Did you know that in United States alone there are over 69480 active travel agents? While this data is from a study conducted in 2018, travel industry is growing at a phenomenal pace all over the world.
So, as a Travel Agency how do you get ahead of competition? How do you ensure a loyal customer base? By creating a WOW experience for all the trips you conduct, right?
Well, this is easier said than done! As a travel agency, you must complete myriad set of tasks to achieve it. Apart from addressing inquiries, following up with prospects and tailoring memorable experiences for your customers, you might have to keep in mind every minute detail about your customers’ preferences.
For most travel agents this is a challenge. When starting out, you could possibly manage everything with a spreadsheet and email. But, as the clientele grows, you employ different marketing channels and increase your team strength, managing everything becomes a humongous task. Sounds familiar?
Don’t get me wrong; I love spreadsheets (who doesn’t?)! However, when it comes to managing a robust travel business, it falls short.
So, if you are wondering if this is the right time to put in place a CRM system, you are at the right place. Here are some signs that your Travel business is in desperate need of a CRM that works for you!
In today’s era one simple mistake from your side can cost you a lot. You can lose your travel agency’s reputation and business opportunities. Everybody wants to take away your customers because there is cutthroat competition. According to a report published by American Express, American customers who are satisfied with the services provided to them would share positive experiences and would refer your company to at least 11 people, but angry customers will give anti-referrals to at least 15 people.
Keeping this in mind, it is essential that you create the best experience for your customers each and every time. While you may have planned an exquisite trip, without proper management the customer experience will suffer and so will your reputation.
Managing Fixed Departures calls for additional eyes to details!
Overbooking because of lack of visibility and accessibility of your data in one central location may land you in a very difficult situation. If you overbook either you must cancel those over bookings which would affect your agency’s reputation to a great extent, or you can pay a huge amount of money to make arrangements for those over bookings to save your company’s reputation.
If you have a travel agency CRM, then such mistakes can be avoided. This system ensures smooth coordination among employees as well as reduces booking errors and miscommunications among the employees and the customers. CRM does not allow information to remain in silos and brings in integrity and cohesion.
If you run a travel agency, then you might have to deal with a lot of people (customers, vendors) simultaneously. So, remembering all the information is not possible. when you conduct tours with your guests you need to keep track of guests’ information like their official documents such as copies of visas, passports in one place. You need to manage their dietary and accommodation preferences, book transportation and so much. Tagging all the gathered information to the right people is crucial. One mistake in any of the above-mentioned processes can earn you an angry customer.
Suppose you have collected all your guest information, but you do not have a system to capture all that information in one central location and make it accessible to the right set of people. One of the guests has specifically mentioned about his/her allergy from prawns. Somehow that information slips out of your mind and that important detail is not passed on to the right person. As a result, your “allergic to prawns” guest gets served with prawns!
You’ll have one unhappy customer in your hand! According to a study conducted by PWC 32% of all the customers stopped business with their favorite brands after one bad experience.
So, if you can relate to this situation, it is high time that you implement a CRM system for your Travel Agency.
In most travel agencies the trip amount is paid in installments. If this is same for you, do you have a complete visibility of the amount due for each and every trip? Do you have a proper reporting system in place that shows you which deposits are due when?
If no, it is definitely a sign that you need a CRM in place!
In your travel agency CRM you can keep a record of the amount of money your customers are supposed to pay you for a particular trip, how much they have already paid and how much amount is due. So, based on this information you can schedule your follow ups with the customers and request them to make the balance payment after the trip is completed. This way you will not lose track of the amount deposited by your guests.
Example, if you do not have a CRM, you would not have the needed visibility to see the payment status of your customers. You might call up a wrong customer and ask for payments who already has paid the full amount. This is not good for your agency’s reputation. To avoid such chaotic situations, you must have a travel agency CRM in place.
If you want your travel agency to grow, then you must know which are your most profitable packages. But how you are going to gauge that?
If you have a travel agency CRM then you can easily get the needed visibility of all your data. From those data, reports can be generated instantly, and you can see the trends in your business, which are the most bought packages of your travel agency and so much more. Such visibility would allow you to have a proper analysis of your reports which in turn will let you make informed business decisions. Once you know your popular packages then you can allocate more funds there to accrue more revenue and higher profits.
Example, suppose your travel agency offers more than 100 tour packages. If you do not have a travel agency CRM it would be difficult for you to know which of the packages are bringing in more profits. Maybe you conduct Kerala tours and Rajasthan tours 4 times a year. If you want to know which tours are more profitable then you need a travel agency CRM. Accordingly, you can conduct that profitable tour a few times more all the year round.
You conduct a lot of tours all-round the year as a travel agency. And thanks to the nature of your business, you possibly need to pay several vendors for each of your trips. Here, calculating profits using traditional methods can be prone to errors. But with a travel agency CRM you can calculate the profits and see where your profits are coming from then you can allocate your resources accordingly.
Since you have identified your pain points of running a travel agency you must be thinking of getting rid of them as soon as possible. Getting rid of these obstructions will help you run your agency smoothly and would fuel your business growth. Our travel agency CRM experts are here to help you achieve this goal.
To know more about our Travel Agency CRM please contact our CRM experts here!
Here’s how our Travel Agency CRM can help you in managing your business better and streamline your business processes!