Travelzoo - Most Valuable Customer Service Professional

Company: Travelzoo
Company Description: At Travelzoo, our mission is to inspire people to explore the world. We are a media commerce company, the leading source of travel and entertainment deals, with 30 million members in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and a global audience of 100 million leisure travelers. For more than 20 years, we’ve been the most trusted source for quality and value. Visit us online: travelzoo.com
Nomination Category: COVID-19 Response Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Valuable Customer Service Professional

Nomination Title: How a Travel Company Successfully Created a New Value Proposition When the World Was Afraid to Travel

We Gave Customers What They Wanted

In early March, we began a weekly pulse survey in major markets across the globe about consumers’ travel intent and preferences. They told us what they wanted, we listened, and reinvented our business:

Introduced 100% refundable offers -- buy now, travel later into 2022

Allowed full refunds and cancellations for consumers afraid to travel

Shifted from performance marketing to customer engagement to build community and keep our brand top of mind:

-Launched Roam From Home social media campaign on social-distanced travel ideas
-Launched Travelzoo Nation, a global Facebook Group to connect travel enthusiasts
-Featured customer stories from call center as “Member Mondays” on social channels
-Leveraged free outdoor media to encourage people to consider booking 2021-22 holidays
-Created a weekly webinar series, sharing our survey research with travel professionals, becoming a global authority on travel intent during the pandemic

At the peak crisis, customer contacts exploded to ten times normal volume, as consumers rushed to cancel travel plans. A daily triage plan addressed most urgent needs in order of priority. Although our service ratings dipped in March-April, customer satisfaction surpassed pre-COVID levels of 92 to end the year at 94. Listening to customers was key:

-Handled 10X service volume in March-April 2020 without adding call center staff
-Conducted special COVID Listening Survey to understand consumers’ service expectations
-Enhanced online refunds to make self-service faster, easier
-Negotiated with travel partners to extend validity periods on pre-COVID purchases; attained 50% success rate

Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):

Lisa P. Oswald, Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Service
One day in March, the world stopped traveling. For Travelzoo, the largest platform online for travel and entertainment deals, our future was uncertain. We needed a restart, fast. In fewer than 30 days, we (1) unveiled a new content strategy; (2) tightened the feedback loop between product, customer service, and marketing; and (3) cut new product cycle times from months to days. At the same time, customer feedback shifted our marketing strategy and rewrote our customer service roadmap. This is the story of how, in the midst of a crisis, we successfully created a new value proposition when the world was afraid to travel. This is the story of how putting customers first and making service the center of our COVID strategy helped us survive and thrive.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

We Saved Our Reputation in the Midst of a Crisis

While other travel providers shut down or scaled back customer service during the pandemic and were excoriated on social media, we were there for our customers throughout, earning a multitude of honors:

-Maintained our Trustpilot Excellent rating, at 4.6 out of 5 stars with >15K reviews, while travel competitors like Tui is rated 2.0 stars and Secret Escapes is rated 2.6 stars (Trustpilot is a global review platform)
-Satisfaction with customer service rebounded to a world-class 94 by December 2020. By comparison, according to ACSI, customer satisfaction with internet travel services in 2020 was 77, and 73 for the COVID period of April to September.
-Due to flexible refund and cancellation policies during COVID, 35% of customers served in March-April said they were more likely to use Travelzoo again. By December, that jumped to 57%. Overall, 96% of customers served are more or equally likely to use us again based on the service we delivered.
-Named best deal site in UK by WHICH? (Jan. 2020) based on our customer service response during COVID. (WHICH? is the UK’s preeminent consumer advocacy association)
-Social media engagement rates almost doubled, at 1.5x monthly average for Facebook and 2x weekly average for Instagram (Roam From Home, Travelzoo Nation, Member Monday campaigns)
-Produced 19 webinars from May-December, reached 6,790 travel and tourism professionals, generated $2.5M in new business revenue

*Results charts attached.