Knowing travellers have an abundance of options at their fingertips (including OTAs, retail travel agencies, tour operators, direct with airlines or hotels and DIY bookings), are you happy offering good customer service or do you want your travel business to be extraordinary?
Winning customers not only drives revenue but also fosters brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth, which are invaluable assets in the travel landscape. With new players constantly entering the market and consumer preferences rapidly changing, travel brands must differentiate themselves and provide exceptional experiences to stand out from the crowd.
Now, what if there was a simple way to win new customers? In this blog, we’ll reveal 4 proven tips to leverage a travel CRM and win new customers for your travel business.
Tip 1: Personalise customer interactions
In the vast digital landscape, modern travellers seek bespoke experiences that align with their unique desires and values. A travel CRM empowers your agents with invaluable insights into your customers’ holiday and communication preferences, interests, and previous bookings.
Studies show 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalised experiences.
Armed with this treasure trove of knowledge, you can create personalised marketing campaigns and deliver individualised communication that resonates with each customer. Imagine a potential customer, dreaming of a tropical escape, receiving an exclusive email invitation to a paradise perfectly tailored to their wanderlust. The magic of personalisation captures their attention and sets you apart from the competition.
Tip 2: Prioritise the hottest leads
As you know, not all enquiries are equal. Imagine you have two leads come in, which do you focus on first? The customer with a 100% quote-to-booking ratio or the customer who has booked none of the last 5 quotes sent? The answer is simple, but what if you have too many enquiries to manage this manually?!
A travel CRM can help you easily prioritise the hottest leads and customers most likely to book by using previous booking history, VIP status, average spend, quote-to-booking time and much more.
As well as identifying a customer’s propensity to book, a travel CRM can also distribute these enquiries to the most relevant team members based on their expertise and areas of interest e.g., Tom is a keen sailor and knows everything about cruises, so receives all cruise enquiries but Liz is a destinational expert so deals with all holidays in a specific region.
With efficient lead prioritisation, sales teams can focus their time and resources on nurturing high-priority leads, optimising their efforts, and improving overall conversion rates.
“Since we migrated to Inspiretec CRM we have seen improved customer service levels, significant efficiencies and cost savings, with a 5% uplift in web enquiry booking conversions.”
Sonia Walsh, Digital Product Manager, Travelbag
Tip 3: Nurture relationships with automated follow-ups
In travel, timing is crucial for converting leads into loyal customers, but manual tracking and follow-up tasks can be laborious and prone to delays. Enter a travel CRM.
With a travel CRM, you can automate follow-up tasks for your agents, ensuring leads and quotes are actively pursued and no touchpoint is missed. But not all touchpoints need to be a manual process! You can send balance and passport expiry reminders, bon voyage messages, welcome your customer home and much more automatically. Carefully crafted communications with customer personalisation, means you save valuable time without losing the personal touch.
Employees estimate automating tasks might save them 240 hours per year, while company leaders feel that automating tasks could save them 360 hours per year.
Tip 4: Make informed strategic business decisions
Insights from a travel CRM serve as a foundation for data-driven decision-making. By analysing campaign performance, trends and patterns, you can make strategic choices that align with customer demands and travel industry trends.
Data-driven organisations are not only 23 times more likely to acquire customers, but they’re also six times as likely to retain customers and 19 times more likely to be profitable.
With access to a wealth of data, you can fine-tune your offerings, craft enticing holiday deals and design new tour packages that precisely cater to your target audience. From refining your marketing campaigns to optimising your sales strategies, each move is backed by real-time data, increasing the chances of attracting and retaining customers.
This proactive approach enables you to stay ahead of competitors and fosters a culture of continuous improvement within your organisation. As you draw upon invaluable customer feedback and performance metrics, you can identify areas for enhancement and innovation, and drive business growth.
In the highly competitive world of travel and leisure, offering good customer service may not be enough to set your travel business apart. To thrive and succeed, you must aim for extraordinary customer experiences that resonate with modern travellers’ desires for personalised interactions and tailored journeys. A travel CRM becomes your ultimate ally in achieving this goal, enabling you to win new customers and foster brand loyalty.
Discover how our travel platform with built-in CRM can benefit your business…
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