Is your business making the most of the rising demand for travel and hospitality?

According to Deloitte, travel and tourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors in 2018, following a bumper year before when bookings hit close to $1.6 trillion. In fact, travel and tourism now account for more than one-tenth of global GDP[1].

The story behind the statistics is intriguing. Consumers are increasingly switching their spending away from durable goods and onto 'experiences'. They'd rather spend more of their money on travel, recreation and eating out.

What's more, millions of new consumers are entering the global traveller pool. They come from emerging and developed markets, enjoy rising disposable incomes and aspire to travel the world in search of new experiences.

The prospects for 2018/19 look rosy for travel agents,

hotels, ‘experience’ providers, tour

operators and other tourism businesses ... but only if they succeed in keeping

pace with fast-changing customer

needs

Case StudyTravel & Hospitality

Industry disruption

Cravings for human contactChannel shifting habits

Data security challenges

Thirst for information

Top 5 challenges

"Established industry players should stay nimble, alert—and perhaps even a bit daring. Travel growth continues to attract waves of hopeful start-ups, each armed with bold ideas on how to change the status quo."

Deloitte — 2018 travel and hospitality industry outlook

Five major challenges for travel & hospitality businesses and how to answer them...

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Case StudyTravel & Hospitality

Industry disruptionCustomer loyalty is up for grabs, according to Forrester: "With the exception of frequent business travellers, less than half of business or leisure travellers are loyal to a particular hotel brand.[2]"

Tech-driven new entrants can cause mass disruption and take market share. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'.

Deloitte has noted that travel growth is continuing to attract waves of hopeful start-ups, each armed with bold ideas on how to change the status quo. There's a flood of investment in innovation across the global travel ecosystem [1].

Channel shifting habitsOver 90% of organisations say customer experience can be linked to revenue (Source: West Corp) and being able to connect with customers whenever and however they want is critical to success.

One day, a customer may be at work researching a trip via a laptop, the next they're organising the whole family holiday at 11pm from their mobile phone. A week later, they want to speak to someone over the phone and make a payment.

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Craving for human contact

Despite the allure of data-driven services, smart new apps and comparison tools, it's important not to miss a simple truth: A significant number of customers still want to interact with other people.

This is especially true in travel and hospitality around the growing demand for 'experiences', which don't have the simplicity of products and services. Experiences are emotional, so customers often want to engage with humans not machines when they book

The best responseIt's important to offer to step in and help customers at critical moments. You can answer questions immediately, reassure customers and hand-hold them through the process to save valuable sales.

• Live Chat with an agent can be triggered automatically when visitors get stuck on your website — or be an option that's clearly available. Sessions often lead to larger sales too.

• Customers can request an Call-Back from agents to save them from queuing to speak to someone

• You can also offer Co-Browsing sessions, so your agents help to guide customers through the selection and purchasing process

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So what should you do right now - just in case another Uber, Amazon Prime or Airbnb parks its tanks on your lawn?

The best responseTravel and hospitality companies should look for greater agility within their contact centres. They need to do far more with less. And this can be achieved without having spend a fortune on new investment. Fast-to-deploy cloud services can keep you nimble and competitive.

• A Unified Agent Desktop can improve the productivity of agents dramatically

• Self-service tools like advanced Chatbots, smart IVR and

automated payments can give your customers greater access and freedom to use your services 24/7.

• Third-party support experts can often reduce support costs of legacy systems by 30% and help you to get more from your investment.

Successful travel and hospitality businesses will be able to manage contact just as easily on any channel — and stitch related interactions together to create a seamless customer journey.

The best responseEckoh’s Live Help and Self-Service solutions enable an integrated, seamless, intuitive and frictionless customer experience. Customers can channel shift to suit the customer’s lifestyle and preferences.

• Solutions such as Live Chat, Chatbots, SMS, Call-Back, Co-Browsing, Email Management and Social Media tools can ensure you've got all the bases covered, all at the same time.

• You can complete the customer journey by offering PCI DSS compliant secure payments via a range of methods and devices such as Apple Pay, Google Pay , Paypal or Live Chat Pay..

Case StudyTravel & Hospitality

Data security challenges

The entire relationship between travel and hospitality companies and their customers is built on trust — from keeping their card details safe to protecting their personal data through compliance with GDPR.

The widely-publicised International Hotels Group (IHG) data breaches served as a chilling reminder that security needs to be robust and effective.

Thirst for information

Sometimes customers just need simple answers that only take a few seconds — and they don't want to spend hours on the phone or have to trawl through your website.

Alternatively, they may be looking for important updates provided in real time. And they're in a hurry.

The best responseWhy not let technology do the heavy lifting for you? You'll lift the weight off

your agents and improve the customer experience at the same time.

Advanced Chatbots are a great to make yourself available 24x7 to customers. A knowledge base is another way you can let people search for simple answers in moments.

With new tools, you can also provide real-time, accurate information to travellers that go beyond the basics. For example, instead of merely sending a text message announcing a travel delay, why not offer one-click options for rebooking if they wish?

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• Advanced authorisation and verification processes can speed up and strengthen security for customers.

• PCI DSS compliant secure payments solutions, such as CallGuard - along with patented Audio Tokenisation or automated EckohPAY solutions will help to safeguard your channels.

• It's also possible to get the same payment security via Apple Pay, Google Pay , Paypal or Live Chat Pay.

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Eckoh provides a wealth tools to enhance your inbound and outbound communications with customers.

There should be no weak links where fraud can fester, especially in the area of card not present (CNP) payments made to agents over the phone.

The best responseThe best thing you can do for your customers is to reassure them that their data is protected and that your company has minimised the risk of any data breach. With the right solutions, you can achieve PCI DSS compliance effectively, despite rising security threats.

Who we work with...

Case StudyTravel & Hospitality

Calling all insurers...Discover more with our eGuides

Eckoh is a global provider of Secure

Payment and Customer Engagement

solutions via our Customer Experience

Portal as well as Third Party Support.

We’ve an international client base and

offices in the UK and US.

We're experts in transforming contact

centre operations by delivering a better

customer experience across every

channel, boosting agent productivity,

reducing operations costs and maximising

payment security. We’ve over 20 years’

experience in contact centre solutions and

organisations rely on us every second of

every day.

About Eckoh... Eckoh has been a PCI DSS Level One

Service Provider since 2010, processing

over £1.5 billion of card payments

annually.

Make Every Contact Centre Experience Satisfying and Secure

Do you want to delight your customers by

giving them a more personal, satisfying

and secure contact centre experience? If

so, Eckoh has the solutions:

Customer Engagement

Multi-Channel Self Service

Live Help

PCI Compliance

Operational Solutions.

CallGuard 2018 & 2017

Winner: Payment Innovation of the Year 2017 - Apple Pay

Security & Anti-Fraud Initiative of the Year

[1] Deloitte: 2018 travel and hospitality industry outlook [2] Customer Experience In Hospitality - Forrester

Call: 08000 630 730 Click: tellmemore@eckoh.com Visit: www.eckoh.com Find out more: