Shame on you all! According to a recent report , the travel industry has the joint worst levels of online customer service on the internet. True, the electronics, insurance and grocery sectors were just as bad, but that’s no excuse! Shoddy customer service could be costing you much business, as disgruntled potential customers go elsewhere for their holiday needs. With busy staff and many enquiries, many businesses may not be able to provide an instant response (and 60% of enquiries go unanswered apparently) – but how can you be sure to keep customers sweet?

In an ideal world you would have an attentive and under worked customer service team, keen to respond to every enquiry in a matter of minutes. Of course, this isn’t always possible, especially in the busy January months, but companies may be losing serious business – especially the last minute traders – if they don’t respond as soon as possible. So what can you do to ensure customers don’t feel ignored?

The first idea is actually something really simple – keep the customer informed. If you’re aware that you’re busy, then tell them! It’s no crime to have a lot of custom, in fact it’s quite a positive thing. When they fill out a ‘contact us’ form, have the confirmation page inform them that you’re extremely busy at the moment, but will reply within a reasonable time frame (only you know what target you’ll be able to meet). This will dampen expectations and ensure that if you do manage to respond quicker, you are seen as actually performing superbly. Make sure you do reply within the time frame however, or this will look sloppy and unprofessional.

The next step to take is to ease the pressure on your support staff by making all the information readily available. Put as much information as you have readily available onto the site, to ensure people don’t use up valuable call centre time to find answers they should have easy access to.  All customers want a smooth experience with as little hassle as possible - that’s why they’re booking online. Have customers continually pestering you for the same information? Start a Frequently Asked Questions page and direct people to it before they email. The beauty of this is that you can keep adding questions to this as they occur, and you can keep the phone lines free for the more complex enquires that actually need the personal touch.

Finally, many companies, despite this technological age, are still better at dealing with verbal enquiries ahead of e-mails. If you know your staff are more efficient in this way, then encourage phone calls. Put up banners boasting of your knowledgeable staff, and your keenness to help with any enquiries – this will encourage those who need a quick response to take the plunge and call you rather than waiting around for an email reply that may never come. Don’t take out the email function altogether though – some people won’t use the phone for whatever reason (shyness, not wanting to increase their phone bill, being hard of hearing), so don’t cut off potential customers in this way.

As we’re now in the busy booking season, as millions of consumers begin planning their summer holiday, make sure you bear this New Years Resolution in mind. Be helpful and supportive of your customer’s queries – if they can’t get a response from you quickly and easily, then you can wave them goodbye and watch them head elsewhere.