Survey: Airline AI customer service is annoying
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Civil Aviation Resources Network, July 18, 2024: According to The Mirror, a survey initiated by Which?, a British consumer rights organization, shows that the customer service provided by airlines and their artificial intelligence assistants is often disappointing or even infuriating, especially when dealing with some seemingly simple requests, such as spelling corrections to booking information or passport suitability inquiries.
In this survey, researchers contacted eight airlines by phone, email and online chat, and made some basic service requests, with the aim of evaluating aspects such as the accuracy and speed of online services.
Researchers found that online chat sometimes provides annoying services. WizzAir's chatbot promised researchers to connect with a customer service staff to discuss online, but in the end, the customer service was busy and repeatedly suggested that users wait and try again. This process lasted for 15 minutes, which made the researchers feel helpless.
In another chat process, WizzAir's robot gave specific steps to change the name, but it itself could not perform the actual modification, indicating the limitations of AI in actual operations.
In contrast, EasyJet demonstrated a successful case of robots working together with human customer service. When faced with a spelling error in a reservation, EasyJet's robot not only guided users on how to make changes through the website, but also proactively transferred users to human customer service, who assisted in completing the modification.
Email communication also exposed problems. Several airlines, including WizzAir, responded to emails with either missing or unhelpful information. EasyJet, Tui and KLM showed high response rates and effectiveness.
In terms of telephone customer service, although Tui and Vueling provided hotlines for reservation-related issues, Vueling directly hung up Which?'s phone three out of six calls, and Ryanair's automatic system also had the same situation.
The high cost of contacting WizzAir (£1.45 per minute) and the widespread risk of fraud on social media platform X make customers face more obstacles when seeking help.
Rocio Concha, director of policy and publicity at Which?, stressed that although the survey revealed some common problems that plagued travelers, the large number of complaints actually received showed that this was just the tip of the iceberg of customer service problems across the industry. She called on airlines to improve service standards and ensure that passengers can get effective solutions quickly when they encounter problems, and suggested that the government should give civil aviation regulators greater power to take measures such as direct fines when airlines violate consumer protection regulations.
A spokesperson for WizzAir responded that it did not accept the results of the survey, believing that Which?'s research methods were not transparent and the sample size was not enough to represent its large customer base, accusing the organization of trying to attract attention through misleading information. A spokesperson for Vueling said that individual challenges would not affect its overall service quality and promised to continuously optimize processes. A spokesperson for Ryanair declined to comment on the so-called "false and inaccurate survey."
The survey once again sparked widespread discussion on the quality and transparency of airline customer service, highlighting the challenge of how airlines balance automated services with humanized care in the digital age.