Hospitality
is a confluence of various services covering travel, accommodation,
catering, tourism and it may even include entertainment. Even within
each there are several sub-categories. For instance, travel covers
surface transport, air and sea. Accommodation includes everything
from bed and breakfast to five star stays. Just as there are service
lines there are modes of service delivery. Travel operators and
hotels may serve customers directly or through a network of agents.
Travel agents may have travel as the main line and hotels as the
secondary line or vice versa. Then there are tour operators that rely
on all these segments when they put together a package for customers.
The IVR
system plays
a pivotal role in helping customers at all points and in all respects
of their travel.
The
travel agent scenario
A
travel agent who deals with travel facilities like air/road/train/sea
transport and accommodation will find that the IVR is the perfect way
to tie together the services for easy access by customers. It is easy
to configure the IVR solution to offer callers the option of travel
booking and/or hotel booking to start with. Once they select an
option they are walked through to flight timings and booking options.
Once they book travel ticket the IVR offers an option to book a hotel
room based on the chosen destination. The next step is to confirm
both bookings for which the IVR sends out a text and email message.
The final step could be to thank the client and hang up or guide them
through to the IVR payment system. The travel agent serves hundreds
of customers with just a few agents to take over if a customer
desires personal interaction. Employees may leave, go on a holiday or
may have finished work for the day. The IVR solution for hospitality
works 24 hours a day. Customers are happy that one phone call and a
few key presses lead to confirmed tickets and hotel room. It does not
end there for the travel agent or the customer. The IVR has plenty in
store for customers.
The
next stage
The
happy customer prepares to catch his flight and is pleasantly
surprised to receive updates about flight timings and even about the
specific gate to enter to get aboard. Once at the destination his
first stop will be the hotel. The IVR kicks in again with location
and directions on how to get there. Eventually the guest checks
in at which stage another set of IVR options come into play. Not all
customers follow the usual route. Some may have to cancel their
flight ticket and reschedule, which is another area in which the IVR
system assists them. It is the same with their hotel room booking
that can be cancelled or rescheduled. Regardless of whether
customers proceed as planned or change schedule life for them becomes
a lot easier with the IVR providing solid support 24x7.
Continuing
the journey
While
in the hotel the IVR system again provides help for room services,
for food to be brought in, for transportation, for wake up calls and
for checking out. It is back to the airport to catch the return
flight at which stage too the IVR provides helpful reassurance that
the flight is on time.
Travel
agents and hotels save precious man hours when the IVR takes on
routine functions. In addition every action is recorded which can be
the basis for fine-tuned analytics to further improve services.
Customers like the fact that they can get the service or information
whenever they want. It would be no surprise if they turn into loyal
customers when they have such superb IVR support available.
Source: https://ivrsystemdesign.wordpress.com/2019/12/27/get-ivr-system-for-the-hospitality-industry-deliver-customer-delight-each-step-of-the-way/
