Are you being self-served?
We’ve all seen the trend: Internet reservations, electronic tickets, online check-in, self-service ticket kiosks, print-your-own boarding passes, do-it-yourself check-in at the hotel. Just as self-service gas stations are the norm today (except in New Jersey and Oregon), soon self-service will be the norm in air travel and other sectors of the travel industry.
It’s a trend driven by volume, demand and a keen eye for the bottom line. Seeking ways to cut costs and speed up the delivery of travel services, airlines, hotels and car rental companies began shifting many of their once face-to-face customer service activities to automated computer programs and kiosks in earnest five years ago.
The move has been hugely successful. Already, more than 80 percent of airline tickets are e-tickets. More than a third of all airline tickets are sold online. Seven out of ten passengers are using online booking tools. Half of the airlines now offer Web check-in, and 40 percent of travelers use it. It is estimated that half of the passengers passing through airports will be checking in using self-service kiosks by the end of next year.
More telling: The rates of adoption are accelerating, and the range of self-service offerings is expanding. It seems self-service has reached its tipping point, and the work once done with the assistance of travel agents, ticket agents and check-in personnel is increasingly being done by bits and bytes.
Self-service has certainly changed my personal travel experience, along with my expectations. On a recent trip to Seattle, I realized how addicted I had become to self-service kiosks, especially when traveling without baggage. Arriving at the last minute for a flight on American Airlines, I discovered that there were no separate kiosks for passengers without baggage to check. I had already checked in online, but I didn’t have a printer available at the time, so I couldn’t print the boarding pass. Now I was going to have to wait in the long line with travelers checking baggage. I was annoyed, and I realized then how much I have become accustomed to having the self-service option.
Self-service kiosks are also making inroads in hotels, where they are used for automated check-in. I remember only a few years ago when the first self-service kiosks were introduced to hotels in Las Vegas, where long check-in lines have always been daunting. Arriving for a busy convention, I saw the long line for check-in at the counter, but also saw a lonely self-service kiosk off to the side. I wandered over. Within two minutes I was checked in and had a handful of discount coupons and two-for-one buffet tickets. I was amazed and grateful that I was not still standing in line.
Last spring, I needed a tourist visa to visit Australia. I was dreading the paperwork and forms, but when I went online to figure out the procedure, I discovered that the entire process could be handled from the comfort of my basement office. Within about 15 minutes, I had the visa application complete. It was so easy that I couldn’t believe it, but a call to Qantas, the airline taking me to Australia, confirmed that my visa had been completed and that I could fly to Australia without hassles.
Renting a car through Thrifty’s Blue Chip program, I landed at the Seattle airport, stepped onto the shuttle bus, and was deposited next to my car with no paperwork to fill out at all. All of my preferences for insurance, damage waivers, corporate discounts, gas fill-up and frequent flier miles were processed automatically.
Here are some of the new developments coming down the self-service road.
Common baggage drops and remote baggage-check kiosks
The next generation of airport check-in kiosks will be able to print out baggage tags. Passengers will tag their own bags and, in the not-too-distant future, deposit their bags at a centralized baggage drop-off spot.
Some airports are already experimenting with common baggage kiosks that can service multiple airlines. Others are planning to place these kiosks out in parking garages, so that passengers don’t have to lug their bags through the airport. Still others are experimenting with remote check-in facilities at hotels, railroad stations and downtown transportation centers that serve the airports. In all cases, more of the check-in process is being left to travelers to complete before they arrive at the airport terminal.
Much needs to be done to bring these baggage-check changes to reality. Currently, long lines continue to plague the system, but studies indicate that kiosks staffed with supervisory personnel can reduce waiting time by more than half.
Lost-baggage kiosks
More and more bags are misrouted or misplaced every year, and airlines are now exploring kiosk systems that can be used to file lost-luggage declarations. According to SITA, a travel IT company developing these automated systems, half of passengers surveyed say they would use such a system.
Kiosks to change reservations
Some airlines have automated the process for making ticket changes, and others have automated upgrades, which can now by paid at kiosks using either a credit card or frequent-flier miles. Some airlines have also installed kiosks with software that allows passengers to stand by for earlier flights should they arrive at the airport early.
Document verification
Kiosks will soon match passports with fingerprints to verify identity. Passengers requiring additional security checks will have their boarding passes coded. Several airlines are already using these machines to match international tickets with the holders’ passports.
Border-control kiosks
The new biometric matching software can also be used to make passing through customs checkpoints faster and easier. The biggest obstacle at this time is creating a standardized system of border checks since each country has its peculiarities. But count on this happening.
Local activity kiosks
Kiosks at some hotels and resorts will serve up a menu of additional activities at the time of check-in and allow guests to make their own reservations for sightseeing tours, dinner, theater and other entertainment as they arrive. Companies are already working to create standardized databases and aggregate local tourism providers to make these kinds of vacation activity reservations a reality soon.
Today, self-service systems touch only a small percentage of travelers, but within two to three years, self-service kiosks and online programs will be the norm, not the exception. The question now is, “Who is going to pay?”
Though the airlines, car rental companies, hotels and even governments save money by having to hire fewer customer-service personnel, the development of technology is expensive. Ultimately, the customer gets hit in the pocketbook, of course.
Is it worth it?
Maybe.
Let me know what you think. Post a Comment in the section below.
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