While it’s fair to say that every business experienced significant challenges as a result of the pandemic, the travel and hospitality sector has suffered more than most.
By April 2020, around 91% of the global population was residing in countries with restrictions placed on travel. Restrictions on our opportunities for travel and relaxation have led to billions in lost revenue for the hospitality sector.
However, even in these unprecedented circumstances, there are still opportunities for the right organisations to thrive. The following case studies from the travel and hospitality sector highlight how CX innovation can be the key to success in any situation.
AWS and Priceline
Global travel brand, Priceline, experienced a significant three-times increase in call volume during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of travellers flooded the contact centre in an attempt to change, or cancel their trips, wait times to speak to an agent became unreasonably long. Fortunately, by leveraging the flexibility of Amazon Web Services, Priceline was able to adapt.
Using Amazon Connect, the omnichannel cloud contact centre from AWS, Priceline found a way to transform its workflows, and handle the massive spikes in demand. The solution even enabled Priceline’s agents to work safely from home, without compromising customer experience.
Amazon Connect’s cloud-based environment adapted to suit agent needs instantly. Priceline was even able to introduce callbacks for their customers, to enhance satisfaction levels. Read the full case study here.
Freshdesk and G.M. Tour and Travel
Leading wholesale travel agency in Thailand, G.M Tour & Travel specializes in delivering air ticket fulfilment services. The company believes in delivering the most convenient, reliable, and fast-paced support to travel agents and companies worldwide. However, to accomplish its goals, the company needs access to the latest technology for help desk management.
After moving to Freshdesk, G.M. Tour and Travel discovered they were able to manage larger ticket volumes and prioritize specific requests, tackling issues based on agency. Thanks to responsibility assignments, Freshdesk also improved agent productivity on a massive scale.
The well-defined SLA feature from Freshdesk meant G.M could track tickets efficiently and reduce the clutter in agent inboxes. Freshdesk’s dispatch rules even allowed teams to allocate specific customers to agents with the right skills. Learn more about the case study here.
Content Guru and Jurys Inn
The reservation staff for hotel chain Jury’s Inn were dealing with a consistently high call volume, and a highly distributed team before they decided to turn to Content Guru for help. According to the hotel chain, they needed to open a contact centre that would allow them to handle reservations and requests more effectively, but they wanted to do so without losing the “personal touch” in the customer service strategy.
Directing all reservation calls to non-geographical numbers to provide centralized booking services would have made customers feel like they were getting a less personalized experience. By choosing Content Guru’s storm cloud-based contact centre, the company was able to create a more intelligent call routing strategy.
The Intelligent IVR and routing solution meant the company could leverage the cost-savings and other benefits of a centralized system, without compromising on unique experiences for customers. Check out the full case study here.