News

A time for travel agencies to demonstrate their service value

Dear Sabre Customer,

It’s been labelled one of the worst disruptions in European travel with industry analysts estimating the cost on the European travel industry to be in excess of £1.3 billion. Following the economic recession, this is the last thing the industry needs. The airline industry is calling for compensation and regulatory changes to avoid a similar situation happening again and there is talk about airfares rising by more than 5% this year as a result of this crisis and increasing oil prices.

However, this issue has also brought kudos to the agency community, highlighting the value that travel agencies bring to both travellers and airlines. Agencies everywhere have been working overtime to repatriate travellers using creative travel routes and a variety of transportation options to get their travellers to their end destination as quickly as possible. It’s been extremely enlightening to hear how our agents rose to the challenge with a real ‘community spirit’ and resourcefulness in their approach to repatriating their customers. This kind of service sits at the heart of an agent’s value – get it right by going above and beyond in helping your displaced customers, and you’ll engender traveller loyalty. Get it wrong and you might as well bid your customer farewell.

Having spent a lot of time talking to customers about this, I would like to share feedback about how some of our customers have used Sabre’s® technology to help them demonstrate their core value and provide the best possible service to their customers. Sometimes when faced with a crisis, the best thing you can do is get the basics right… in three simple steps.

1. QUICKLY IDENTIFY IMPACTED CUSTOMERS
   Don’t wait for customers to ring you – make sure you use know which of your customers are impacted and what their travel plans are. The agents I spoke to told me they used Sabre’s ‘Traveler Security and Data Suite ’, a graphical solution that instantly locates travellers worldwide and provides contact information and itinerary details. Using this solution, one of our agency customers Norad Travel was able to produce a report in just ten minutes, enabling them to proactively contact their customers before some of them even knew they were impacted.
2. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE
   Regular contact should be maintained with customers. There’s nothing worse than not knowing what’s going on, so if in doubt, over-communicate. Keep customers informed of airport and airspace closures, and their flight status, and make sure you use their preferred form of communication. Take advantage of new mobile solutions like Sabre’s TripCase to provide location-based messaging, and use Sabre® Virtually There solution to deliver travel updates, revised itineraries and updated e-tickets by mobile phone and email.
3. QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY RE-ACCOMODATE TRAVELLERS
   Discuss all alternative travel options and help travellers decide the best option. Also, think outside the square – one of our agency customers, Portman Travel, chartered private planes to transfers travellers between open air space locations and even rented accommodation for travellers in locations where hotels were fully booked. If travellers want to re-book a flight, do so as quickly and efficiently. Invest in technology that automates the time-consuming manual process of reissuing, refunding and exchanging tickets. Sabre’s Quick Refunds and Exchanges solution is one option, enabling agencies to manage this process within minutes.

Travel agencies serve an important role in our industry because of their ability to efficiently and effectively service traveller’s needs. As our industry recovers from this crisis it provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on what learnings we can take away from the experience and how we can be better prepared for the future.

I would like to say a big congratulations to all agents who demonstrated their value by going above and beyond for their travelers, and further endorsed the value of our Travel Agency community!

Martin Cowley
Senior Vice President
Sabre Travel Network, EMEA

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