Just like the travel sector must do, I've made big changes for my future.
I'm coming to the end of my first 2 weeks in my new role with Yomdel as a Business Development Manager. This career move was an interesting one for me, the current climate forced me to look outside the travel sector, which I had worked within for 20 years.
Fortunately for me Yomdel saw a mutual opportunity as they continue to build on their successful model.
I have worked in sales and relationship management for the past 20 years, always within the travel sector, focused on selling and managing relationships in different areas, including charter & schedule tour operators, luxury, cruise and travel technology.
The brands and products I represented had a mixed target audience from the budget conscious traveller, to the affluent family that only wanted the best. One thing for certain is that they all expected good customer service.
The coronavirus pandemic this year has hit all businesses in all sectors and fuelled huge changes in not only what is possible and not possible, but also in how consumers are choosing to behave. One sector severely affected was the travel sector.
Many businesses were forced to put staff on furlough despite having to service bookings and in most cases with no revenue being generated as they saw forward bookings being cancelled due to global travel restrictions. In some cases, customers were waiting months for status updates on bookings as businesses didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with the volume of enquiries coming through.
Travel will make a comeback! Many consumers have had a rethink about how they transact their future travel plans. Now more than ever consumers see the value of booking a package with a reputable agent or tour operator. They want to be confident that they will be able to communicate with someone pre, during and post-holiday.
Now is the time for the industry to really think about reinventing themselves. Customers both existing and new demand 24/7 engagement, they want assurances that they will be able to communicate with you when and how they want to.
At Yomdel we have seen a significant increase in the proportion of customers choosing to engage with Yomdel’s 24/7 managed live chat service. As people have increasingly look to do as much as they can online, particularly over recent months, engagement rates for live chat have effectively doubled.
So, what have I learned and observed during my first 2 weeks at Yomdel?
- There are many similarities with travel and other sectors that we operate in
- Consumers want a choice of how and when they contact you
- More and more people are happier to communicate online initially before passed on to an expert
During the months of March – August, we saw a natural increase in online chat as the majority of the nation worked from home. As people return to a sense of normality, we expect to see demand for online chat increase outside of traditional office hours.
Yomdel customer testimonials from other sectors mirror what I have been hearing repeatedly during my travel career. These include but aren’t limited to:
- Putting the customer at the heart of everything we do
- Total quality
- Results focused
- Business growth
- Easy to do business with
- Response times are critical
If any of this resonates with you, and you want to ensure you can respond to your clients in real time, extend your sales team, or convert online leads, why not get in contact. bhav.taylor@yomdel.com
I’d be happy to talk you through what could be a cost-effective solution to ensure you deliver strong customer service, continue to engage with customers (both old and new) and above all, drive sales growth in challenging times.
