PHILADELPHIA -- Biztravel.com announced its first major enhancements
since being acquired by Rosenbluth International, including 24-hour
customer service from live travel agents and a low-fare search
engine.
Biztravel.com claimed to be the first on-line travel service to
offer 24-hour customer service using live agents, who are now based
in one of Rosenbluth International's reservations offices in
Dickinson, N.D.
However, rival on-line travel providers, including Uniglobe
Online, claimed they had live customer service options available
prior to the Biztravel.com service.
Justin Shaw, vice president and general manager, Biztravel.com,
conceded there may be other services offering some form of customer
service to on-line clients, but added, "I don't believe anyone is
offering the same level of services we're offering or instant
messaging."
Customers will be able to access the agents by telephone or
through an instant-messaging system developed by a firm called
E-Share. He said anyone who uses the Biztravel.com site will have
access to one of 15 to 20 live travel agents to assist with
questions or other information. Shaw said there is no fee involved,
and there are no plans to add fees to the program.
Shaw said Biztravel.com is adding the services after research
showed a demand by consumers for better customer service. "When we
started putting together our Internet strategy, one of the core
needs we identified that was not being satisfied by the market was
a high level of customer service," he said.
Shaw cited research by Jupiter Communications that asked which
categories did Internet users want to have a high level of customer
service in. He said the research showed the No. 1 category was
travel, with about 49%.
Shaw said there are several areas in which live customer service
from a travel agent can be valuable. Not only for mundane things
like forgetting a password, but changing or refunding airline
tickets are areas that live agents could help consumers with, he
said.
Another new feature Biztravel.com will offer is a service called
Fare Guard, which searches for the lowest fare up to the day of
departure after a booking is made.
Rosenbluth has a similar service for corporate travel clients
called Rez Monitor, which searches for lower fares once a ticket is
reserved or issued. This service helps protect customers in case of
a last minute airline fare sale.