AS PEOPLE become more comfortable buying holidays over the Internet, travel organisations are increasingly focusing on their online presence to gain real competitive advantage.
But as customers are given more choice about where to take their online business, organisations need to focus on the service their websites provide.
Price comparison sites have increased the competition for customers and made service the biggest differentiator. Savvy shoppers expect high street service from online travel agents and they will quickly take their business elsewhere if these expectations are not met. Slow loading speeds and downtime can cause consumers to lose faith in a brand, so it is crucial that travel organisations deploy traffic management software to help build customer loyalty.
One of the main problems associated with poorly managed web traffic is a reduced level of service. All too often websites have painfully slow loading times or, worst of all, periods of crippling downtime. With so much choice, customers can and will go to a different website if they are unsatisfied by response times.
Amazon has found that every 100 milliseconds of latency in page delivery time resulted in a one per cent drop in sales.
Peaks in customer demand are often predictable, whether because of the January blues or a particularly tempting promotion. To successfully exploit these peaks, online travel agents need to have the necessary technology in place. There’s no point directing vast numbers of eager consumers to your site with your latest deal, only for it to crash under the weight of traffic.
Travel organisations also need to be aware of the fragility of customer trust in a website. Ninety per cent of online shoppers believe a transaction failure could mean their personal information was then vulnerable to fraud, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive.
It is imperative that online travel agents mask sensitive data like customers’ credit card details and passport information, in case they are inadvertently transmitted.
A holiday is one of the most expensive purchases that people make online and websites that perform reliably engender customer trust, making them more likely to return with future business. Poorly performing websites often result in abandoned transactions and lost revenue.
Web traffic management software routes different types of traffic to the most appropriate servers, as well as prioritising the most valuable visitors to a site, for example frequent flyers, to ensure that they enjoy a positive online experience. It can also reduce the load on a website’s infrastructure by caching the content for easier access.
In addition, communication between marketing and IT is vital to ensure that the technology is in place to cope with peaks caused by advertising or mailers. In this situation, traffic management software can be easily scaled up to cope with a sudden rush and scaled back once normal trading resumes.
Customer service is as important online as it is on the high street and, as the online marketplace grows, it is crucial that online travel agents provide every customer with a positive experience.
Nick Bond is an e-travel specialist at web traffic management provider Zeus Technology.
By Nick Bond