EasyJet holidays reveals plans for self-service trade support tools

EasyJet Holidays has revealed plans for ‘self-service’ trade support to help travel agents on bookings.

Chief operating officer Matt Callaghan announced the plans during a talk at Abta’s Travel Convention on the role business culture plays in the customer experience.

The self-service tools would offer agents the chance to do booking tasks themselves that they currently have go to the call centre for help on.

Callaghan said it was already the case that most direct customers did not need to go to the call centre for help on bookings thanks to ‘self-service’ tools online and said the new trade service meant fewer agents would also need to call up for help on basic tasks.

“This self-service technology is to perform simple transactions so they don’t have to call us,” said Callaghan. Specific details of the trade support have yet to be unveiled by the operator.

Callaghan was speaking during a session in which he urged travel businesses not to underestimate the importance of business culture and ‘highly-engaged’ teams of staff.

He described the customer experience as “colleague [staff] experience, just seen from the outside”.

“Travel is a people-heavy business. High street travel agents, telephone sales agents, contact centre colleagues, ground handlers, cabin crew, destination reps, hotel partners.  Every touchpoint in the journey is powered by people,” he said, adding: “And when those people don’t have what they need, the customer feels it immediately.”

He cited research by Gallup which found thighly engaged teams deliver 21% higher profitability and 17% productivity, adding that in the UK only one in 10 employees say they are engaged at work.

“Nine out of ten are showing up without the energy, the tools, or the motivation to give their best. Imagine that playing out across your stores, call centre, your airport operations, or your DMC partners,” he said. “The customer impact is direct. [Research firm] Forrester found that companies leading on customer experience achieve five times the revenue growth of those who lag.”

Callaghan encouraged companies to focus on getting their business culture right so staff feel valued, trusted and empowered, and have the right the systems to deliver the right service.

He stressed: “In travel, when colleagues have the will and the way, customers feel the difference immediately.  

“A cheerful rep at the hotel, a cheerful colleague on the phone - that can be the difference between a problem feeling like a crisis or just a small bump in the road.

“And here is the key. Leaders set the tone. If we bring fear, colleagues feel fear. If we bring cheerfulness, colleagues reflect that energy back to customers.”