How prepared is your travel agency for 2020?

Virtual tours are the way of the future

Photos are great but we live in a world of insta-video, where customers want to see more than just a static photo; they want to experience it a little before they buy. Online retail shopping has completely transformed the way customers shop, forcing businesses to change the way they operate digitally. Virtual tours allow customers to have a better look at what rooms would look like, what the layout of the space feels like and what they can expect. They can visualise themselves there, creating a much richer experience for them, rather than just flicking through static photos. With more customers buying online, price, convenience, user experience are their competitive preferences. If you offer a more robust user experience, customers are more likely to purchase based on this, rather than just price. 

An often overlooked benefit of virtual touring is how much it aids those who have anxiety about going to an unfamiliar space. These videos can even boost sales in that target market as those who live with anxiety are possibly more likely to book after seeing a video, rather than not book because they were not as comfortable with the idea.

Virtual tours are a win-win, all around.

Advertising that makes sales is like Christmas every day

We all love a form of advertising that brings in the conversions. One form of marketing that has a direct impact on sales is Click4Assistance’s promotions. These fully customisable features demand attention and acknowledgement, ensuring your message is read. It’s one of the more successful types of advertising as it’s been linked directly to positive impacts on sales across many brands. These promotions can also be used to direct customers to a further page of interest, allowing you to funnel these prospects for more effective conversion.

Reduce, reuse and… remarket!

The travel industry is not based on impulse buying, it’s more of a high-involvement purchase. This means that a customer is not going to mindlessly buy once they see an advertisement or an offer; it means that you need to market to them constantly so that they notice you to the point where all they think about when they want a weekend break or two week getaway, is your offer. It’s a lot more work involved than an impulse purchase. This is where re-marketing comes into play. You want the right people to see the right ads at the right time, but not so much that it feels like harassment.

In today’s digital world, this happens every day. A customer would visit your website, and while scrolling through their favourite social media platform, the ad for the offer on your website pops up in their newsfeed. This can go on for weeks or months until that person makes a purchase or the platform decides that the ad is no longer relevant. It’s like passing the same static “St Lucia Getaway” billboard everyday until you start dreaming of a Caribbean suntan. Re-marketing plays a massive role in capturing customers for high-involvement purchases.

Direct booking

With the advent of online shopping, customers are more inclined to book their travel directly on a website rather than have an independent travel agent do it on their behalf. This means that your travel business needs to accommodate customer service and marketing that supports this. If a customer is making a purchase, they may have a quick question just before they hit “buy”. Does your website currently support answering these questions, or are you potentially losing that business? Live chat for your website software supports quick answers to these questions with pre-defined replies, and when you’re offline, you can have a smartContact form that will collect adequate information so that when you do reply, you have the answers they need, speeding up the enquiry process. Your travel business could even level up their game by using an AI ChatBot that will answer basic questions without having an agent engage immediately.

There are so many ways to competitively increase your sales and elevate your brand for your travel business without breaking the bank. Click4Assistance is a great way to improve the journey of innovation for one of your more important areas of business: your customer service, sales and marketing. If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat for your websitesoftware, to make your travel business more efficient and productive for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our team experts will be with you right away.