| The Customer Respect Group Announces First Quarter 2005 Results of Online Customer |
The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their customers online, today released the results of its First Quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study of the largest Airline and Travel firms.
The sector is important as 2004 online travel bookings reached $50 billion and are expected to grow to $90 billion by 2009.
Overall, US Airways did best among Airlines, while Frontier Airlines did worst. Marriott International topped the Hotels and Resorts list, while Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts fared worst. Amtrak scored highest among Passenger Transportation companies, while Greyhound scored lowest. And Orbitz did best among Web-based Resellers (and best overall), while Ebookers did worst.
The study is the only one to bring objective measure to the analysis of corporate performance from an online customer's perspective. It assigns a Customer Respect Index (CRI(TM)) rating to each company. The Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer's online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet.
By interviewing a representative sample of the adult Internet population, and by analyzing and categorizing more than 2000 Corporate Web sites across a spectrum of industries in detail, The Customer Respect Group has determined the attributes that combine to create the entire online customer experience. These attributes have been grouped together and measured as indicators of Simplicity (ease of navigation), Responsiveness (quick and helpful responses to inquiries), Privacy (respect for the privacy of the customer), Attitude (customer-focus of site), Transparency (open and honest policies) and Principles (values and respects customer data). Combined they measure a company's overall Customer Respect.
Summary Results/Comparisons
Although a direct comparison is difficult because of the inclusion of industry-specific questions, the average CRI based on 595 surveys of corporate Web sites in various industries throughout 2004 was 5.9. Meanwhile, the travel sector firms in this study scored 6.8. Broken down by category, ratings for Airlines were 6.6; Hotels and Resorts scored 6.6; Web-based Resellers scored 7.3; and Passenger Transportation scored 6.8. Overall, four of the top six rated firms in the survey were Web-based Resellers.
The travel industry did worst in the area of Responsiveness. Users consistently state that receiving timely responses is a critical aspect of site and vendor selection. Across the industry, 24 percent of inquiries were never returned and a further 33 percent were delivered back more than a day later, the threshold of timeliness according to research. On the positive side, 30 percent of inquiries were responded to within four hours, illustrating that some forward-thinking companies have built online inquiries as a component of the back office process.
In the category of Privacy, the top performer was Expedia with an excellent 9.5 score, which tied the best score of any company in the last 12 months. Other notables included Marriott, Hotwire and Orbitz. At the other end of the privacy table, Trump Hotels and Casinos at 3.4 fell into the bottom 10 percent of all companies studied last year.
Some 62 percent of companies have updated business practices and do not share personal data without permission. This does, however, leave 28 percent that share or sell personal data without permission and another 10 percent that aren't explicit about what they do with it.
Since travel firms collect detailed personal information (credit card, phone numbers, addresses, travel dates, as well as number, names and ages of family members.) users often hesitate about booking trips if they believe that information may be shared. In fact, 20 percent of respondents surveyed in a separate study said just that. This suggests that some $10 billion may be in play for companies that demonstrate respect for customers and their information.
"The online travel industry is the biggest B2C market and is growing massively," said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group. "The Travel Industry Association recently revealed that 45 million customers made a purchase online in the last 12 months. Where they spend their dollars will depend on the level of trust they feel with individual Web sites. Those that fail to respect the customer will undoubtedly lose potential revenue, which - given the industry's overall financial malaise -- may mean the difference between success and going out of business."
The report conveys in great detail improvement opportunities for each company. The sector's First Quarter 2005 rankings are as follows:
Airlines Sector CRI
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US Airways www.usairways.com 8.0
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British Airways www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_us 7.8
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Air Canada www.aircanada.com/en/us/home.html 7.4
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Independence Air www.flyi.com 7.1
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Northwest Airlines
Corporation www.nwa.com 7.3
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Hawaiian Airlines www.hawaiianair.com 6.9
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Delta Air Lines www.delta.com 6.8
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JetBlue Airways www.jetblue.com 6.8
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Continental
Airlines www.continental.com 6.7
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Alaska Air Group www.alaskaair.com 6.5
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AirTran Airways www.airtran.com 6.4
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America West
Holdings www.americawest.com 6.3
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ATA Airlines www.ata.com 6.3
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American Airlines www.aa.com 5.9
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Spirit Airlines www.spiritair.com 6.4
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UAL Corporation www.united.com 5.8
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Southwest Airlines www.southwest.com 5.5
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Frontier Airlines www.frontierairlines.com 5.3
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Sector average 6.6
Hotels & Resorts Sector CRI
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Marriott
International www.marriott.com 8.4
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Mandalay Bay
(Mandalay Resort
Group) www.mandalaybay.com 7.6
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Starwood Hotels &
Resorts Worldwide www.starwood.com 7.5
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Harrah's
Entertainment www.harrahs.com 7.1
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Hyatt Hotels &
Resorts www.hyatt.com 7.1
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Hilton Hotels www.hilton.com 7.0
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Wyndham
International www.wyndham.com 7.0
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Mohegan Tribal
Gaming Authority www.mohegansun.com 6.8
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Radisson Hotels &
Resorts www.radisson.com 6.7
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Caesars
Entertainment www.parkplace.com 5.9
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MGM Mirage www.mgmmirage.com 5.7
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Disney (Travel) www.disney.go.com/destinations/flash/index.html 5.2
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Trump Hotels &
Casino Resorts www.trumpplaza.com 3.4
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Sector average 6.6
Passenger Transportation Sector CRI
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Amtrak www.amtrak.com 8.4
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Greyhound (Travel) www.greyhound.com 5.2
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Sector average 6.8
Web-based Resellers Sector CRI
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Orbitz www.orbitz.com 8.6
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Travelocity www.travelocity.com 8.2
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Expedia www.expedia.com 8.1
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Hotwire www.hotwire.com 8.0
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Priceline www.priceline.com 7.7
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Cheaptickets.com www.cheaptickets.com 7.3
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TravelZoo www.travelzoo.com 6.2
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Hotels.com www.hotels.com 6.1
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EBookers www.ebookers.com 5.5
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Sector average 7.3
Other overall findings for all surveyed firms include the following:
Surveyed firms receive the best overall rating (CRI: 7.8) for Attitude and the worst (CRI: 4.9) for Responsiveness.
Some 51 percent of all sector firms use Autoresponder technology, in which emails are automatically sent to users to confirm the receipt of their inquiry and let them know when they should expect a response. Of these, 52 percent included detail on how quickly they would follow up but only 62 percent followed up in the timeframe promised.
Only 25 percent of surveyed firms provide an acknowledgement to an online inquiry, in which they provide a timeframe to expect a response and successfully made that timeframe.
98 percent of sector firms have privacy policies on their sites explaining how customers' personal data is being used. 10 percent need to be more explicit about how they use personal data, 62 percent do not collect data or use collected data only for internal purposes, 19 percent share data with business partners and seven percent share data with unrelated businesses without permission from users.
Some 95 percent of surveyed firms use cookie technology. Of these, 20 percent provide a full explanation about what advantage they provide the user and what data they hold, while 12 percent provide a full explanation on how to disable them.
After personal data is collected, only 38 percent of sites use an "opt-in" default where the customer chooses to have their data included in later marketing programs. An additional 38 percent require the customer to send an email, contact the company offline or provide no ability to be excluded from future reuse of their data.
Just 25 percent of firms always use SSL or Https forms to provide security when collecting personal data. Increasingly, Web users look to resolve online issues with self-serve capabilities, which would include Frequently Asked Question Sections (FAQ), site search and site maps. In the travel industry, only 26 percent of sites provided all three capabilities. Airlines did best with 44 percent of sites providing all three.
85 percent of the sites reviewed provide forms that would be difficult to use by those with disabilities including every airline reviewed.
How to Order
Each company and industry is researched and analyzed twice annually. Subscribers to Customer Respect Online receive:
Industry-specific key findings, analysis and editorials for one-or-more subscribed industry reports
Dynamic league tables for CRI and each CRI sub-index scoring for all companies
CRI report cards for each company covered in that report
Detailed own-company confidential report including actionable recommendations
Best practice guidelines, practical customer respect examples
Analysis tools for head-to-head and multi-company comparisons with drill-down to sub-indices and individual criteria detail
Annual Cross Industry Reports including the Fortune 100 CRI Report
Companies can obtain additional information by visiting the Web site, www.CustomerRespect.com, calling 617-378-3173 or emailing info@customerrespect.com.
About The Customer Respect Group
The Customer Respect Group is an international research and consulting firm that uses its Customer Respect Index (CRI(TM)) methodology to help companies improve how they treat their customers online. It provides leadership in the objective and scientific measurement of a customer's online experience. Many of the largest U.S. companies have already adopted the CRI methodology to improve online customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Customer Respect Group is headquartered in Boston. For additional information, visit www.customerrespect.com.
All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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Contact:
George Cohen Communications
George Cohen, 617-325-0011
george@gccpr.com
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Source: The Customer Respect Group
Source: Business Wire via Yahoo
Friday, 4 February 2005
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