Making travel personal for customers in 2023

With CX in the travel industry having transformed since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing travel restrictions, CX Network caught up with Claire Hill, customer operations director at Travel Counsellors and CX Network Advisory Board member.

We spoke with Hill about how Travel Counsellors is making travel personal for customers in 2023 and how current trends will shape the travel industry in the coming years.

CX Network: Rather than allowing customers to take a DIY approach to travel bookings, as much of the online travel industry does, Travel Counsellors pairs customers with travel advisors who tailor their perfect trip. This takes personalization to a new level, but what role does CX technology play in the customer journey?

Claire Hill: CX with Travel Counsellors is on two levels – the first customer is the end customer whom the travel counsellor serves. The mantra ‘with us it’s personal’ starts here with a hands-on, always available approach to service. The travel counsellor provides a unique level of service demonstrating that they care more than anyone else.

This approach requires an attention to detail that enables the counsellor to understand the unique requirements of individual customers, family groups and even corporate bookings. Intimate details such as dietary requirements reflected in the contents of the hotel’s mini fridge enable the counsellor to truly take personalization to the next level.

The second customer is the travel counsellor themself, in the main, they are our customer. To enable us to achieve our ambitious growth targets, we need to serve them well so they can serve their customers well, while ‘growing with intimacy’. This again requires an ‘always-on’ approach enabled by technology.

Our knowledge base enables our counsellors to self-serve a wealth of information as well as using our community platform for peer-to-peer support and guidance. Our support teams also provide one-to-one support through our portal for more complex queries, enabling prioritization that aligns to the counsellor’s requirements. For example, a counsellor supporting a customer who is in resort or about to travel requires a one-hour turnaround, compared to a change of flight details for a holiday in six months. We also support chat and telephone queries that require immediate attention.

RELATED CONTENT: Why personalization is crucial for CX success

CX Network: In this business model how are AI and automation technologies used?

CH: Robotic process automation enables us to automate transactional information, whilst remaining available to our travel counsellors for more complex queries. We are also looking to provide chatbots as an assisted support service to ensure we are routing our contacts correctly.

We love what ChatGPT has to offer and believe it could revolutionize the way we work as a business. To that end we are looking to pilot a trial of a generative AI learning model, similar to Chat GPT, using our own data from our knowledge base, support articles and support tickets. The goal is to use natural language presented in a way that is easily understood and comprehensive enough to answer multiple, complex questions.

We are also using AI for ‘task mining’ major and frequently used processes. The output of this will be used to inform the process improvements and use cases for AI and ChatGPT style tech.

CX Network: What are the most significant CX trends that will impact the travel industry in 2023?

CH: AI is very exciting and will not only inform our business on how we can be more productive and better support our travel counsellors. It will also inform customers themselves and enable our travel counsellors to have better, more well-informed conversations with less friction in the booking process.

CX Network: What is your advice for how travel brands can personalize experiences in 2023?

CH: My advice is to remain personal and provide a better service than anyone else. Referrals in this industry are everything. If you find great travel advice with a personal touch and dedicated support if things go wrong, you have a winning formula.

RELATED CONTENT: Top tips for implementing personalized CX

CX Network: How does customer data help travel counsellors make travel special for customers?

CH: Customer data is essential not only to enable our travel counsellors to redefine what personal means in travel, it also serves our purpose of supporting our travel counsellors in creating amazing experiences for their customers.

Customer data enables personalization, understanding of customer preferences and tailoring itineraries. The data we retain on our travel counsellors also enables us to tailor our support model and build relationships creating a win-win approach, with a support model we can easily scale on demand.

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