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The smaller and "good" agencies generally focus on customer service, while the bigger ones focus on customer acquisition through brand name and probably do not

The smaller and "good" agencies generally focus on customer service, while the bigger ones focus on customer acquisition through brand name and probably do not care about customer retention.

jdeibele 6y ago
It used to be that airlines (and hotels and rental car agencies) paid enough in commissions that travel agencies made good money booking flights. Southwest Airlines, for example, has never paid commissions. As sites like Expedia grew, many (all?) other airlines and hotels have reduced and reduced their commissions. For some people, there's still value in saying "I want to take a trip to x" and let the travel agent work out the details. But the travel agencies now charge a fee to the customer because they get comparatively little from the businesses.
metalliqaz 6y ago
I don't follow this. Customer service is useful for customer retention in small firms, but customer service is also useful for building a brand in large firms. The motivation for both is the same: selling as many vacation packages as possible.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Brands have inertia. Once your brand is big enough, you can get away with a shitty customer service and generally screwing customers over. If you aren't a total disaster of a company, then the worst that happens is that some of your customers book with another big brand the next year... but then customers who got screwed by that other brand will try their luck with you. I'm really guessing with major travel agencies it works the same way as it seems to work with mobile operators in my country: you have three major networks to choose from, every one tries to screw you over as much as possible, but since everyone needs a smartphone, people just bounce around between the three in anger (or try to arbitrage deals). Viewed at scale, it's just an equilibrium.
- rusticpenn 6y ago
  Good customer service is expensive, usually the first one to go when the firm is big enough to have middle managers.

The smaller and "good" agencies generally focus on customer service, while the bigger ones focus on customer acquisition through brand name and probably do not care about customer retention.

jdeibele 6y ago

It used to be that airlines (and hotels and rental car agencies) paid enough in commissions that travel agencies made good money booking flights. Southwest Airlines, for example, has never paid commissions. As sites like Expedia grew, many (all?) other airlines and hotels have reduced and reduced their commissions. For some people, there's still value in saying "I want to take a trip to x" and let the travel agent work out the details. But the travel agencies now charge a fee to the customer because they get comparatively little from the businesses.

metalliqaz 6y ago

I don't follow this. Customer service is useful for customer retention in small firms, but customer service is also useful for building a brand in large firms. The motivation for both is the same: selling as many vacation packages as possible.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Brands have inertia. Once your brand is big enough, you can get away with a shitty customer service and generally screwing customers over. If you aren't a total disaster of a company, then the worst that happens is that some of your customers book with another big brand the next year... but then customers who got screwed by that other brand will try their luck with you. I'm really guessing with major travel agencies it works the same way as it seems to work with mobile operators in my country: you have three major networks to choose from, every one tries to screw you over as much as possible, but since everyone needs a smartphone, people just bounce around between the three in anger (or try to arbitrage deals). Viewed at scale, it's just an equilibrium.
rusticpenn 6y ago
Good customer service is expensive, usually the first one to go when the firm is big enough to have middle managers.