Critical Analysis of Goibibo Services

PROSENJIT SARKAR

Introduction: Goibibo

Part of the ibibo Group formed in 2009 Largest online hotels booking engine One of the leading air aggregators #1 ranked mobile app under the travel category Became the first Indian OTA to partner with Google Flight Search Core value differentiator is delivery of the fastest and the most trusted user experiences Grown its hotels booking volumes by 5x in 2015 over the previous year Group also owns India's No. 1 online Bus ticketing platform, redBus.in and car pooling app,

“ibibo Ryde” One of the Best Tech Brands of 2016 by The Economic Times Website of the Year, India in Leisure & Travel – 2014 & 2015

Services offered

Domestic & international flight bookings Bus travel bookings Hotel bookings – High-end & Budget rooms Holiday Packages Mobile Apps City Travel Guides

Issues faced

Since Goibibo is an online travel aggregator, the major issue faced by customer is with bookings, refunds & cancellations

Here’s a gist of the consumer complaints on their Facebook page: Goibibo not flexible in waving airline charges for any changes made – Whereas

airlines can make changes Cancellation & refund policy not consumer friendly Cancellation & refund policy is different from airline’s website – they’re more

consumer friendly Pictures of hotel rooms are apparently photo-shopped No accountability for poor services provided by vendors like bus operators Customer Service department not competent at handling grievances

Personal Experience

Booked Jet Airways flight 24 hours before journey Goibibo had pre-selected travel insurance (additional fee) on checkout page Travel insurance section is in a smaller font-size Applied for cancellation 6 hours prior to boarding but received no refund as promised Customer service executives bluntly refused to share any company information like

address, CS email Finally, got assistance on the fifth attempt Posted my grievance on the Facebook review section and got a callback from the CS

Manager within minutes Partial Service Recovery: Refund is finally process but the journey was a nightmare

Blueprint for booking a flight on Goibibo

Physical Evidence

Customer Actions

Onstage/ Visible Contact

Employee Actions

Backstage/ Invisible Contact

Employee Actions

Support Services

Website

Browse Website/

AppFlight/ airline

SelectionProvide itinerary

details Make Payment

Customer Service

Apply for Cancellations &

refunds

Mobile App

Payment Gateway Amadeus/ Galileo Cancellation & refunds system

Gaps Model for Goibibo

Gap 1: Knowledge gap The organization is fully aware of what the customer wants in terms of

services No knowledge gaps exist

Gaps Model for Goibibo (Contd)

Gap 2: Standards gap No sync between their and the airlines’ cancellation & refunds policy No transparency in T&Cs Inefficient vendor management

Gap 3: Delivery gap Poor customer service Discounts/ promotions are loaded with more T&Cs than offers

Gaps Model for Goibibo (Contd)

Gap 4: Communications gap The policy statements are not written in layman terms Upselling options are pre-selected resulting in the customer accidently

agreeing to buy them if he/ she is in a hurry Not adhering to turn-around times

Gaps Model for Goibibo (Contd)

Gaps Model for Goibibo

Recommendations: ServQual Model

1. Reliability: a) As a service provider, your customers must feel that your processes and

T&Cs are transparent. b) A smaller font usually means there’s something that you don’t what your

customers to seec) Since you’re an aggregator and the seats are actually being provided by

the airlines, your cancellation & refunds policy should be in line with the airline’s

d) Optional services like travel insurance must not be masked to look mandatory

Recommendations: ServQual Model (Contd)

2. Responsiveness:a) Your website/ app is used to make bookings, hence, the Customer Service

department is for handing queries and complaintsb) Ensuring minimum hold period on your CS lines will tell your customers

that you’re eager to help themc) When you’re aware of any service outages, it’s a good practice to ensure

maximum staffing to handle the queries and reduce the number of irate customers

3. Assurance:a) You must take full accountability of the hotels and bus service providers

who've a tie-up with you. b) Take necessary action against them if they’re found to provide misleading

information or give bad servicec) Have more rigor on your service SLAs when it comes to complaints and

deal with deviation strictly

Recommendations: ServQual Model (Contd)

4. Empathy:a) Customer service department must have staff who’re aware of the

importance of service recovery using customer delightb) Have adequate and regular audits to keep a check on executives/ vendors

who are at the frontlinec) Plan regular training programs in customer service and soft skills for the

frontline executives

Recommendations: ServQual Model (Contd)

References

reserved, ibibogroup A. rights. (2016). About Goibibo - fastest growing travel company - www.Goibibo.Com. Retrieved August 21, 2016, from Goibibo, https://www.goibibo.com/aboutus/

Ibibo (2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibibo

Places. (2016). Facebook. Retrieved August 21, 2016, from https://www.facebook.com/Goibibo/posts_to_page/