How Travel Counsellors delivers the personal touch with technology

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses are expected to have seamless and efficient communications across all customer engagement. Implementing the right technologies to achieve this is crucial, and the travel industry – inextricably linked to customer experience – has fast been integrating AI to improve its customer facing operations. In fact, research from KMPG shows that when it comes to the rate of AI adoption, the travel industry is the second fastest adopter behind financial services.

Across the travel industry, the only businesses that can truly compete are those that are digitalized in their operations. Research by Skift and Amazon Web Services revealed 66 percent of travel and hospitality executives identify customer service as a “high priority” among their digital and software investments in 2023.

Encouraging an effective and personalized service

However, the continued digitalization of the industry should not come at the expense of those people working in the industry who are at the heart of everything that we do. At Travel Counsellors, our travel advisors are integral to our operations.

We are strong advocates of the human touch being essential to providing the best-in-class customer service and nurturing personal connections.

Striking the right balance with the human experience and the tech-driven operations, is key to keeping customer experiences both personalized and efficient.

We achieve this using our digital, personal platform, Phenix, which provides a full range of capabilities, from customer management, documentation creation, product reviews, and content, to allow travel advisors to increase the efficiency of their operations. The platform, leveraged by more than 2,000 travel entrepreneurs, also connects to 15 wholesaler partners, and provides access to more than 500,000 hotels in destinations around the globe, including approximately 250 directly contracted hotels and more than 500 bespoke suppliers and partners. Our platform and technology provides travel entrepreneurs with the tools and enhanced choices to tailor-make itineraries for their customers and elevate their travel experiences.

We know that when retaining customers, personalization is key. In fact, a survey found that 62 percent of business leaders have improved customer retention due to increased personalization. Through data analytics, including customer demographics, interests, and purchasing behavior, technology can be leveraged to help businesses understand who their customers are and what they want.

At Travel Counsellors, we recently announced a £15 million investment in our tech to further build on our plans and this has been channeled through our acquisition of technology platform Planisto. The platform creates personalized content, journeys and documents for customers accurately and efficiently, supporting business owners to curate bespoke experiences for their customers.

RELATED CONTENT: Making travel personal for customers

Supporting instant and open communication

With a boom in digital communication, from instant messaging to AI-powered chatbots, picking the right tools is essential for businesses to foster efficient external and internal communication.

Recently, businesses are faced with a dilemma when it comes to using digital tools for customer service. Tools that are often advertised as making processes easier and safter actually lead to a decline in customer satisfaction when used incorrectly.

However, if businesses truly understand customers’ needs, then finding the right communication channels becomes simpler. For example, at Travel Counsellors, our consumer-facing app, myTC, allows more than 250,000 customers access to all their booking details, quotes and itineraries in one place. This allows more routine requests to be available at the touch of a button, and enhance the face-to-face personal service their Travel Counsellor can provide.

Similarly, businesses can unlock the right technologies to foster a collaborative working environment that drives success and growth. One of the latest enhancements to Phenix, TC Teams, enables our Travel Counsellors to connect with each-other, enabling them to have greater control over their businesses and achieve unlimited earnings by working together, to ultimately enhance the customer experience and build lasting relationships with their customers.

TC Teams provides our travel entrepreneurs with unparalleled flexibility and control, enabling them to work how they want, when they want, and with who they want. We have seen the success this can have given that all of our top 10 performing TCs use this technology.

RELATED CONTENT: How Mandarin Oriental digitalized its luxury hotel experience    

Implementing protection and building trust

Building and maintaining trust is essential to business success. The importance of customer trust cannot be overstated, as it plays a critical role in increasing customer loyalty, positive customer reviews, and revenue.

Digital solutions work best when deployed to build a bridge of trust with customers.

In customer-facing businesses, a lot goes on behind the scenes to make sure customers’ information is protected. We know that trust is cyclical, and making customers feel protected and understood is essential to nurture the special relationship between business and consumer.

Looking forward, technology will only become more sophisticated. It’s those businesses that can tailor their technology to foster personalization, communication, and trust for their customers, that will survive.

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