Embracing Technology a Key for Agents

The words “travel agent” and “tech-savvy” don’t usually go hand in hand. Travel advisors have never been known as early adopters or, for that matter, committed users of technology tools designed to help them do business.

Yet, these days increasing numbers of agents are giving the lie to that notion. We asked a handful of tech-savvy advisors to share their insights on how technology helps them do business, and which solutions are most useful.

“In my 11 years at Brownell, it’s been fun to see how we’ve remained very progressive with technology,” said Rene Alldredge, director of operations for Birmingham, Ala.-based Brownell Travel, a Virtuoso agency. “When I first started, we only had our database, the GDS and the Internet. Now, there’s an app for everything we do to ultimately streamline our day and make our jobs that much easier.”

Alexandra Youdeem, founder and owner of The Local Foreigner in New York City, a Virtuoso member, said her agency has “embraced technology since Day One.” She added, “We have always believed that leveraging technological tools commonly used in other industries would give us an advantage and an edge. We invest a lot of time in creating proprietary resources to train our team. We also recognize the benefit of external training.”

At Hollywood, Fla.-based Post Haste Travel, another Virtuoso agency, “We’re always trying to keep ahead of what clients can find on their own, so many of us use existing technology and websites to search the destinations our clients are looking to travel to, since we must be aware of what they will be looking at online,” said Grace DeVita, the agency’s vice president.

DeVita capitalizes on the Cruise Finder mobile app for finding cruises. “Finding live up-to-date data, pricing and availability in one place is essential, so we don’t have to visit individual cruise websites,” she said. “Some of our advisors will look at TripAdvisor just to see what properties are trending in a particular destination, since we know our clients are doing the same. The same goes for looking at some of the OTAs for hotel pricing information, knowing that clients will also be searching on their own. This empowers us to be able to explain why what they see is not always what they will be getting.”

Post Haste also uses multiple technologies for booking travel and keeping in touch with clients. “We are power users of Client Base, Client Base Online (for our independent contractors) and Trams [Sabre’s accounting and reporting travel management system], as well as the New Sabre Red Workspace,” DeVita said. “The advantage to having this powerful suite of connected and synced applications for client bookings and personal data management creates a time-saving, centralized client information environment.”

She added, “The ability to accurately track sales, commissions and the various booking trends we look for, as well as for all our advisors to search for our preferred suppliers based on a destination, is imperative, and also helps us create targeted marketing decisions for each advisor and his or her clients.”

Among the other tech tools Post Haste Travel uses are TripCase, an itinerary management app that’s part of the Sabre suite of applications, the itinerary builder Umapped and the Google ITA Matrix airfare search tool.

Some of Brownell’s favorite tech tools include Basecamp, a project management and team communication tool; Todoist, a productivity app; and Evernote, a productivity app for note-taking and organizing, Alldredge said.

Alldredge referred to Basecamp and Todoist as “fantastic organizational tools to keep a team on the same page about what needs to be done on a client’s trip.” She added, “You can easily assign tasks to one another and at any point see what needs to be done, or what’s been completed, on an itinerary. Both products also sync with most email platforms, so they’re very functional for most teams and very easy to incorporate in the day-to-day flow.”

Evernote is particularly useful for organizing trip reports, storing country details and also supplier partner contact details, Alldredge said. “It’s the ultimate organizational tool and a real lifesaver for many of our folks who work from home.”

Brownell also makes use of video conferencing. “We dipped our toes in with Face-Time but within the past two years have embraced the power of the video call,” Alldredge said. “We use BlueJeans video conferencing and offer this service free of charge to any of our employees and home-based ICs who want to set up a video call with a supplier partner or client or both.”

Most technology used by The Local Foreigner is “extremely user-friendly,” said Youdeem. “We have a very tech-savvy culture, and use five to 10 applications daily,” she said. Among them are a Salesforce CRM platform, which integrates Office365, Calendly (meeting scheduling technology), Uberconference (cloud-based conferencing system) and Chrometa, which captures PC-based work time.

“We use technology to drive efficiencies and increase productivity, making it easy to collaborate, share information, manage all client interaction, and even build the curated itineraries we create for clients,” Youdeem said. “It has helped us improve customer service, close opportunities faster, and manage quality control.”

Capitalizing on technology, however, can be met with resistance by staff. “As a Millennial, I understand the concepts but know that we have some folks who can be a ‘tough sell’ because it’s new and unknown,” said Alldredge. “In my role as director of operations, it’s my job not only to seek out and provide fun travel technology for our team, but also to educate them on the ‘why’ behind the new technology we’re offering so that they can decide what’s best for them.”

DeVita noted that some of Post Haste’s advisors have been with the agency 38 years while others less than three months. “No matter their experience in the industry, if a new technology won’t help them be better advisors or save them time, it’s of little use,” she said. “We have to be open to trying new technologies that will support our working more efficiently and creatively.”

VIRTUOSO’S INCUBATOR PROGRAM

Virtuoso’s Incubator program, designed to foster the development of new technology solutions for agents, each year selects several companies whose products will be tested by a dedicated panel of Virtuoso members.“Virtuoso felt compelled to advocate for our members by bringing awareness to the technology community that travel advisors are a worthwhile client base for them, encouraging advisor-focused B2B solutions,” said David Kolner, senior vice president, global membership partnerships for the luxury consortium.

Solutions that have had the most impact are those that automate operational tasks, saving advisors time and enabling them to focus on their expertise, he said. “The revolutionary advisor productivity tools have come from solutions from our itinerary management partners. Advisors also appreciate booking solutions that streamline the search process of rates and amenities available to book on behalf of their client.”

In the short term, Virtuoso is looking for tools that consolidate the various tasks for an advisor into one solution, he said. “Our newest partner, TravelContact, aims to do this with an operation solution that covers CRM, marketing and analytics.”

In its four years in operation, the Incubator program has witnessed “an outpouring of interest in new technology from advisors,” Kolner said, adding that an estimated 100 Virtuoso advisors have volunteered to test the technologies.“Then these advisors stay engaged for several months in a robust pilot program,” he added.“When the testing members have been surveyed about their interest in testing again the following year, 100 percent of the responses have indicated that they would, every year. This indicates to us that while some may have had a perception that travel advisors have been resistant to technology in the past, that has absolutely changed.”