Recent research has shown that London Gatwick airport is ranked at number one with the best customer service channel out of 10 other airports, followed closely by Stansted in second place and heathrow in fourth place.
A list of airports and airlines were contacted as part of research taken by contact centre and customer service company, CallCare, to highlight the importance of having effective customer service.
Summer has officially arrived. The season of smelling sweet suncream on a daily basis, drying off in the sun from swimming in a pool, and going about your day with sand still permanently stuck to your skin.
It’s all fun and games when us Brits go abroad, but in order to ensure a smooth journey to our sunny destinations, we rely heavily on the airlines and airports to get there with no hassle.
However, recent headlines have shown thousands of people have missed out on holidays due to the shortage of airport and airline staff which has left many rushing to find the latest best deals to get them on a plane for their well earnt holiday.
According to the Office of National Statistics, 20.8 billion of UK residents travelled abroad in 2020, yet since the world has started opening up their borders again after the start of the pandemic, this number is expected to be higher this year as more people book their first holidays after 2 years of not being able to travel.
We have already been through enough stress of not being able to go on holiday, the last thing we need is the frustrations that come with trying to book one!
That’s why Callcare, an outsourced contact centre and customer service company, have researched the airlines and airports with the fastest customer service responses so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of trying to find the right airlines to book with if you need to make a speedy breakaway.
They found the top 10 airlines and airports by looking at their response rate to calls, emails, social media, and live chat. So, get your passports and neck pillow and get ready to jet set off to see the airlines and airports with the best customer service to fly with this summer…
Who’s got the fastest pick up rate on the phone calls?
According to Airlines UK, there are 13 airlines in the UK to choose from, but which one makes it into the top 10 when it comes to the fastest response time to phone calls? At number one is the Arabian airline Emirates at a speedy 2 minutes followed by Lufthansa at 6 minutes, British Airways at 11 minutes, KLM at 12 minutes, TUI Airlines at 23 minutes, and EasyJet at 27 minutes who all made it into the top five. In sixth place was Jet2 at 50 minutes, then Quantas at 1 hour 13 minutes, Virgin Atlantic at 1 hour and 40 minutes, and finally Qatar Airways who didn’t pick up at all!
There are a multitude of airports to choose to fly from, choosing the right location to start your journey from can be the most important aspect to take the stress off planning a holiday. In this research, the top two that were the most responsive to calls were two of the most busiest airports based in London which were Gatwick airport at 2 minutes followed by Stansted at 12 minutes. Manchester took third place representing the Northern territory at 26 minutes, whereas the other airports on the list either had automated responses or no response at all, so we’ll make sure to set one of these three as our emergency contacts then.
Are emails the best option at getting customer support?
Compared to calling the airlines, emails unfortunately don’t match up to the response rates we’ve seen above, as all of our airlines reviewed either had no email or gave a classic automated response, so don’t bother emailing as you may end up receiving a generic ‘Little Britain’ reply which is: “Computer says no.”
The airports however can come to the rescue in sorting your holiday queries out with our top three being the only ones to respond to us. These were Luton at four minutes, Bristol at 15 minutes, and Belfast International who replied at just over eight hours. Their fast typing skills could definitely put some of us to shame with our list of unopened emails in our inbox…
Did they ghost us on social media?
CallCare focused on the top two social media channels which were Facebook and Twitter, to see which ones they were able to slide into the DMs and get a response via the newer approach at getting customer support. Out of 10 airlines, they only received the response from five on Twitter and four from facebook, the rest gave automated responses or none at all, so it’s safe to say we got ghosted by some airlines. There were three airlines which gave the fastest responses from social media, they were Quantas at six minutes for both platforms, Lufthansa at 13 minutes onTwitter and they had no option for Facebook, and Virgin Atlantic coming third at just over an hour on Twitter and Facebook at 55 minutes.
The airports were much more hit and miss when it came to interaction on social media, with only two giving responses on Twitter which were Gatwick at two minutes and Heathrow at five minutes, the rest resulted in automated responses or no options to send a message. Facebook, the home of Mark Zuckerberg, is the platform where we had the top six airports to give a response. In joint places were Stansted and Manchester at a rapid 1 minute, followed by Birmingham at four minutes, Gatwick at 38 minutes, Glasgow at just over 2 hours, and Bristol at just over six hours.
