The Hottest News From Travel Impressions’ Top Event of the Year

If Travel Impressions ever had one weakness, most agents would probably point to its call center.

But that was before May when Travel Impressions' President Scott Wiseman and company decided to launch an aggressive campaign to revamp the call center, and turn a once flaw into perhaps the company’s hottest feature.

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TravelPulse was able to find out more details on that story and more during our recent coverage of Travel Impressions' “Best of the Best” show, which saw top-selling agents, business development managers, top Apple Leisure Group Vacations executives, and other industry representatives gather at the Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun.

Here’s what we found.

Revamped Call Center

Travel Impressions’ call center has seen dramatic improvements lately and agents like Tom Varghese, owner of Travel Tom in Washington, D.C., are starting to notice

“In all honesty, the T.I. call center had not been very good until about six to eight months ago, with extremely long hold times,” said Varghese, who was in attendance for the event. “But since then, T.I. has put a strong emphasis on the team by increasing its call center staff by more than 200, compared to last year. And the results have been dramatic. There are now normal-to-no hold times, and a more knowledgeable and well-trained staff answering the calls.”

“Probably our single largest current investment has been rebuilding the call center,” said Wiseman. "We have had people properly trained and we are ready to go for the peak season.”

In fact, Jacqueline Marks, executive vice president of trade sales and engagement for Apple Leisure Group Vacations, told TravelPulse that there is an ongoing search for a new senior vice president of the call center. She said the hunt is currently down to four top-notch candidates.

“All four candidates have a high level of expertise,” she said. “Whoever we decide, it will be a great decision."

Wiseman also noted that Travel Impressions refined the call routing for agents with certain agents getting preference on how quick they get attended to. He said results have been an average hold time of three minutes.

And other agents, like Anthony Tucker, vice president and general manager at the All-Inclusive Outlet in Georgetown, Kentucky, are also taking notice.

“We've definitely seen an improvement over the last few months in regards to response and resolution times on all types of issues, such as accounting refunds, booking modifications and price matches,” said Tucker, who was also in attendance for the Best of the Best event. “My agency does almost exclusively FIT vacations and I have heard that T.I. has some work to do on the groups side of the business, but I am happy to say that, for my agency, I am satisfied with where service levels are today.

"Earlier this year, was obviously an extreme case with the U.S. media frenzy surrounding the Dominican Republic, but I would like to think that no agency or travel industry call center was truly prepared for that circumstance. Since around August, we've seen great strides from T.I. to get their service levels back to what everyone expects from a high-service oriented tour operator.

The Upgraded VAX VacationAccess

Wiseman also announced plans to soon launch a new website that will integrate with VAX VacationAccess and take full advantage of the advanced booking tools and features available in the platform.

And that's music to the ears of agents like Tucker.

“One of the features that T.I. gained as a part of the transition to VAX that we've benefited from the most is very plainly listing out the promotions that are being included in the price that you're seeing,” said Tucker. “Previously, it wasn't completely obvious if you were actually getting promotions such as kids stay free, resort credits, seventh-night-free, etc., but now with VAX it is all listed with detailed descriptions that make a big difference when we have the assurance that our customer is actually getting the promotion you've been explaining to them.”

Some of VAX’s other new features include Automated Inventory Requests, adding scheduled air or contracted Exclusive Nonstop Vacation Flights to pre-existing, land-only bookings and numerous technology enhancements.

“Another feature that we use frequently is the ability to make some changes to bookings without the need to contact TI's call center," said Tucker. "Within the system, you can easily add excursions, Club Mobay, or upgrade their transfers directly in the website online.

"This alone has saved a lot of time in our business just by not waiting on the phone or via email to make simple changes and confirm to the customer since it now can be done instantly.”

Automated inventory requests will be made available to all Caribbean and Mexico groups traveling 2020 and beyond. Additional rooms or room nights will automatically confirm at time of checkout or be placed ‘On Request’ depending on hotel and existing inventory.

“With not only incredibly flexible functionality that allows users to create simple bookings, but also more complex multi-stop itineraries, it allows agents to make reservations quickly and without the assistance of a reservations team,” said Varghese. “Additional enhancements include the ability to 'copy' a reservation, which is useful for groups doing the exact same itinerary, and make modifications after the booking has been made.

"Finally, much more product has been loaded into VAX, so the number of hotels and experiences available to be booked is far superior to anything in the market today.”

D.R. Bounce Back?

Although Wiseman told TravelPulse that it is still a gradual climb, Travel Impressions is seeing business coming back to the Dominican Republic after months of exaggerated news reports sunk the destination’s business for the operator by 70 percent, year-over-year.

Wiseman said Travel Impressions is currently looking at a 20 percent year-over-year drop, but considering where that number was a few months ago, it’s clear clients are taking advantage of the value lately being offered in such Dominican Republic destinations, like Punta Cana.

What Else to Know From B.O.B.

Other big news from the Best of the Best conference included the announcement that Travel Impressions has expanded its portfolio with 65 percent growth in domestic inventory and 23 percent more product in Europe.