Winning In The Tech Era | 9 Practical, everyday examples can transmute an intellectual concept directly into a practical-use experience. With that in mind, Enrico Saltarelli, ACC, MCC, land & cruise specialist, Cruise Planners ® independent franchise owner, describes a step-by- step example of how his agency uses technology to support every touchpoint in the customer journey. Customer Intake Customers find us based on reputation, and on multiple technology platforms, whether it is Google Reviews, social media posts, or social media mentions (referrals) At trade fairs, clients can use a QR code to scan a form to ask for information about specific items, and we capture the source of the clients’ interests forever Clients can also ‘find’ us online and ask for a client account and/or to receive weekly travel offerings Marketing and Promotions We invite clients to share with us what their interests are With this, and historical data (if they have traveled with us before), and the use of Cohort Information (based on demographics) we subscribe to, we are able to drive marketing and promotional information to specific clients – and not send offers to the wrong client for the product Our system-driven marketing sends reminders to clients, as well – and many think we have created that personally for them, and recognize they are receiving an elevated level of service from a travel professional Bookings Our best tools are the ones that allow us to synchronize with our travel partners at the push of a button, so we have up-to-date pricing for quoting, can check on current pricing after a booking is made, make payments directly to the vendor, etc – all while updating our operating system at the same time When we send some quotes to clients, we can measure their interest by the amount of times they open the message to review it This is helpful in timing when to turn the quote into a booking Follow-Up Our task management system allows us to create our own follow- up processes and timing, and attach that to each booking It prompts us to assign responsibilities to others in the office (in a workflow process) and reminds us of tasks that need to be done on specific dates, such as payments, ordering ancillary services, printing documents, and knowing who is about to travel, who is traveling, or who just returned from traveling It places us in control of our processes, so nothing is left to chance Re-Engagement We start the re-engagement with clients while they are on their current trip, and then follow up with them steadily with marketing and promotions suggestions based on their historical and our system-created strategic suggestions We also remind clients in advance of milestone birthdays and anniversaries, so we can start the planning well in advance of their major life events Second, “increased access to data on destinations allows even inexperienced travel advisors to curate detailed travel packages for their clients” Third, “technology allows us to react faster when issues occur When a flight cancels, a storm hits, or some other disruption occurs, our interactive reporting software quickly identifies all of our clients impacted and engages a triage process for our team to react to Alerts, re- bookings, refunds, and communication all can be deployed quickly using automated platforms” And fourth, “technology allows advisors to provide everything from game tickets, restaurant reservations, concert tickets, tours, and nearly every aspect of the vacation and business travel experience This allows advisors to potentially receive commissions from every level of the experience” For those travel advisors who are not yet using technology tools to support the customer journey, or for those who are engaged but are ready for a refresher, Rose suggests: “Simply put, every travel agency needs to re-evaluate their internal process to identify unnecessary manual steps and target specific areas for automation This includes the dream-and-planning stage where the customer is looking at multiple options, to recommendations on options that best meet their needs, to providing automated responses on simple questions” (continued from page 8) HOW TO APPLY TECH TO EACH PHASE OF THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY