Introduction:
Airtreks is a leader in multi-stop international travel, especially complex routes with unlimited number of stops.
Their purpose is to make round-the-world travel easier and simpler by providing complex airfares.
Problem:
The company faced a significant challenge in efficiently selling these tickets.
The sales were made in a classical way: people would submit a request either through a form or by phone or email and the travel/sales agents were manually creating the route with all the legs, trying different combinations in order to get to the best price.
Needless to say that the entire process was extremely time consuming and not very scalable.
The only way to scale the number of sales was to add more agents, which would come with higher costs, long training and management time.
At the same time, Airtreks owned a network of travel websites that were attracting a big number of highly targeted visitors.
The company needed an easier way to convert the visitors into clients.
A major factor was the discovery of a trend among younger people – they don’t like to interact with other people over the phone until they have tried all the options by themselves.
The Search for the Perfect Solution:
Airtreks embarked on an exhaustive search for a comprehensive solution that would address their specific challenges and align with their business goals.
Objectives:
The primary objective was to streamline the ticket booking process for the agents and to make it way more scalable with the same number of agents.
The second objective was to offer an easy way for the visitors of the websites to search for round the world or complex plane tickets, compare the options, and buy directly without any assistance or talk with an agent if they needed support.
The third objective was to improve the conversion rate between interested people (that were searching for plane tickets) and clients.
Solution:
In response, our team was leading the process of creating the ideal architecture and leading the development of a cutting-edge system that revolutionizes their ticket sales process, resulting in remarkable sales growth.
Our solution encompassed two vital components:
1. An advanced airplane ticket booking engine integrated with Global Distribution Systems (GDS) that would serve both the agents and the customers.
This engine searched for all possible legs and combinations, used advanced flight hacks to come up with the best combinations in terms of pricing, shortest time and other parameters requested by the client.
It offered customers the flexibility to choose between a low or no-touch funnel (purchasing directly through the platform) or a high-touch funnel (getting in touch with sales agent assistance).
The air ticket booking engine takes care of distributing the lead to the right agent based on complex rules (availability, prior contact of the agent with that client, who was the most suitable agent for that type of trip, agent workload at that moment, etc).
The booking engine is also generating a quote for the entire trip, broken down by leg, allowing the agents to make changes to each leg based on the discussion they had with the clients and to book the tickets directly from the system.
A payment link was generated directly from the system and was sent automatically to the client.
2. A comprehensive CRM and marketing automation tool fulfilled two essential roles.
Firstly, it empowered agents to identify the most promising leads.
Secondly, the tool executed automated email campaigns personalized to each lead’s search parameters.
It nurtured potential customers who were searching but not yet ready to make a purchase, facilitating a warm and personalized experience.
It also helped the agents to automatically follow up with the clients while the messages were personalized for every stage of the buying process the client was on.
The CRM was integrated with a VOIP system, making it extremely easy for agents to call the clients directly from the CRM.
It also integrates with agents’ email addresses and the CRM is keeping track of every call and email.
The booking engine and the CRM & marketing automation platform were web based and responsive, allowing the agents to access the app on any device (laptop, phone, tablet) and any location while keeping the security of the data at the highest standard.
Results:
After implementing the system, Airtreks experienced a significant boost in ticket sales, decreasing the workload of the sales agents from 30 min. – 1 h for one booking to just a few seconds to a few minutes for one booking.
It also allowed the clients to get estimates by themselves and to book directly or to get in touch with an agent which already had an overall image of the entire trip the client intended to do along with the estimate the client received.
The streamlined booking engine empowered customers with instant access to the best prices, resulting in quicker conversions and a seamless booking experience.
Additionally, the dual marketing funnel approach enabled Airtreks to cater to a wider range of customers, providing a personalized experience and converting more leads into sales.
The CRM and marketing automation tool facilitated lead management, optimizing agent efficiency, and nurturing potential customers through targeted and automated email campaigns.
The workload of an agent was decreased with more than 80%, allowing them to handle way more clients in less time.
The number of bookings from people that were searching but not buying went up with more than 30%.
Conclusion:
By implementing the innovative booking system and CRM + aviation marketing automation tool, Airtreks witnessed remarkable growth in ticket sales.
The advanced booking engine connected to GDS software provided customers with real-time access to the best prices, while the CRM and marketing automation tool facilitated efficient lead management and personalized nurturing.
We are implementing a similar system for business aviation / charter companies, empowering them with a tool that will let their visitors search and book a private flight easily and will help their sales agents to handle and close far more deals in less time.
Book a call