TravelMole eWire Q&A – LIVEAssist

Ali Subhan is the founder of online marketing services company Pro-more’s flagship technology solution LIVEAssist which provides companies with live online support.

Q: Travel companies recognised early on the importance of web sales and have since become very good at attracting web traffic. Why can’t they convert more visitors into buyers?

A: Many travel companies are simply using their online presence to generate sales calls into their call-centre, and are not optimising their online ecommerce platform. Even though the booking process is online, there is still a sales cycle, and although some of the highest budgets available are spent on attracting traffic, very little is being done to retain visits or convert them into a booking. Businesses need to do more to engage the consumer and provide a positive online experience. This could mean navigating them around the site, answering any questions but mostly giving online consumers that warm and fluffy feeling of a credible, trusted and secure, customer-centric business.

Although many have made progress with social media blogs and enhanced FAQs, they still aren’t communicating live with prospective customers on their site. At best they are merely available at the end of a phone, but the call wait time and cost creates a barrier. Or the only other alternative they offer is to be at the distant end of an email, which is even slower and less personal, so the company loses control over the sales process which often results in visitors abandoning the site and going elsewhere. Something needs to be done to exploit the opportunity and captivate visitors, taking them to the booking stage.

Your website is your shop window. You wouldn’t open up your shop without any shop assistants, so why should your website be any different?

Q. Your company talks about using the human touch to turn lookers into bookers. In this day and age, why do people need hand holding through the buying process?

A: In this day, age and economic climate, travel companies are trying to automate as many processes as possible – but this doesn’t always work. Yes, automation has its cost benefits, but what about all of those consumers that are abandoning travel sites and switching suppliers due t

·       Usability issues / online technology errors.

·       No live customer support / high response times to emails.

·       Automated and time consuming phone systems (with limited hours of operation).

·       Poor site content and security concerns over booking online.

·       Entering their details incorrectly.

·       Being unaware of what they are committing to, with unclear FAQ’s/T&C’s.

By re-creating the travel agent experience online, there is no headache of going to the local branch, typing an email or even picking up the phone, and more importantly it is open, available and instant 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many consumers just need reassurance prior to booking, others require more specific information such as destination information, special offers, promotional codes but the vast majority simply need a push over the finish line (this could mean entering personal and credit cards correctly, understanding cancellation policy, terms and conditions).

We see an exceptional online customer experience as one of the key differentiators in this highly competitive market, and at the forefront of those that will survive the consolidation over the years to follow.

Q. Have today’s web consumers become more demanding? Why and how? How should travel suppliers attempt to meet their needs in your view?

A: Consumers have become much more demanding.  There has been a radical shift in consumer behaviour, mainly due to the amount of choice that the abundance of suppliers provide them with. This has led to increased browsing across multiple sites at different times in the day, sometimes even 24×7, 365. They may also be in different time zones and find telephone calling to be time consuming and expensive. They would like to have a prompt response to their queries around the clock whilst browsing, and for free.

Travel suppliers now need to respond to what their potential customers are seeking, they must align their business to the hours of the internet. That’s how they will continue to increase market share.

Q. What in your view are the biggest challenges for the travel industry technology wise?

A: Convergence of Europe’s largest tour operators has created giant organisations with large numbers of previously acquired tour operators, retailers and integrated airlines, all with legacy reservations systems and web presences. The duplication extends to software systems, web presentation platforms, and infrastructures.

Meanwhile the emergence of new operators such as Lastminute and Expedia has generated companies who only have one main booking engine and one infrastructure topology. Though they currently have lower market share than the existing monolithic providers, they do have an IT infrastructure cost advantage.

This threat is compounded by the emergence of new software products aimed at allowing travel agents, hoteliers, car hire companies and airlines to act as tour operators directly by dynamically packaging a solution from individual components.

Finally, search engines companies such as Traveltainment, Comtec and Hitchhiker are beginning to offer far more than a cache with the provision instead of context sensitive smart searching from directly hosted inventory. We are in period of technology consolidation where the pressure is on to consolidate reservation systems and infrastructures

Q. What’s right and what’s wrong about the travel industry when it comes to handling evolving technology?

A. The travel industry is struggling with the migration from the old world of shops, call centres and content only or call to book web sites to a full on line content rich web world

There has been an inappropriate emphasis on new web sites providing content rich, magazine like content. These could be distractions from the booking process, encouraging the customer to shop around increasing look to book ratios. The emphasis needs to go back to providing speed of response and the minimum number of search screens, together with the accuracy of response and an increased emphasis on providing the best price. This latter point is particularly important since customers are increasingly using price comparison sites.

Q. What’s your view on the importance of travel providers developing sites designed to be read on mobile phones? Is this a must for the future or a red herring?

A. This is in its infancy. However, it is significant. For example, from June 2008, IATA and the airlines will no longer print booklet tickets. All ticketing is now electronic in one form or another. Eventually, an acceptable ticket may be a secure bar code presented from a traveller’s PDA or email enabled mobile phone

Bus and rail companies have taken this approach and the market is seeing the emergence of mobile ticketing where a traveller can buy a bus/rail ticket over the web via their PDA and show the ticket at the ticket barrier from the PDA or phone. The bar code can then be read  off the screen and validated

Ferry companies and cruise companies are also investigating this technology. The first mobile solutions will be along these lines.

Q. How should travel companies tackle managing their brand image on social networking sites?

A. The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter is evident. They act as meeting places for like-minded individuals. For example, there are areas of these sites where special interest groups such as skiers or snowboarders interact with the site on a daily basis.

Travel products and services have been recognised as the sector most vulnerable to negative comments on the social network circuit, hence why their online reputation is critical. Travel companies must understand how their brand is talked about in the social media space first, and then implement a social media strategy which has the right tools in place to ensure brand image is properly monitored. 

The social network scene is large and with very limited control so they must know what current and potential customers are saying about them and be able to react responsively.

The tour operators’ challenge is to somehow create an environment where tailored product could be available for booking directly within these sites with the principle being that the customers may feel much more comfortable in booking content recommended within their special interest groups.

by Dinah Hatch