Travel and mobility is one of the most demanding sectors for outsourced customer service: high volumes, pronounced seasonality, real-time crisis management, and uncompromising expectations around responsiveness and empathy. Airlines, travel agencies, rail operators, car rental companies, and mobility platforms share a common challenge: their customer relationship is a major differentiator and loyalty driver. And it is increasingly outsourced to specialist partners.
Few sectors experience such brutal fluctuations in activity. Summer travel, school holidays, and the Christmas and New Year period concentrate a disproportionate share of annual contact volume. An operator that sizes its internal teams for peak periods will carry chronic over-staffing for the rest of the year — an economically unsustainable equation. BPO is structurally the right answer to this constraint.
A transport strike, a snowstorm, a cascade of flight cancellations, a public health event — the travel sector is uniquely exposed to unpredictable events that generate exceptional contact volumes within hours. The provider’s ability to activate reinforcements very rapidly is here an absolute requirement, not an option to be assessed at contract renewal.
A customer whose flight is cancelled the day before their holiday. A family stranded abroad. A traveller whose luggage has been lost. Interactions in travel are frequently emotionally charged. They require advisors trained in stress management, capable of delivering fast, practical solutions while handling frustration and distress with genuine empathy.
Travel is inherently international. Operators serving international customers or operating across multiple markets need advisors fluent in multiple languages. This is a key selection criterion for BPO providers in this sector — and one where providers with multi-country European delivery infrastructure have a natural advantage.
The traveller of 2026 books on an app, asks a question via website chat, calls if the issue is not resolved, and tracks their journey by SMS. Your provider must cover this entire journey consistently and without friction — as a single, coherent experience regardless of which channel the customer chooses.
Destination advice, offer comparison, booking assistance, questions on fare conditions and ancillary options — these interactions directly impact conversion rate and average basket value. A well-trained, commercially aware advisor is a revenue driver, not just a cost centre.
Date changes, upgrades, cancellations with or without fees, refunds, vouchers — this is one of the highest-volume and most time-consuming areas in travel customer service. Processes are complex (different fare conditions across tickets, airlines, and destinations) and require thorough, continuously updated training.
Missed connections, delayed or lost baggage, alternative accommodation, medical assistance — these interactions are the most urgent and emotionally sensitive. They require advisors available 24/7, capable of acting fast and coordinating with local partners across multiple time zones and languages.
Regulatory compensation claims (EC 261/2004 for air travel within Europe), accommodation quality complaints, disputes with local service providers — this processing is regulated, documentation-heavy, and time-consuming. It is ideally suited to outsourcing to specialist teams with established workflows for each complaint type and regulatory framework.
Miles and points management, upgrade requests, status queries, partner benefits — loyalty members are the most demanding and the most commercially valuable customers. The provider managing these interactions must be trained to deliver a premium, personalised service that reflects the status these customers have earned.
Armatis has supported travel and mobility operators in managing their customer service across European markets for many years. Our expertise covers the full range of sector use cases — from pre-sales support to post-journey regulatory complaint handling — with teams trained on sector-specific tools and regulatory frameworks. Our crisis management frameworks are designed to absorb unpredictable surges without quality degradation.
The key is advance preparation: crisis management scripts co-developed with the provider, surge activation protocols defined contractually, and joint crisis cells that can be activated within hours. A provider that discovers the crisis protocol at the moment the crisis occurs is not a well-prepared provider.
Yes, provided training is included in the onboarding plan and system access is configured. Verify that the provider already has trained teams on the specific GDS you use — training from scratch is time-consuming and creates risk during ramp-up.
Through anticipation: planning seasonal reinforcements three to six months in advance, training seasonal teams outside the peak period, and implementing enhanced quality monitoring at the start of the season. Experienced travel BPO providers have ramp-up calendars refined over years of seasonal volatility management.
The provider applies the operator’s defined procedures for assessing eligibility, calculating compensation, and communicating with passengers. Clear escalation paths for disputed claims must be defined in the contract — including thresholds for legal team involvement and timelines for each step of the process.
Armatis supports travel and mobility operators across European markets in managing their customer service: omnichannel support 24/7, crisis surge management, multilingual capability, and sector tool integration.
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