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For the past year many TMCs have struggled to cope as travel demand returned. They have had to juggle staff shortages, inefficiencies, financial losses and the subsequent negative market perception.
This has coincided with a lack of investment in technology and automation over a prolonged period, during the many lockdowns. The result is that outdated legacy distribution channels are still favored over more dynamic, next generation alternatives.
Customer Pain Point # 2: Friction and Fragmentation
Traditional booking practices have always created a lot of tension and friction in the business trip. They have been around for so long, we often don't recognize them.
All TMCs have built their infrastructure around the PNR
The PNR (Passenger Name Record) is holding TMCs back. Originally introduced to facilitate the exchange of booking information between airlines, PNRs have become an important component in booking a trip. They are not only a booking confirmation, but also a repository of valuable commercial information.
The file size varies greatly from system to system creating as many as 999 data elements if you create a PNR in a GDS. This is what creates tensions and frictions for TMCs before, during and after a business trip.
In recent surveys, it was reported that after travel programs were unfrozen, the time it took to make a booking was now taking 3 times longer, exacerbated by changes in travel policies, extra levels of approval, schedule changes, content fragmentation, geo-politics and travel restrictions -to name a few
So, how does this play out when customers are demanding a higher touch service than ever before?
Unanswered phones
Over-worked, distracted staff
Long delays
Impersonal service
Reducing friction at every step of the process, not just at the point of sale will free up the agent's time by almost 70%. The traveler will benefit from a more immediate, high touch service from skilled staff who are not distracted.
Looking forward to 2023...
Clients that look for a more agnostic approach to the booking tools they use will not only experience an unprecedented consumer-style interface, but will also benefit from frictionless workflows that reduce tensions throughout the entire cycle.
Booking journeys should feel like a connected experience and this is possible in the corporate travel sector today. Technology exists that recommends itineraries built around traveler preferences. These recommendations improve with each transaction, leveraging Artificial Intelligence to propose the most relevant, intelligent and personalized options.
Armed with AI-driven technologies (unheard of just a few years ago) and an agnostic approach to booking tools, TakeTwo's technology solution delivers ONE telephony system, ONE profile tool, ONE back-office and ONE data analytics solution. In other words, ONE GLOBAL, DIGITAL, PLATFORM that allows us to aggregate and standardize across the entire ecosystem.
Rob Cope, CTO, TakeTwo Travel Solutions
For more information: Read Rob's recent interview on Democratising Travel Technology.