Multi-million pound technology upgrades at Travel Counsellors will enable its members to better personalise their interaction with clients, its digital chief has promised.
Travel Counsellors updated members at a series of eight roadshows held across the country to give 1,200 TCs the opportunity to hear the company’s latest updates.
Travel Counsellors’ director of digital and innovation Waseem Haq told attendees a new customer dashboard – designed and built in-house – would allow each TC to access a detailed overview of their customer base.
“The technology behind the dashboard maps customer travel interests and logs their booking behaviours to produce customer personas that can be used to target marketing efforts more effectively, and stimulate the next booking enquiry,” he said. “This isn’t about technology replacing the human touch – it’s about creating a continuously evolving digital experience, with added human value.”
Travel Counsellors’ bespoke technology platform, Phenix, has also been upgraded, with the booking system set to become an intelligent tool that will recommend personal itineraries and enable individual Travel Counsellors to manage their margin based on previous booking history. Haq told members Phenix continued to receive £2.5 million in annual investment.
Haq said Travel Counsellors’ myTC app was increasingly being adopted by corporate and leisure travel business owners and their customers. The four-star-rated app is the subject of further development, using customer data to enhance the digital experience and receiving £1 million in annual investment.
“Travel Counsellors’ presence on your customers’ smartphones and tablets only increases the opportunity to provide a highly personalised experience,” said Haq.
“In fact, 75% of customers who receive a quote from their Travel Counsellor via the app go on to make the booking within seven days, such is the power of myTC.”
Haq also showed off updates to the brand’s in-house learning system, Coach, which is accessed daily by 40% of Travel Counsellors’ global membership and has training materials, courses and webinars covering seven countries.
Travel Counsellors chief executive Steve Byrne added the innovation would “empower all Travel Counsellors to operate in an entirely customer-centric way, offering limitless opportunity for individual growth”.