most reps agreed on what it takes to do the job: “Nearly all of the responding agents (94%) identified the same three skills needed for successful customer service in the travel industry: knowledge of destinations, airline(s) and hotels; empathy with travelers; and knowledge of GDS systems.”