Now is the time to invest in technology solutions, says Mark Jordan, managing director of contact centre at Babble
We have lift off. After 18 months in the doldrums things are finally picking up.
As the travel sector prepares for surging demand, the businesses that have the right technology in place to deliver the best possible customer experience will be best placed to succeed in the post-pandemic boom.
The easiest way to book a holiday has completely changed over the years. From visiting local travel agents to spending an hour on hold to a busy call centre.
Throughout this journey, customer needs and expectations have continued to evolve, as has the technology on offer to support them.
With the pandemic forcing the nation to become remote workers overnight, and the travel industry facing some of its biggest logistical challenges to date, there’s never been a better time to invest in the right tech solutions.
Through cloud technology, brands can help holidaymakers access the support they need to bag a break online, while providing excellent customer experiences throughout their getaway and beyond.
As face-to-face interactions have few and far between over the last year, customers now expect everything to be solved quickly, pleasantly, and efficiently over the phone.
Another major shift to consider is that customer expectations are now mapped against the very best service experiences they’ve had in any sector, not just against your competitors or accepted industry standards.
It’s a much broader and more competitive realm these days. That’s why travel operators need to be at the forefront of technology in order to ensure that they’re constantly hitting the new highs of customer expectation. Fail to do so and you’ll risk customers going elsewhere.
At Babble, we believe there’s an opportunity to turn what has become a purely transactional experience around and add more of that brand interaction back in the mix, in essence it’s all about supporting growth through the deployment of the right technology.
Successful companies in the future will be creating a more human and tailored experience, just like good travel agents do.
Great customer service is demanded by the modern internet user and it’s key in developing brand loyalty.
While there’s no doubt the internet has changed the travel market forever there’s still plenty more change ahead.
What’s more, every facet of change we expected to see over a longer period has had to happen a lot faster – the expected growth in cloud-based platforms for the next 20 years has happened in 18 months.
As a result, the core technology we thought it would take years to migrate to has been adopted almost immediately. And now, some of the more niche technology is breaking through and really moving the industry on to the next level.
Cloud technology and AI make it easy to embrace scale, increase efficiency, speed of delivery and fluctuating user numbers.
It can analyze phone numbers and previous historical actions – from that we can start to second guess what the customer might need and jump a few blocks ahead to streamline the service, saving businesses time and really improving customer experience.
Ultimately, these technologies streamline the number of people required to deliver an excellent service – saving money that can be distributed elsewhere in the business to make it even more profitable.