Judy Williams’ recent flight from Seattle to Billings, Montana was a painful lesson in self-service fatigue. She stood in two lines at the airport to drop off a checked bag. Then the machine rejected it again and again.
The insult was not to the messy kiosk. It was three nearby employees who ignored him.
“They were engaged in personal conversation and hugging,” said Williams, a Billings attorney.
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This is the reality of DIY travel: You do unpaid work. When the system fails, you are alone.
Williams finally got a machine to swallow his stuff. He complained.
“He apologized,” she said. “Big deal.”
But this is a very big thing.
The emotional labor of DIY travel
“Self-service technology was never meant to replace human assistance,” said Mario Matulich, president of the Customer Management Practice, a consulting firm. “It was meant to enhance it. But in travel, we are seeing a wide gap between intention and reality.”
When you’re already stressed by delays and weather, every extra task becomes emotional labor, Matulich said.
“Unsuccessful, inadequate, or ineffective self-service causes fatigue,” Matulich told me. “At a certain point, that convenience starts to feel like abandonment.”
As travel becomes more stressful, “our cognitive load can easily increase,” said Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University.
When the app freezes, you’re stuck
If the technique works then fine. But when it fails, and there is no human being there to save you, you are out of luck.
Joachim Rodriguez Romero recently downloaded his airline’s app to check-in faster. But when he tried, the screen stopped.
“It gave me a non-specific error message,” said Romero, an artist who lives in Passau, Germany. “I had lost the ability to secure a suitable seat, and I was afraid I would not be able to get into it.”
Their fears were not entirely unreasonable. His airline allowed him boarding — after paying a $35 fee to use a human for check-in.
“Employees did not respond to my claim that there was a glitch in the mobile app,” he said.
Customer experience analyst Justin Robbins recently encountered a similar problem with a ridesharing app. After receiving a duplicate tip charge, he attempted to resolve it on the app.
“The help center kept making rounds,” he said. “When self-service broke, the system transferred responsibility without providing a solution.”
The company eventually told her it couldn’t connect her to a human being.
One task encapsulates this new world of unpaid labor: self-service luggage tags.
Forget the existential dread of a canceled flight; Nothing prepares you for the cognitive load of a thin, sticky strip of paper. You’re standing in the terminal, the clock ticking, staring at a paper-folding puzzle. Which end peels? Which side is outside? Why is the bar code sticking to my thumb?
It’s a moment of low-risk panic that causes your blood pressure to spike. A process designed for efficiency has turned five seconds of manual work into two minutes of uncompensated pain.
Why are they doing this to us?
If travelers hate it, why do companies keep pushing the “DIY” button?
“Money. Always follow the money,” said Christine Landis, a former financial-technology CEO and frequent traveler. “People are the most expensive line item on the P&L. Reduce your reliance on people, and you’ll usually make more money.”
This is a margin play. But experts warn that companies are trading long-term loyalty for short-term savings.
“The risk isn’t just fatigue,” said Geoff Ryskamp, executive consultant for hospitality at customer experience systems company Medallia. “It’s losing customers. Forty percent of customers who encounter an issue on a website or app that they can’t resolve during a purchase will simply move to a competitor.”
It’s not always greed. When I checked in to the Fiji resort, a cheerful associate instructed me to download the hotel app. I installed it and never used it. Why does a hotel need an app when its keys are attached to big river rocks?
Later, I checked into a rival resort on the other side of the island. It also had an app, but there, everything was automated – a DIY arms race.
How to Overcome Self-Service Fatigue
- Hire a professional. Pay a travel consultant. As Amy Siegel said, “You want to be a traveler, not a planner.” An agent can help you bypass at least some of the DIY nonsense.
- Refuse to play. Do what Vermont’s Patricia Hubner does: Refuse to use apps. Go to the counter. Get yourself checked by a human being. (This may cost extra, but it may be worth it.)
- Vote with your wallet. Avoid bad self-service. Switch to full-service airlines like Emirates or fly on Southwest for human interaction without the price tag.
“I think traveler self-service fatigue comes back to a core point,” said Jacqueline Dobson, president of The Vacation Group. “As important as convenience is in travel, people ultimately want to be served by a real person.”
Okay, make us do it ourselves, but…
Here’s the deal: If you force me to download an app and check out your stuff, you’re asking me to do my job. So pay me. If I save the airline an employee’s salary, give me a cheaper ticket.
Until then, I’ll be the guy standing at the counter and waiting for a human being. And if I see them hugging instead of helping, you can bet I’ll have something to say about it.
Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a non-profit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need assistance with a consumer issue, you can contact them here or email them at (email protected).
Reporting by Christopher Elliott, special to USA TODAY/USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect