Travel Agent Benefits from Greystone Telecom IVR and Data Capture
A story about one of our travel agent customers….
This is a story where our customer would prefer not to reveal its name, for reasons that will become obvious.
This is a high profile travel agency that was spending a great deal of money on television advertising nationally.
The consequence was that at certain times of the day, usually within minutes of the TV adverts, the telephone enquiries started to swamp the operators to such an extent, that queue lengths grew to overflowing and the surplus callers simply got the engaged tone.
Most of those that got through had to endure Music and Messages before their calls were answered and by the time they got through, they were impatient and angry - which is not the best way to sell a holiday experience.
An analysis of the callers’ needs revealed that roughly 80% of them wanted to be sent brochures and only 20% wanted to book holidays immediately.
Our customer wanted to service all enquiries, but realised that with over 2,000 missed calls each day, they were missing the opportunity to sell an extra 400 holidays a day, as their staff were busy collating information on sending out holiday brochures.
Having discussed their problem with us, we suggested a bespoke Greystone Network IVR linked with Data capture. As the network can handle thousands of calls at once without any additional line costs, the IVR we built, simply ensured that all calls were answered and no caller would ever receive the engaged tone. All callers got through.
In the company’s business hours, our travel agent customer recorded a welcome message with just two options:
- To order a brochure press 1
- To book a holiday press 2
Callers who wanted a brochure were directed to Data Capture, those who wanted to book their holiday were transferred to live operators.
Sales dramatically increased, there were no complainants and the queues were
hugely reduced.
Callers who went through to Data Capture were asked a whole series of
questions that had been pre-recorded, which enabled our travel agent to
determine which brochures they should be sent.
Out of hours all callers went to another two options. In the latter case both were
sent to two different Data Capture centres. Those that wanted to book a holiday
could leave a message and those that wanted a brochure could leave a
message.
We outsourced a data transcription business to access all messages that had
been left by callers, within the network, and who each evening listened to and
typed up the names, addresses, post codes, and other information left by callers
seeking brochures, and out of hours who wanted to book holidays, so that before
0900 hours on the following morning, our travel agent could respond to all those
enquiries.
The result was a huge improvement in efficiency, very happy content customers,
and a much more profitable business for our customer.
Their costs were miniscule in comparison to the huge benefits reaped.
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