The latest eTravel Benchmark Study from eDigitalResearch reveals that many online travel companies are falling short of expectations.

Customer service was the lowest performing category in the study, which used online mystery shoppers to evaluate the end-to-end customer experience of 45 leading travel websites. Low cost airlines were among the poorest performers, displaying basic booking sites supported by minimal human contact, while cruise operators and cross-channel ferries scored highly for customer service with customer queries dealt with quickly and effectively.

Lloyd Viney, associate director of eDigitalResearch comments: "With holidays being the single biggest annual purchase for many people, having confidence in a company's ability to help them through the booking process is critical in instilling trust and confidence. With online competition becoming more intense, those that will succeed will differentiate their service not necessarily on price, but on value, by providing quality customer support. Results of our study indicate that online travel organisations need to better engage with their customers in order to improve and match the performance of other sectors like the retail sector."

The highest rating was 80.1% (weighted average across all key customer journey measures) for Premier Inn, a new entrant into the Benchmark study with the inclusion of hotels. Premier Inn scored highly for first impressions, its easy and precise search function and overall booking process, but was weaker at initial research and telephone contact, with customers preferring more information and a quicker human response. Despite it being the best overall travel performer, its rating was still 7% below that of the highest scoring online retail brand, M&S.

Online travel agents provided best practice in website performance, combining functionality with engaging content and using customer reviews to provide additional confidence in holiday selection. Virgin Holidays came second overall due to a good balance between informative content and inspirational imagery, backed up by a good customer star rating system.

The biggest climbers from the last Benchmark study in November were Monarch and Eurotunnel, which both climbed 18 places. Monarch has made major improvements to its customer service with its telephone and email services rated 25% higher than the previous study. Eurotunnel has invested more in the front-end with large improvements noted for first impressions and initial research.

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