Hopper scales support at the speed of travel

Hopper was founded in 2007 with the mission to build a travel marketplace that always saves customers money. Hopper makes travel easier, more transparent, and more accessible for people around the world.

In the early days of the company, it was easy to find answers to support issues and product questions by shouting to colleagues across the table. However, as demand exploded, the team at Hopper quickly saw the limitations of their existing toolset. They could not dynamically route conversations based on issue type or customer data, which made prioritization more difficult. Lastly, lack of visibility into support volume severely limited their ability to accurately predict staffing needs. Jo Lai, Head of Customer Experience at Hopper, explains why this was such a big problem, “Fostering a connection between a customer and a Hopper travel expert is a meaningful value proposition for our company.”

Hopper’s existing support platform lacked the flexibility needed to scale. Conversations were routed on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning low-urgency requests could be prioritized over travelers stuck at the gate. Leaders struggled to forecast staffing because contact volumes and workloads weren’t clearly visible.

As support requests surged during the pandemic, these gaps became even more painful. Agents were frustrated by fragmented systems, travelers experienced delays, and the company had little confidence in its ability to scale with demand. Hopper needed a platform built for modern service delivery—fast, flexible, and data-driven.

Hopper’s team evaluated eight providers against a 300-point rubric. Kustomer stood out for its flexibility, speed, and advanced data model. Unlike legacy CRMs, Kustomer’s many-to-many structure allowed Hopper to push hundreds of booking and account attributes directly into the platform, creating a unified timeline of every customer interaction.

This shift unlocked priority-based routing, ensuring urgent issues reached the right agent immediately, and enabled follow-up conversations to route back to the same person for continuity. Just as importantly, Kustomer consolidated 13 separate tools into a single, intuitive workspace, lowering costs and simplifying operations.

With Kustomer, Hopper finally gained visibility into customer interactions across every channel—email, chat, in-app, and social media. Agents now had a 360° view of the traveler’s journey, eliminating the guesswork and frustration of switching between systems.

Leaders could also see, in real time, what kinds of issues were coming in, which allowed them to plan staffing more accurately. Instead of reacting to demand spikes, Hopper could strategically position resources and maintain service levels.

Since the move to Kustomer, Hopper has transformed its support operations:

• CSAT increased 10% as customers enjoyed faster, more personalized service.
• First response time dropped 50%, with urgent cases prioritized automatically.
• Software costs fell 20% by consolidating 13 legacy tools into one platform.
• ositive support experiences rose 20%, fueled by improved agent efficiency and continuity of service.

Agents are happier too. With all the context they need in one place, they work faster and with less friction. Kustomer also gave Hopper the data needed to launch career development programs that further improved morale and performance.

By switching to Kustomer, Hopper gained the clarity and control it needed to scale a modern service organization. The company can now plan with confidence, respond faster, and maintain a strong connection between travelers and Hopper experts—even as demand grows. “When you grow quickly, the tendency is to service requests as fast as possible. With better visibility, companies can plan more strategically,” explains Lai.