How to Set Up a Contact Center for Travel Industry

Modern travelers value comfort during the journey and rest above all. And it is the main goal for any travel agency to provide it for clients. The creation of a tour requires effort, everything must be made up and settled with - two-way tickets, accommodations, excursions, etc. Clients, usually, have questions that they should be able to clarify with the tour operator at any time. Transparency and openness in communication attract and motivate clients. That's why modern travel establishments tend to create dedicated travel call centers

Outsourcing is a big thing right now, so there may be lots of potential profit in establishing a call center that would work for several agencies at once. It may become challenging for the in-house staff of your travel company to process all the client calls they get and provide timely consulting services for everybody out there. This especially goes for tourist seasons and holidays. And hiring more employees isn’t the most cost-efficient and optimal decision in the long run.

Which Tasks can a Travel Call Center Help Solve?

An external call center can make a great platform for adjusting efficient communication between tour operators and their clients. Particularly, a call center for the travel industry can help you handle the following:

• Organization of the ASAP client call responding;
• Keeping & expanding the client database;
• Maintaining constant feedback;
• Reinforcing company reputation in the market.

You can find out more reasons why you need to outsource your customer service here.

Contact Center for Travel by Stage

When implementing any project, initially, you’d need a plan that will help you set everything into motion fast and cost-efficiently.

Stage-by-stage, the whole process of establishing a call center may include:

• Analysis of the target audience - its size, major & secondary needs, as well as the volume of its market niche;
• Registration of business activity - you’ll need to settle with the taxing system for your call center & pay some fees if it’s planned to be a separate establishment;
• Workspace rental & purchase of hardware;
• Internet connection & installation of a separate phone line;
• Staff recruiting & operator training;
• Introduction to clients & promotion of the call center among them;
• A thorough analysis of the initial period of activity to define the weak points and employ proper methods for expanding the target audience.

Initial Steps in Creating a Call Center

The creation of a call center for the tourism industry starts with the analysis of a potential customer audience, level of demand, and further development strategy. Everything must be governed by a thorough business plan all along. You continue by registering your new establishment with tax authorities and getting a certificate that grants you are fit to lead this new organization. Make sure you decide whether you want to employ a team of remote operators or organize a whole new office based on your budget and managing capabilities.

If your business has a pretty integral status, then the office would be much preferable. The remote way is more cost-saving, yes, but there may be difficulties with remote staff management, which spawns the risks of undermining one’s reputation. When it comes to a tourism and travel call center an office is a preferable option again, allowing to assess the efficiency of the employee performance and manage the workflow thoroughly.

What’s Needed to Create a Call Centre for Travel Agents & Agencies?

Staff

It’s all about the people that will be performing in your newly-created call center. Premium hardware and software are secondary points here. In such client-oriented types of establishments, everything starts with people.

Recruiting members of the staff are quite a responsible, serious task. You need someone who is communicative and attentive enough, as well as responsible and stress-resistant. This especially goes for operators. They will have to multitask. An operator should be able to fast switch from one client to another and stay attentive to their needs. They also have to hold lots of information in their heads.

Call centers grow and develop, primarily, based on the number of incoming calls. The more calls you get, the more clients there are. And their numbers should constantly grow as well. Your potential employees should fit these clients’ service requirements. Try to hire people-based tests related to stress-resistance rates, non-standard client behavior reactions, and the completion of complex tasks promptly.

First, keep in mind that certain performance rates should be indicated within your call center. Keep the number of your hired operators strictly corresponding with the number of calls the center gets. In such a manner, you won’t make clients wait for their turn.

Potential employees should also, obviously, be informed about the specifics of the niche, in our particular case - in the tourism and travel questions.

To establish efficient performance in a new establishment, you’ll need:

• A manager - one who would organize the proper level of tourism customer service in your center;
• An IT technology expert;
• A coach or mentoring expert to work with your operators;
• Operators themselves;
• A supervisor who would handle many workflow questions & manage employees;
• An HR manager assesses the employee performance, organizes their training, and decides who to hire;

We know what we are talking about because we already built a team of ambitious people who are real professionals in their niche in Simply Contact.

To guarantee reliable tourism customer service, you need some quality hardware. In the first call centers, there used to be huge heaps of computer equipment. Several phone lines had to be processed based on a certain queue and such. Then, special platforms appeared to facilitate many similar professional purposes. CRM software now helps organize the workflow utterly fast and efficiently.

All in all, to make things moving, you’ll need:

• A package of standardized software to be used in your company;
• IT experts that would maintain all the related technical aspects;
• A server, PCs, & all the devices connected;
• All the necessary software installed & configured;

Employee hardware

Last but not least, in terms of providing the employees of your call center with optimal working conditions, make sure also to provide:

• Quality, comfortable desks & chairs. You are about to offer a sitting job, basically, so try to take care of your specialists’ comfort & health;
• No-break power supplies will help your call center maintain its operation even during blackouts;
• Hardware & software for the implementation of a duplicated Internet channel;

Proper headsets are crucial for any call center. They make a major working tool for operators. You shouldn’t save in this aspect and make sure that the headsets you provide can offer:

• High-quality sound & noise reduction capabilities;
• Comfort for ears during prolonged use;
• Sturdiness & guarantee to work for a long time to help minimize downtime.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re establishing a separate call center or a center that is a subsidiary of your travel company. The basic process looks the same for both cases. The only difference may lie in the types of legal documents you should get. But that’s a whole different story.