Crown Travel owner Charlie Diakou with Danielle Bassett and Alison Moran
E THE NEXT TECH STEP
North says: “CRM is so important to build up a booking profile, to see what staff have booked or not booked, how much clients have spent, and where they have been. “From that, the opportunity to market to
customers is far greater than if you just have email addresses.”
The V-CRM tool will also allow agents to
make “serious business decisions” on the basis of booking data, and ensure that staff are spending the right amount of time on the right bookings, for example. “If all your agents’ quotes are in their
SYSTEMS' NEW PRODUCTS
in one place. Allows agents to customise communications, generating templates for quotes to email to clients and track details at every stage of a booking.
Manage my Booking (MMB): Web module for customers to access and view holiday details, download itineraries and pay outstanding balances via a secure login.
VOIP: Voice over internet phone system that allows more than one call at once, cuts infrastructure costs, and gives management a bird’s eye view of the booking process to assess how many calls result in bookings.
notepads, you cannot make these decisions,” North points out. “For me, it’s a game- changer. At the moment the agencies are making decisions by guessing and assuming, but you should never assume. This will give you the facts.” Vertical also plans to update its existing
TARSC system, which both agents are to get, to an online version, V-TARSC, later on this year. V-TARSC will allow agents to access their back and front-office systems from their mobile phones and tablets, so they can check or make changes to bookings if they are, for example, out of the office. “This will give a massive amount of
flexibility compared to the traditional back- office system if they want to resend Atol receipts or load a new booking, for example, from their mobile,” adds North. Manage My Booking – which Crown Travel
has opted for – is another tool that can cut administration costs for agents by allowing customers to view their own booking documents and make payments online.
North says: “This takes away the agent having to call up the client for payment.” Destination Anywhere has chosen Vertical’s
voice over internet phone system, which the company says will save a “considerable” amount of money and allow agents to route calls where they are needed, and collate call data to ensure that staff are spending the right amount of time on the right calls. “We are giving the tools to agents to run their businesses more effectively and make more money,” says North. “Destination Anywhere will be able to analyse the calls its agents are making and see what they are spending longer on. This can only be a good thing and help them make better decisions. “Having all these systems will allow these agencies to fufil their potential – it can only be a positive thing.”
The winners' choices
The IT solutions the agents have chosen for their agencies: ■ Crown Travel: V-Cruise, TARSC, V-CRM, Manage My Booking. ■ Destination Anywhere: TARSC, V-CRM, Voice-over-internet phone system.
16 August 2018
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