The blog for Complaint and
Customer Service Management

A Gartner forecast is attracting attention in CX. Its analysis suggests that generative AI in customer service could become more expensive than human agents in offshore call centres by 2030. This challenges the assumption that AI automatically lowers service costs over time.

For companies revising their service strategy, the question is whether AI is really the most economical solution or whether its use is overestimated.

Gartner's central forecast

Gartner expects generative AI cost per resolution to potentially exceed that of many offshore agents by 2030.

Several factors drive this:

• Rising data centre and infrastructure costs
• High spending on specialist AI staff
• Increasing model complexity
• The end of heavily subsidised AI pricing

Many providers still partly finance services through investors or strategic market-share objectives. In the long term, systems must operate economically, which may increase prices.

Why automation does not automatically become cheaper

A common misconception is that automation inevitably reduces costs.

In practice, economics depend strongly on the types of enquiries that can be automated.

Simple standard questions are suitable. Complex cases, particularly complaints, escalations and regulatory matters, often still require human expertise.

The more complex the case, the more context, data and processing power AI needs, increasing interaction costs.

Gartner therefore notes that many companies will use hybrid models combining people and AI rather than fully automated services.

Regulation could strengthen human support

Regulatory developments are another factor.

Gartner predicts that legal requirements for access to human contacts could significantly increase human service interaction volumes by 2028.

Regulated industries such as banking, insurance and healthcare need traceable, auditable processes.

Automated systems alone are generally insufficient.

What this means for customer experience

If AI does not automatically save costs, the focus in CX management changes.

Instead of AI at any price, priorities become:

• Efficient service processes
• Structured complaint handling
• Transparent case documentation
• Measurable quality

Technology remains important. The decisive difference is how it is used.

Successful companies will primarily use AI to support employees rather than replace them completely.

The future: Technology and people

The likely future involves hybrid service models.

AI takes on tasks such as:

• Feedback analysis
• Enquiry prioritisation
• Employee assistance
• Automated preliminary case qualification

People remain crucial for:

• Complex complaints
• Emotional interactions
• Regulatory requirements
• Trust-based communication

Complaint management repeatedly shows that customers expect above all to be understood.

Technology can support this expectation but cannot fully automate it.

Conclusion

The forecast challenges a common assumption: AI is not automatically cheaper than human support.

For companies, this means:

• Use automation strategically
• Human service expertise remains crucial
• Structured processes become more important

Pure automation is unlikely to dominate future service.

What matters will be the interaction between technology and human expertise, where actual customer experience quality emerges.

Source: Gartner forecast on generative AI cost per resolution.

Good news from Berlin: the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) is taking on patronage of the “Software Made in Germany” quality seal from Bundesverband IT-Mittelstand e.V. (BITMi).

What is behind the quality seal?

“Software Made in Germany” stands for software developed and hosted in Germany that meets high expectations for quality, data protection and support. It gives companies and public institutions guidance when seeking digital solutions focused on first-class service, high quality and future readiness.

Our contribution as a BITMi member

TurnFriendly belongs to BITMi and supports the values behind the seal.

Transparency, quality and a deep understanding of specific customer requirements are at the heart of our DNA.

The ministry's patronage indirectly strengthens the environment in which TurnFriendly positions itself as a provider.

The message is clear: digital sovereignty and high-quality business software from Germany receive active political support.

Relevance for complaint and customer service management

Complaint management software handles sensitive customer information.
Data protection, auditability and traceability are compliance requirements.

A German location can offer regulatory advantages in this context.
GDPR compliance, clear responsibilities and reliable support structures are crucial for many companies.

Source: BITMi announcement on ministry patronage.

At ITB Berlin 2026, the 60th anniversary of the world's leading travel trade show, decision-makers meet under the convention theme “Leading Tourism into Balance”.

The idea of balance reflects a structural tension that has accompanied the industry for years: record travel demand, fragile operational stability and complaint management as an underestimated measure of how well companies balance the two.

Figures the industry cannot ignore

More than 45,000 complaints reached Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr in 2024, around 14.5 percent more than the previous year and more than ever before. The main drivers were a combination of external disruptions: strikes, extreme weather and a global IT outage involving CrowdStrike.

In 2025, complaints stabilised at around 42,000 new applications, the second-highest figure since the dispute resolution body's founding in 2009. The slight decline is attributed to the absence of widespread IT outages and major strike waves, and improved processes at some transport providers.

Travel exposes weaknesses in the system

Travel is particularly useful for discussions across industries because external disruptions and internal process weaknesses meet in real time, directly affecting customers and under public scrutiny.

For 2026, the dispute resolution body forecasts complaint volumes similar to the previous year, provided no new external crises occur. The spring rail situation is a particular uncertainty.

Stable periods improve the statistics but do not remove structural vulnerability. Companies that build complaint management solely as a reactive tool face renewed pressure at the next disruption.

Airlines, railways and tour operators

Complaints span all three segments. They share the same basic problem: complaint management was designed for normal operations rather than exceptional situations.

Air travel accounts for around 83 percent of dispute resolution applications. Cancellations, delays and short-notice schedule changes dominate, often triggered by external events without a sufficiently scalable internal response.

Rail follows at around 15 percent. Cancellations, delays and missed connections, particularly during strikes, generate volumes that regularly overwhelm traditional service structures. Rail remains a particular uncertainty in 2026.

Tour operators account for around 1.3 percent. Yet 531 new applications in 2025 compared with 156 in 2024 represent more than a threefold increase. Many operators are not yet legally required to participate in dispute resolution, so actual complaint volumes are likely structurally underestimated.

Source: Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr.

ITB 2026: What makes this year different

ITB Berlin 2026 focuses on resilient business models and current trends under “Leading Tourism into Balance”. The industry discusses resilience as a strategic principle because it has learned what happens without it.

On one day in July 2024, up to 72 percent of German passengers faced delays due to severe weather. This illustrates what happens when peak demand, external crisis and insufficient process capacity coincide.

For companies outside travel, the transferable question is: what would be the equivalent “72-percent day” for your service model, and what would happen to your customer contacts?

Complaint management as an early indicator

A structural deficit exposed by travel is that complaints are often recorded systematically only once they have escalated, on their way to dispute resolution or court.

In 2024, passengers filed around 131,000 lawsuits at German local courts near the 20 largest airports, around 6,000 more than the previous year. These figures reflect internal complaint management that failed or did not exist. Each lawsuit represents an unresolved complaint that might have been addressed earlier.

The economic opportunity is substantial. Court proceedings cost many times more than early, direct handling, alongside reputational costs that no balance sheet fully captures.

Key message: A process that responds only to escalation amounts to damage limitation after the event.

What travel companies have improved, and what other industries can learn

Travel has learned under substantial pressure over the past three years. Experts primarily attribute the 2025 decline to stabilised operations and improved processes developed in response to post-pandemic turbulence.

Process improvement under pressure is possible but expensive. It consumes reputation, trust and employee resources precisely when they are scarce. Building complaint management proactively helps avoid this price.

For every industry, this means:

Define priorities and structures in advance. Decide which complaints take priority before a crisis. Customer value, urgency and crisis context need to be embedded in the logic before volume rises.

Use proactive communication to relieve volume. In July 2025, 34.3 percent of German passengers experienced flight disruptions. Early communication reduces incoming complaints because customers do not need to search for information themselves.

Use complaint data to guide decisions. Knowing which regions, segments and touchpoints are disproportionately affected during crises helps allocate capacity deliberately rather than reactively.

Lessons beyond travel

What travel learns under real conditions matters to any company with customers operating in a volatile environment.

With more than 200 sessions, ITB Berlin 2026 focuses on AI, sustainable strategies and resilient business models in response to these questions. Service resilience is an organisational principle.

Companies that understand this build complaint management for the next stress test rather than the average.

Balance begins in service

“Leading Tourism into Balance” describes a challenge beyond travel: balancing growth and stability, expectations and operational reality, response and preparation.

Complaint management is the stress test that every crisis automatically performs.

Crises are a recurring pattern under changing conditions. The question is whether your complaint management scales or collapses when your company faces pressure again.

Service resilience comes from structural preparation. Systematically analysing complaints as early indicators, prioritising them and embedding them in the organisation reduces escalation, protects margins and stabilises trust before it visibly erodes.

The decisive issue is your current capacity: is the system designed for average demand or for peaks?

1. Complaints are handled in isolation instead of analysed strategically

In many companies, complaint management ends when the case is resolved. Ticket closed, job done.

This leaves its real value unused. Complaints provide concentrated evidence of process weaknesses, product gaps and communication failures.

Companies need a systematic view of complaints. They should be captured, categorised and regularly analysed as data points within the overall process.

At a glance:

• Categorise complaint reasons
• Conduct regular analysis
• Establish feedback into quality and process management

2. Unclear responsibilities

Complaint management often sits between departments. Service receives the complaint, specialist teams investigate and compliance oversees it.

Without clearly defined roles, loops, delays and inconsistent statements to customers arise.

The problem is missing structure, rather than a lack of willingness.

In regulated industries such as banking and insurance, ambiguity can create additional risks.

Structure reduces processing time and potential conflicts.

At a glance:

• Clear escalation levels
• A defined framework for decisions and roles
• Clarity across the entire complaint process

3. High case volumes meet manual processes

Rising request volumes can be observed across industries.

More channels, greater transparency and less tolerance for process errors continue to change complaint management.

Many organisations still handle complaints manually through email, spreadsheets and isolated ticketing systems. This severely limits scalability.

Manual processes increase errors and processing times. Employees react instead of managing proactively.

This leads to:

• Disconnected workflows
• A lack of transparency
• A high risk of errors
• Very high manual effort

Operational overload is often a process design problem as well as a capacity issue.

Professional complaint management needs structured workflows, clear status logic and audit-ready documentation.

4. The emotional dimension is underestimated

Complaints are not always purely factual. They often arise from frustration, feeling undervalued or perceived unfairness.

A lack of empathy prolongs escalations. Even correctly handled cases can leave a negative experience.

Customers judge the solution and how seriously they were taken.

For customer service management, this means:

• Employees need a basic understanding of customer psychology.
• Response guidelines need to support de-escalation.
• Standardisation must preserve a personal approach.

Emotional competence helps prevent escalation risks.

5. Management lacks a reliable basis for decisions

Complaint data is often reported in aggregate: case counts, average processing time and the proportion of responses within deadlines.

These metrics are necessary but insufficient.

Without cause clusters, trend analysis and qualitative evaluation, management remains superficial.

Strategic decisions may then rely on incomplete information.

In regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare, missing transparency also creates compliance risks.

What is needed:

• Centralised data
• Audit-ready documentation
• Reporting tailored to management and compliance

Complaint management becomes strategic when it can be managed systematically.

6. Complaints do not lead to systematic improvements

Many organisations collect complaints. Few consistently turn them into action. Without a structured improvement process, repetition and frustration continue.

Employees see recording as extra work. Customers see recurring errors as indifference.

An effective model connects complaint analysis with:

• Quality management
• Process improvement
• Product development

Complaints are early indicators. Ignoring them means reacting too late.

7. Industry requirements are underestimated

Complaint management is not a universal standard model.

Regulatory, organisational and cultural requirements vary by industry. Generic approaches fall short.

Unadapted processes can create compliance risks, inefficient handling and acceptance problems within the company. Psychology, process design and compliance need to be considered together.

Conclusion

The most common challenges in complaint management arise from missing structures, unclear responsibilities and unused data. These factors determine whether criticism becomes a burden or a strategic resource.

Professional complaint management brings emotion, process and management logic together. Consistent analysis, clear documentation and systematic improvement strengthen service quality, risk management and customer retention.

Complaints reveal weaknesses in the process.

Customer service excellence requires documented, standardised processes that everyone involved can understand. Unclear responsibilities, disconnected channels and implicit knowledge prevent reproducible quality. Operational excellence begins when processes work independently of individuals.

Standardised processes enable comparison and underpin quality assurance. They also need sufficient flexibility for different cases, escalation levels and regulatory frameworks. This balance determines efficiency and satisfaction, particularly in service-intensive industries.

Consistent decisions create internal and external trust

Contradictory decisions undermine excellence. Different goodwill offers, changing statements and unclear escalations feel arbitrary to customers. Teams also lose confidence when they do not know what is correct.

Clear decision logic creates operational excellence. Understandable guidelines replace rigid rules: criteria, thresholds and reasoning make decisions consistent without ignoring exceptions.

Clear decision frameworks reduce escalations, give teams confidence and ensure consistent experiences across channels.

Without measurable quality, excellence remains a feeling

Handling times, ticket volumes and availability alone cannot assess excellence. These metrics measure speed but not impact.

Excellence cannot be managed without measurement. Pure volume and time metrics inadequately represent quality. Operational excellence requires qualitative criteria covering both process and outcome quality.

Define quality metrics throughout the service process. Combining quantitative and qualitative indicators increases their usefulness and enables targeted improvement.

Excellence requires company-wide learning

Operational excellence is not a static state. Processes need continuous development as requirements, products and conditions change. Complaints and contacts provide valuable insights.

Excellence develops when organisations systematically learn from deviations, mistakes and escalations. This requires structured feedback between service, specialist departments and management.

Regularly analyse and categorise service insights and turn them into concrete action.

Empowerment is more effective than control

Excellence is not a control project. Empowered employees resolve cases faster, more consistently and with greater customer focus than closely controlled teams without decision-making freedom. Roles, skills, escalation rights and continuous development determine whether processes work in practice.

Operational excellence shows in everyday decision quality, clear communication and the ability to handle difficult cases confidently.

Investment in training, feedback structures and leadership skills is central to lasting service excellence.

The five building blocks at a glance

• Documented, standardised and flexible processes
• Clear frameworks for consistent decisions
• Measurable process and outcome quality
• Systematic learning across the company
• Empowered employees with clear roles and ongoing training

Operational excellence is a dynamic interplay of structure, decision quality and learning. It develops when organisations continuously improve service through clear guidelines, measurable quality and teams able to take responsibility.

Modern complaint management in 2026 is a data-driven, auditable management system that uses complaints as structured signals for quality, risk and retention and systematically turns them into operational and strategic decisions.

Complaints are valuable data within the customer experience architecture, rather than isolated cases. Complaint management acts as an early indicator of structural weaknesses throughout the journey and provides reliable information for departments and management.

Proactive complaint management through data-driven early warning systems

A proactive approach identifies potential conflict and escalation points before formal complaints arise. It rests on continuous analysis of operational process data together with historical complaint patterns.

Predictive analytics enables preventive management but guarantees no success. Benefits depend on data quality, consistent classification, clearly defined escalation logic and organisational integration. Without binding processes, data-driven proactivity has no effect.

AI supporting human decision-making

In 2026, AI supports rather than replaces people in complaint management. Technology strengthens human decision-making.

Intelligent routing prioritises complaints by context, tone and urgency and sends complex or sensitive cases to qualified contacts. Agent-assist systems supply relevant information and recommendations during handling without dominating the conversation.

Fully automated handling of emotionally or legally sensitive complaints continues to carry increased risk. Most AI-supported interactions concern analysis, preprocessing and assistance rather than autonomous communication.

Compliance, data protection and auditability

Auditable documentation, GDPR compliance and transparent decision logic are basic system requirements in 2026. They are integral to professional solutions.

Complaint management increasingly provides documented evidence of corporate due diligence, particularly in regulatory contexts.

Strategic use of complaint data by management

Complaint metrics are central early indicators of satisfaction, process stability and potential market changes in 2026.

Leaders use aggregated data primarily to guide product development, service quality and organisational priorities rather than respond to individual cases. Complaint management becomes a permanent part of data-driven leadership.

Requirements for professional systems

A professional system combines structured data collection, AI-supported analysis, transparent decision logic and auditable documentation in one integrated platform.

Technological maturity means controlled, explainable, compliant support for human processes. Systems that represent complaint management as an integrated leadership process create the foundation for sustainable customer experience and business resilience.