When A Crisis Happens… How Quickly Can You Inform Frontline Advisors?

When a crisis hits how are you communicating what’s going on with your advisors?

This is a huge issue in the travel space. And in today’s world with wars, pandemics and who knows what else happening – having the right process in place is absolutely critical.

Advisors are the key connection to the end customer to get the word out about what is happening and more importantly, what is being done to fix the problem.

But instead of being the first to know, with accurate and up-to-date information that can help calm a nervous customer, many are left in the dark and forced to do what everyone else does when they want information:

Turn to Google.

Let me ask you: Does that thought make you uncomfortable?

It should because based on what’s at stake, that’s just not good enough. And often it’s too late!

When a crisis occurs, advisors need a direct pipeline to a flow of timely and reliable information.

Armed with this knowledge, they can determine how to best take care of their customers, and save you the supplier the lost revenue.

So why isn’t this happening?

Because suppliers and destinations don’t have a system in place to directly connect with advisors at scale and with immediacy.

TravPRO Mobile is changing that with its next generation Sales Companion™.

Our platform is easily accessible from the web or on any mobile device as an app for IOS or Android, and has been built around flexibility and convenience. When new information needs to get posted — that information is posted, the SAME DAY.

When information needs to come down…it comes down that day.

The TravPRO system provides the industry’s only real-time content management system to update training, sales collateral and trigger these types of important notifications.

Now extend this beyond a crisis situation and consider how valuable an additional touch point with your best sellers can be, especially on their personal devices.

Here’s the thing:

At hotels or in destinations, there is always something going on:

· Major Renovation / Closings

· Weather-Related Events

· Travel Related Concerns

This is just the nature of the business. And it happens all the time.

But no matter what the situation — don’t you think your active advisors should be aware of what is happening at your hotel or in your part of the world?

Of course they should.

But many platforms can’t react in a 24/7 world. And inboxes are already overflowing. Getting information posted takes forever. And then stays posted long after the situation has been resolved, leading to further confusion and delayed rebound.

This kind of situation is frustrating for sellers too, and it can lead to a loss of business.

In the case of Peru, we had to deal with storms so powerful they caused a major disruption throughout the country. Our client needed to get the realities into the hands of their sellers.

CASE STUDY: FLOODING IN PERU

A series of massive storms sacked the country of Peru. These storms caused horrific mudslides that wiped out roads and killed dozens.

Bad stuff.

For those traveling in country, this was not only going to be a major issue, but it could also be life threatening. Informing advisors of the situation and helping them get in touch with their clients was critical.

The Peruvian government jumped to action getting TravPRO an accurate description of what was going on and what areas to avoid, along with plans to help.

In hours, that information was pushed to thousands of their best-selling advisors, PeruAgent Specialists. They engaged with the info and more importantly were able to connect with their clients.

The result: this timely information allowed over three thousand selling Specialists to be in the know, and work proactively to save dozens of bookings in jeopardy of being lost.

Additionally, these specialists were able to get ahead of the difficult situation to either reaffirm an existing booking and/ or provide options for re-routing passengers if needed.

And once the damaged roads had been repaired, and all was re-opened safely… the flooding information was taken down, and conveyed that Peru was back.

All of this was able to happen in real time…to keep up with the demands of business.

The same thing happened with California and the fires.. and floods.  Our European clients with volcanic activity disrupting flights. Canada wildfires and smoke hazards most recently

The bottom line is this…

In travel there will always issues that flare up. And when they do, the strategy and tactics need to be in place to keep advisors plugged into what is going on.

They deserve to know because they are your partner. Not knowing what’s happening will cost you money.

Having an additional communication channel outside the noise of the inbox is now critical to best serve those who are serving you by booking your destination and products in a world with a lot of options.

That’s just good business.

Thanks for taking your time, and enjoy some of my other posts in the blog.