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2010 Unsuspecting Travel Hero and Travel Zero Awards

by RobertKCole on January 19, 2011

Recognition of the best and worst travel industry performances and practices of the year normally falls to major brands and/or high profile news events. The Unsuspecting Travel Hero Award and Unsuspecting Travel Zero Award are not about the bravado of highly promoted marketing strategies or dramatic customer service provided during times of crisis.

Duking it Out Creative Commons License photo credit: Claudio Gennari

The best in travel faced off against... all those other guys... when the dust settled, the winner was...

Instead, winners are recognized for exhibiting the foremost examples of customer centricity or customer hostility that occurred as a direct result of company policy or standard practice.

The awards recognize organizations that “get it” or “don’t get it” when it comes to customer engagement, eliminating unnecessary obstacles, and most importantly, unexpected performance that travelers would not normally associate with the typical travel experience.

For example, last year, Four Seasons Santa Barbara won the 2009 Unsuspecting Travel Hero Award due to its gracious handling of a turn-down music mix-up and AirTran Airlines was saddled with the 2009 Unsuspecting Travel Zero Award for unnecessarily harassing customers with its draconian advance seating policy.

Of course this past year it would have been simple to take rave about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or malign Steven Slater’s JetBlue slide ride; perhaps whine about Icelandic volcanic eruptions or marvel at the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas; it might even be easier to simply take sides on the American Airlines versus the OTA & GDS distribution war.

Each of the above stories dominated headlines, but my 2010 travels revealed two much smaller stories that went unnoticed. This year’s two honorees again illustrate startling customer orientation dichotomy arising within the travel industry. The best example was Enterprise Rent a Car’s exceptionally personalized check-in experience, and the worst was Hotwire’s incomprehensible decision to remove all meaningful content from it hotel star-rating categorization. continue reading →

Tagged as: airline, awards, customer service, hotel, online travel companies, travel

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2009 Unsuspecting Travel Hero and Travel Zero Awards

by RobertKCole on January 3, 2010

It is time for superlative awards to be bestowed upon the best and worst of the past year. Groups that have won accolades throughout the year are recognized for their contributions, many the result of planned actions that were specifically designed and executed to garner awards.

Duking it Out Creative Commons License photo credit: Okinawa Soba

The best in travel faced off against... the other guys... when the dust settled, the winner was...

Instead of highlighting the obvious top achievements in travel marketing or operations, the 2009 Unsuspecting Travel Hero and Unsuspecting Travel Zero awards recognize the foremost examples of customer generosity or customer hostility that occurred as a direct result of company policy or standard practice.

In essence, the awards recognize organizations that “get it” or “don’t get it” when it comes to engaging the customer, eliminating unnecessary obstacles, and providing exemplary customer-centric operations.

The two great high profile travel achievements of the year were, in marketing, Tourism Queensland’s innovative and widely celebrated “Best Job in the World” campaign and for operational excellence, obviously, US Airways’, and more specifically – Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s, “Miracle on the Hudson.”

At the other end of the spectrum were the high profile cases of all the major US carriers (except, thankfully Southwest) playing a spirited round-robin game of raise the bag fees and Continental Express / ExpressJet’s Rochester, Minnesota overnight hostage debacle.

While the above stories, for very good reason, grabbed headlines, two smaller stories went relatively unnoticed. These two smaller stories are interesting as they illustrate the customer orientation dichotomy arising within the travel industry. The best example was Four Seasons Hotels’ effective and timely application of social media, and the worst was AirTran’s irrational advance seat assignment surcharge policies. continue reading →

Tagged as: airline, awards, customer service, hotel, travel

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