Top three contact centre Business Challenges in the travel industry

The recent merger of giants Thomas Cook and MyTravel has once again highlighted the competitiveness in the travel industry. Against a backdrop of both industry and technology change, delivering a first-rate level of customer service has never been more important. Faraz Khan, Director of Business Development at ProtoCall One, identifies three key business challenges that contact centres in this sector need to address in order to develop top-quality service for customers.

Internet and email must be integrated into a true multi-channel approach
The biggest change in the travel industry over the last ten years is undoubtedly the rise in Internet transactions, creating a new self-service approach to buying holidays. The Internet offers customers access to seemingly unlimited amounts of information about a potential holiday - resorts, hotels, weather, food, and, crucially, feedback from other tourists. Yet few travel contact centres - in fact, few contact centres as a whole - fully integrate this channel of communication into their operations. Most fail to adapt their working practices to enable their customer service agents to exploit the Internet to provide better customer service.

For example, if an agent knows precisely which pages on their company website a customer has viewed before the call, the transaction becomes far more personal - increasing sales potential, as well as the likelihood they will return for future business. The technology is there today - in fact most contact centres already have it - but don't necessarily know how, or why, to use it.

There are real advantages for organisations to develop work systems that allow agents to interact with customers via email, the Web, and instant chat, as well as SMS and through the company's retail branches. As industry expert Alex Mead - TravelSphere's Customer Service Director - says: "Each customer has an individual preference for how they wish to transact with the travel company, so you need to cover your bases."

Customer segmentation enables agents to better relate to customers
The travel industry encompasses a huge demographic, and the enormous variety of holidays and packages on offer reflects this. A number of travel organisations use customer segmentation to offer an experience that is suited to each individual. Alex Mead’s thoughts on this: "Take for example an older customer who is looking to go on a singles cruise package. That person would be more comfortable talking to an agent of the same age, preferably who has been on that or a similar type of holiday." The huge diversity of callers that agents deal with means that if travel organisations can identify customer segments such as age, employment, or purchase history, the caller experience can be optimised - with high-value customers prioritised and provided with a better service.

Once customer segments have been identified, the technology is available to enable call routing, reporting and forecasting to ensure the right agents deal with the right customers, and that caller information is available before each interaction. Although implementing an intelligent segmentation strategy might initially seem a complex challenge, organisations that enable an agent’s ability to relate to each customer will dramatically enhance customer service. Applied correctly, segmentation can significantly increase sales, improve customer retention and ensure a travel organisation uses its contact centre resources effectively.

These technologies do not necessarily need to be the most expensive on the market - often the systems are already installed in many travel organisations. Careful consideration, preferably by a consultant experienced both in the pattern of business in the travel industry and with knowledge of the latest developments in contact centre systems and Internet-user practices, will enable organisations to exploit their existing technology to the full.

Travel is seasonal - a multi-skilled workforce helps
Anyone who has worked in the travel industry is well-aware of its seasonal nature. If you talk to Alex Mead, he highlights the implications of such peaks and troughs: "The first six weeks of the year is the booking rush, when contact centres are overloaded with sales enquiries and bookings. The following months up until the summer are quieter - and are an ideal opportunity to cross- and up-sell add-ons to the year's early bookers, as well as to provide additional hotel and resort information. During and after the summer, contact centres become increasingly focused on dealing with customer feedback and complaints - even to the point of advertising complaints channels on travel company Websites.

"This shows that each part of the year requires different agent skill sets - selling hire cars and holiday activities demands a completely different approach to handling complaints from a family whose flights have been cancelled."

An efficient way to combat these seasonal fluctuations is through a multi-skilled workforce, with each agent able to cope with a variety of customer service requirements. By implementing a Workforce Management Solution, your contact centre can predict staffing levels and then coordinate agent schedules to match anticipated demand. This ensures that agent productivity within the contact centre is optimised, and that your business utilises the full potential of its workforce and boosts agent morale.

By integrating agent training into the contact centre, you can ensure your agents know how to deal with each individual they interact with, and exactly how to get the most out of the technology they use. Modern training techniques offer each agent a unique programme suited to their needs, which can be integrated with a Workforce Management Solution across the entire contact centre to ensure that knowledge and skills can be gained throughout the working day.

About ProtoCall One
ProtoCall One is UK's premier systems integration consultancy for the contact centre industry. It is the leading independent advisor to the country's top telecommunications service providers, helping them develop advanced network-based solutions for large contact centres.  It is also widely recognised as the 'Number One' professional services and support organisation for the industry-leading Genesys Call Centre Solutions. ProtoCall One helps organisations to identify and resolve the technical and business issues involved in integrating contact centres into mainstream business processes, with a strong focus on financial services, telecommunications, travel and public sector markets. Additional information is available at www.pc-1.co.uk or for more information please contact:

Faraz Khan
Director of Business Development
ProtoCall One
Tel: 0870 204 2613
fkhan@pc-1.co.uk

Manuela Whittaker
IBA, PR for ProtoCall One
Tel: 01780 721433
mwhittaker@iba-europe.com

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