As travel agencies slowly come out of the crushing lockdowns that governments imposed worldwide to combat covid, they can count on one thing—tourism is set to rebound in an unforeseen manner. It turns out people are tired of being cooped up in their homes all day, and survey after survey shows most people saying they are willing to make big trips where budget is no bar.
While the business travel outlook isn’t as promising, there certainly has been a noticeable disruption. Like never before, corporates are looking for better deals that don’t eat away at their bottom line.
As a travel agent, it is time for you to swing into action. If you want to capitalize on these trends in the travel sector, there’s an urgent need for you to streamline operations in a manner that’ll get you more clients. There’s also the urgent need for improving operational efficiency in everything from marketing to handling inquiries to selling tickets to customer service.
The way ahead for travel agencies is to automate away the mundane tasks that take time but add little to the profit margin. The extra time can then be devoted to tasks that require more specialized skills.
But how is this to be done?
Integrated CRM and booking engine—a match made in heaven
Travel agencies can benefit from an integrated CRM and booking engine that is guaranteed to be a game-changer for a small investment. No matter what channel you get inquiries from—be it email, call centre, social media, or your website—you can provide travellers with a stellar customer experience using a system that integrates all these channels.
There are also several other benefits that a travel agency can derive from an integrated CRM and booking engine, such as:
Increased upselling
With the insights you get from the traveller’s previous purchases using the integrated CRM and booking engine, you can create personalized offers that maximize your earning. For instance, if you know the budget and nature of the trip your customer is undertaking, you can give him discounted hotel rooms, car rentals, etc., accordingly.
Deeper customer insights
Customer data comes to you from various sources, including emails, phone calls, chatbots, etc. With the right software, you can visualize all of this in a simplified manner and make decisions that boost your bottom line. For instance, you can get insights on where to focus your advertising efforts to get the best results.
Superior customer service
Because all your customer interactions are in one place, it is much easier to track inquiries, answer traveller questions, and convert leads into sales. With the right integrated tool, you can also automatically categorize the various customer interactions to make them easier to handle.
Save substantial amounts of time.
Since much easy back and front office work is automated with an integrated CRM and booking engine, your agents can focus on more difficult tasks. The travel agency software is sophisticated enough to send automated reminders via channels like call and email. Also, many travel agency CRMs come with a self-service portal and a knowledge base that lets customers book tickets and get their questions answered without involving any agents.
What to look for in travel software?
While picking an integrated CRM and booking engine, make sure it has the following attributes.
- Tech support capabilities across all channels.
- Comprehensive reports on destinations, sessions, dates, and agents that provide you with the maximum value.
- Highly secure.
- Automatic creation of customer profile upon receiving an online quote request.
- User-friendly interface for agents.
- GDS connectivity.
- 3rd party supplier integration capability.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, with an integrated CRM and booking engine, you can achieve more inquiries and bookings and consequently have the edge over your competition—all with little effort. Also, your exceptional customer service will help you retain more customers.
Book a demo to see the power of VoyagerAid integrated CRM and booking engine.
