Priceline Group CEO Expects Mobile Payments to Catch On Like They Have in China

Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of video interviews from the Skift Take Studio, presented by KDS, that were filmed at last year’s Skift Global Forum.

During the 2017 Skift Global Forum in September in New York City, we heard from a host of the travel industry’s top leaders from across every sector.

And after first speaking to them on stage in front of an audience of more than 1,100, we took another few minutes with them to get more insight in our backstage Skift Take Studio.

In our behind-the-scenes conversation, Priceline Group CEO Glenn Fogel shared his thoughts about customer service, smartphone ubiquity, and mobile payments.

“Right now in the U.S., you have very little mobile adoption of payments for travel,” he said. “But in other parts of the world, China for example, everybody’s doing it on things like WeChat and using Alipay. And the phone is going to be the center for everything.”

Fogel said since becoming CEO of the company in January 2017 — and getting customer complaints directly — he has realized the importance of getting customer service right.

“When you’re traveling and something is going wrong, no matter whose fault it is … you want help, you want it immediately, and you want it fixed,” he said. “And that’s something that I think we’re going to put a lot more resources into, because I know that successful customer service, that builds loyalty for life.”

Watch all the Skift Take Studio videos here.