CRM for travel agencies: an essential tool

Tourism is a particularly competitive industry. Likewise, changing requests make for ever‑increasing client demands and variability. Many consider a CRM for travel agencies a useful tool for overcoming these challenges—and for good reason. What is a CRM? What are the benefits of using one? What are the features associated with this software? Gestisoft will objectively address each of these questions.

What’s a CRM?

Every business, corporation or organization now appreciates the key role that the customer relationship holds in the development of professional activities. While it’s crucial to have productive teams, the use of digital solutions is also recommended for numerous reasons.

A CRM (acronym for Customer Relationship Management) addresses numerous issues related to this invaluable customer relationship.

What are the main functionalities to look for?

CRM software comes with many useful tools. Regardless of the nature of your business, corporation or organization, some functionalities are more helpful than others for properly managing your customer relationship.

Marketing

CRM software allows you to create online campaigns to maximize your return on investment by:

• Identifying the best textual content while analyzing the ideal periods for sending messages
• Integrating sales and analyses to target and convert every prospect
• Assisting in the creation and sending of messages based on specific channels that track target customers

Sales-related functionalities

The centralization of data naturally allows crucial information to be shared. Sales team members can then benefit from a comprehensive overview of the performance of a business, corporation or organization. Additionally, CRM software makes it easier to identify “good buyers” (customer relationship development). Lastly, the integration of artificial intelligence within CRM software allows professionals to identify ideal strategies and to implement them during the sales process.

Optimizing customer service

CRM software also serves to optimize customer service. This is evident in the following characteristics:

• Establishment of contact via your clients’ preferred equipment and channel
• Presentation of detailed analyses where cost reduction and service optimization are visible
• Decisive visibility of the clientele to guide your staff during proposals (personalization of proposals)

Dispatch service

Organizing your technicians and distributing tasks are other sought-after functionalities in CRM software. Once again, the centralization of data in an online storage space allows employees to quickly access critical information. Improving services (deliveries) will inarguably strengthen clients’ trust.

Furthermore, the automation that comes with a CRM allows you to effectively match the skills of each technician depending on your needs. Lastly, geolocalization and live dissemination of information during an intervention strengthen the internal organization of a business, corporation or organization.

Optimal project management

To maximize the results of a business, corporation or organization, it’s essential to choose a CRM that includes project management functionalities. This way, you’ll be able to:

• Efficiently plan your projects and allocate resources
• Determine how time will be managed for each task
• Track billing and spending
• Generate reports
• Access a portal for collaborative purposes

Other equally essential functionalities

Besides the above-mentioned functionalities, CRMs offer other digital tools that are useful for professionals.

The automation of manual and repetitive tasks is a perfect example. This functionality offers convenience while also limiting entry errors and improving the reliability of analyses for each department (this is especially true for the sales team).

Intelligent management of sensitive data is another functionality offered by some CRM software. The identification of critical information allows customized strategies to be reviewed and applied.

Depending on their profile, a business, corporation or organization may prioritize other functionalities. Again, choosing CRM software is a crucial step towards guaranteeing optimal results.

How can I benefit from using a CRM?

What can a CRM bring to my business, corporation or organization? This most pertinent question has many answers. The following is a non-exhaustive list of benefits linked to digital solutions that are now considered essential.

Better client management with CRM software

Your relationships with your prospects and clients are optimized thanks to information provided every time a client is contacted. By displaying complementary data, a CRM allows you to personalize your clientele and gain their trust, all while giving them greater responsibility during buying decisions.

A CRM centralizes your data and makes it easier to access information

The centralization of pertinent data naturally makes it easier to access this information. With a few clicks, each department can quickly find accurate data that’s updated in real-time.

Optimized overall management

Functionalities related to marketing, customer insight, field service and sales, as well as other essential elements for every business, corporation or organization improve your sales and your brand image.

An ideal solution for increasing productivity and agility

Besides the many functionalities previously discussed in this article, you could also ask yourself the following relevant question: What are the concrete benefits of a CRM for my business, corporation or organization? Again, several answers may be noted:

• Better communication between each department and your prospects/clients
• Significant amount of time saved thanks to the automation of repetitive tasks
• More efficient employees

Maximize your sales figures and benefits

As you can see, the many features of CRM software offer significant benefits. Deploying Customer Relationship Management software will quickly boost sales while ensuring that costs are properly managed.

How can I choose the best CRM for my business, corporation or organization?

Without any specific knowledge, selecting CRM software that’s customized for a business, corporation or organization can turn into a complex process. Therefore, it’s worth highlighting several characteristics that will help you decide.

Personalization

To achieve the best results, you should have the option of personalizing every “detail” and feature of CRM software. While some solutions come with restrictive limitations, others properly fulfill this requirement (the Microsoft solution offered on our (Gestisoft’s) website is a perfect example).

Choose extensible CRM software

Dealing with deployments via the cloud or on-site can satisfy certain needs that are particular to a given business, corporation or organization. Additionally, a CRM must be compatible with other platforms and software, such as your architecture software, your ERP software, etc.

Set security levels for each user

An effective CRM system allows you to set security levels for each user. By assigning them a specific “role”, you are authorizing the user to access, integrate or modify centralized information, or denying them these permissions.

Choose a scalable solution

Expanding a business, corporation or organization is obviously a major priority for professionals. Your current needs may therefore change. Effective CRM software will assist you as you scale up your professional activities while also allowing you to streamline every process on a daily basis.

The CRM ecosystem

The CRM ecosystem (or stack) consists of the set of tools that are directly (or indirectly) connected. For optimal results, this set-up should evidently be constructed gradually. Safeguarding client data (and prospects’ data) is essential to fully benefit from a CRM stack. Again, a CRM ecosystem will be shaped by your choice of software.

What are the features of CRM for travel agencies software?

CRM for travel agencies: what are the challenges pertaining to client relations in this industry?

Evidently, the tourism industry involves specific challenges pertaining to client relations. These can be summarized as:

• Understanding the client journey
• Ability to offer the best proposal for a specific period and according to client needs
• Developing profitable, targeted marketing campaigns
• Managing any complaints or grievances
• Client experience and a business’ or corporation’s competitive edge

It will come as no surprise that every professional aims, above all, to increase their revenues and product sales. In this regard, digital tools should be used to obtain the best results. A CRM for travel agencies is one such solution that is now considered essential.

Which features of a CRM for travel agencies can benefit your business?

Improve every step of the client journey

With a CRM for travel agencies, you can track and improve every step of the client journey. From viewing your offers (or advertising campaigns) to converting prospects, you will maximize your results by implementing customized strategies. In practical terms, a CRM will help you:

• Automate campaigns—get the right information at the right time, all while attracting prospects’ attention.
• Send personalized messages.
• Improve visibility (multichannel marketing).
• Create multiple campaigns efficiently—your CRM lets you segment your clientele and target them more precisely by identifying their areas of interest (this helps you acquire a larger volume of new clients more quickly).
• Communicate effectively with your clientele via email, chat or telephone.
• Send reminder notifications (follow-ups and questionnaires) to evaluate the satisfaction of every client after returning from their trip.
• Manage complaints and grievances by automatically redirecting them towards the appropriate department according to the type of client request; this improves your efficiency and reduces client wait times (by immediately redirecting them to a skilled assistant).

Benefits

With a CRM for travel agents, you will benefit from better client relations and retention, a stronger brand image and the automation of many tasks. In turn, these elements make your marketing department more efficient.

Increased time savings and higher productivity are commonly reported benefits for travel agents, since repetitive, NVA tasks become marginal.

Improve collaboration between travel agents

Besides the benefits related to client satisfaction, a CRM for travel agents will also improve collaboration between every agent. This can be attributed to the following features:

• Share your updated database of clients and histories in real time.
• Access—thanks to this database—a useful knowledge bank so you can process grievances more quickly and share knowledge to identify the best solutions when faced with unexpected issues.
• Enjoy the mobility and accessibility of a Cloud-based CRM, which gives agents more flexibility.
• Organize events more efficiently—use a CRM to manage your events, advertising campaigns and client-facing communications; you can access these features by integrating project software (such as Microsoft Project, a complementary program to Dynamics CRM).
• Manage your activities, along with your partners, by syncing and sharing critical information.

Benefits

As you will come to understand, a CRM for travel agents lets you pinpoint your clients’ profiles and expectations more accurately. By having access to a database, you will maximize your speed and efficiency, thereby ensuring and maintaining client satisfaction. To summarize these benefits, a CRM represents time savings, efficiency, accessibility, flexibility and productivity.

Reap the rewards of integrating AI and BI

Artificial Intelligence (IA) and Business Intelligence (BI) are valuable tools in a CRM for travel agents; they maximize the performance of your business or corporation by:

• Centralizing data—every useful piece of information is stored and archived to organize travelers’ files more effectively so you can view your data more easily (simplified access)
• Creating reports, dashboards and analyses
• Creating a chatbot to respond more quickly to your clientele’s needs
• Boosting agents’ performance

Benefits

To implement best business strategies, you should make decisions based on data your CRM for travel agents. Directing and fine-tuning marketing activities according to this information is a perfectly telling example. What is more, by deploying a CRM, you will be able to anticipate tourists’ buying preferences and consumption patterns for every season.

Entrust Gestisoft with implementing your CRM

When you’re ready to choose a CRM, keep in mind that you’re making a long-term investment for your office. Your choice of software needs to be a well-informed decision. At Gestisoft, we make this easy with our team of CRM and ERP experts who will guide you in making your purchase and support you in implementing your software. Contact us today to discuss your needs, we’ll work together to find the solution that’s most suitable for your professional situation.