TRAVEL consultants with brick-and-mortar agencies in Singapore are reiterating the importance of service quality, in the face of the rising number of complaints against agencies and a particular OTA as reported in The Straits Times last week.
According to the local broadsheet, the Consumer Association of Singapore (Case) had received 732 complaints against travel consultants in 1H2013.
It heard 1,436 complaints last year, 1,396 in 2011 and 994 in 2010, with gripes ranging from unsatisfactory service to the inability to obtain refunds.
ASA Holidays’ head of marketing communications, Eileen Oh, said: “With cut-throat competition and customers being spoilt for choice, many travel consultants choose to compete on prices to lure customers, which inevitably leads to compromises in qualities and standards.
“We emphasise a lot on customer service and strive for differentiation so as to draw benefits from value creation instead of price difference.”
Case has also received 48 complaints against ZUJI since 2011 – making it the only OTA with official complaints lodged.
National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) COO, Anita Tan, said: “The challenge with some OTAs is that in order to provide customers with greater convenience, bookings are often done through portals and payment gateways and this eliminates the knowledgeable and trained travel consultant from the picture.
“The travel consultant professional is someone that customers will be able count on for help in the event of an emergency.”
Alicia Seah, senior vice president of marketing and PR, CTC Travel, said: “In this industry which is getting saturated with travel consultants, it is important for us to make a difference with our service delivery to make our customers come back.”
According to Seah, CTC has approximately 60,000 customers every year of which 70 per cent are repeat, and receives fewer than five complaints annually.
At the same time, NATAS’ Tan observed: “Singaporeans made an estimated eight million trips (in 2012). With such high volumes of outbound travel, there is the probability of receiving more complaint cases.”
To ensure quality in the industry, NATAS rolled out an accreditation scheme recognising professional travel consultants in March this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 10, 2013).
