Travel

Travel operations swing between quiet weeks and sudden peaks: school holidays, timetable changes, strikes and severe weather. Customers are often on the move, anxious and short of time. When disruption hits, contact can multiply tenfold in a day, and the refunds, rebookings and complaints that follow can take weeks to clear.

We help operators prepare for both the ordinary day and the very bad one. We model demand across channels and seasons, then design staffing, self-service and escalation plans that flex with it. For disruption, we help connect operational control rooms with customer channels, so that information reaches customers, staff and partners at the same time and in the same words. We also redesign the journeys behind refunds, delay compensation and booking changes, which in many operators generate more contact than any other activity.

Technology plays a large part in travel, and our digital team helps operators decide where automation and self-service will reduce work, and where they will only move it. Our sector review on technology in travel operations sets out what we have learned. Clients typically see refund and compensation backlogs cleared in weeks rather than months, a 20 to 30 per cent fall in contact during disruption, and more consistent information across channels.