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Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 26, 2000
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Travel Industry Uses CRM To Make The Internet An Ally
By Jeff Sweat
| TechEncyclopedia |
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ome travel agents view the Internet as the enemy. They see the proliferation of discount Web travel sites and the ability of airlines to form direct connections with customers as a threat. But savvy travel agents are using customer-relationship management technology and tight integration with traditional travel channels to turn the Internet into an ally.Some, such as ByeByeNow.com, an online travel site that specializes in leisure travel such as cruises and vacation packages, are making sure that online ventures are closely tied to human-powered travel operations. ByeByeNow.com realized that leisure travel packages are difficult to sell without the human touch. So the company has built a brick-and-mortar presence, signing up 318 franchises across North America, with up to 550 expected by year's end.
The franchises are independently owned-and-operated businesses that range from midsize companies to single-person shops. Still, ByeByeNow.com tries to present a single face to customers. When a customer asks for information on the company's Web site, software from CRM vendor Onyx Software Inc. helps to route the customer to the franchise best suited to the prospect-usually the one that's closest.
"You may have contacted them in cyberspace, but the person you're really talking to is around the corner," says Pete Nicoletti, CIO and chief technology officer of ByeByeNow.com in Pompano Beach, Fla. Onyx's software, combined with telephony software from Cosmocom Inc., can pass any kind of communication, whether it's E-mail, chat, voice over IP, or a regular phone call, to the appropriate local travel agent.
With the software in place, the Internet is a much friendlier place for travel agents. Rather than simply being a competitor for flight dollars, it generates leads for higher-margin cruises and other travel packages. The connection goes two ways. When customers call the travel agent after business hours, or when an agent is suffering heavy call traffic, the customer is routed to ByeByeNow.com's call center, where a sales representative can pull up the customer's records from a central database; the sale is then credited to the local agent.
To ensure that its franchisees provide a consistent level of service, ByeByeNow.com is acting as an application service provider. As part of its franchise agreement it gives each partner a copy of the Onyx Customer Portal, which stores customer information-such as preferences, complaints, and recent trips-so that an agent knows who the customer is and how best to serve that person. The data is stored centrally, but with partitions-travel agents can't look at one another's data, because it's proprietary. But ByeByeNow.com's reps can access that data when they're covering for a travel agency.
The travel industry may need CRM, but it also may take its time getting used to the idea. "The notion of CRM has never been applied in the travel industry world," says Nicoletti. But as agents continue to face pressure from the Internet, good customer-relationship management will be more important than ever. "The customer is going to keep going back to the person who gives them the best answers," Nicoletti says. "If I know more about a customer, I'll be able to make decisions to make that person happy."
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