Are you in the travel and hospitality business, striving to enhance global support? Imagine offering round-the-clock assistance to your global clientele, leveraging the latest in cloud telephony.
Travel companies face the critical challenge of providing exceptional, uninterrupted customer service to a global audience. But how do you maintain high-quality support across various regions and time zones effectively and cost-efficiently?
By building a global phone service that efficiently routes calls from traveling customers to the right agent at the right time. From understanding diverse customer expectations to offering multilingual IVR support to optimizing outbound calling efforts, the possibilities for enhancing global customer satisfaction are endless.
In this article, we’ll go over the different ways travel companies can offer 24/7 global customer support using cloud telephony solutions, including:
- Getting international phone numbers
- Leveraging advanced routing features
- Organizing custom call flows
- Using global support strategies
- Optimizing outbound calling campaigns, and more.
Cloud Phone Solutions for Travel
The travel industry encompasses diverse businesses, including travel agencies, hotels, transport services, ecotourism ventures, and more. But the common denominator is the need for exceptional, responsive, and, at times, global customer support.
One way to achieve this is by offering round-the-clock customer support. Doing so meets the needs of travelers from different regions across time zones. Cloud telephony solutions can help set up a state-of-the-art 24/7 global support system for travel companies.
What Cloud Telephony Helps With?
Cloud telephony allows you to connect with customers across different regions and time zones virtually. And call management features like international call forwarding and routing lets traveling customers reach you, regardless of your or their physical location.
You can also set up multilingual support options so that when travelers call your business, the automated IVR system greets them and provides language options to choose the language in which they need support. Based on their selection, the call routes to the most appropriate agent or department.
Certain advanced IVR systems can also provide self-service options for travelers. This can include options for common inquiries, such as booking status or account and flight information, allowing callers to resolve their queries without agent assistance.
How to Offer 24/7 Global Support as a Travel and Hospitality Company
There are several ways in which travel companies leverage VoIP to offer 24/7 support to their global customers. Here are some of our recommendations:
1. Find a Global Telephony Provider
First and foremost, you’ll need a global telephony provider that can cover the target regions where your customers reside or travel to. This phone service provider must be able to offer all the solutions you need—from global phone coverage to call management features—to centralize communication across multiple locations and platforms.
Doing so will help you streamline operations and provide consistent customer experiences worldwide. And by consolidating communication services onto a single platform, you can manage customer interactions more smoothly.
From international numbers to high-quality voice calling, your global telephony service provider can equip you with solutions to enter the global stage.
2. Get International Phone Numbers
Extend your voice coverage and establish a local presence in target countries with in-country international phone numbers. This includes using local and toll-free options that are accessible and cost-effective for traveling customers. These virtual numbers enable you to enter different countries without a physical presence. By making it easy for customers to reach your business, you show your dedication to helping them.
For instance, a US-based tour agency can get virtual numbers for popular tourist destinations like Singapore or Japan. By offering toll-free number options, travelers visiting these countries can easily reach the agency for assistance without incurring charges.
EaseMyTrip, a global travel service provider, used Global Call Forwarding to consolidate global telephony with local numbers from 6 countries. By doing so, they were able to offer uninterrupted support for international clients while accessing real-time call data and management settings through the control panel.
3. Leverage Advanced Routing
Once your global phone numbers are set up, you can use advanced routing features to provide 24/7 support. Most cloud phone service providers offer different types of routing features and strategies. We recommend businesses use time-of-day routing and geo-routing to provide global support.
With time-based routing, you route calls according to the time of the day or day of the week. If a customer calls outside of your regular business hours, you can send the call to another location, such as a team in a different time zone or backup call center.
With location-based routing, you can direct customer inquiries based on the caller’s geographical location or their caller ID. So, a Spain customer calling for assistance is automatically routed to the European service center. Agents there are available during local business hours and speak the customer’s language. This ensures that customers receive localized support from agents who understand their needs, enhancing the overall customer experience.
By pairing these routing strategies, your business can adopt a follow-the-sun support model, becoming available to customers 24/7.
Crystal Cruises found that many customer inquiries were reaching their US-based reservation office after hours due to time zone differences. This led to missed calls, delayed responses, and lost sales opportunities. They used virtual phone numbers to forward calls to a local support center in Cyprus, ensuring that customers could receive prompt assistance during Gulf Standard Time.
4. Create Custom Call Flows
Now, when you’re juggling multiple phone numbers and countries, call handling can get tricky. To ensure efficiency, you’ll need to create tailored call flows for different regions and requests to cover core touchpoints in the customer journey. That’s where IVR and auto attendant systems come in handy. You can use these tools to redirect inquiries to the appropriate departments, such as bookings, check-ins, or complaints.
For instance, at the booking assistance level, customers may have questions about available destinations, pricing, package deals, or special accommodations. Once you have identified the various possible inquiries, you can design a multi-level IVR system that guides callers through various options. Something like: “Press 1 for Destinations,” “Press 2 for Pricing and Packages,” etc. Each option leads to a different branch of the call flow, directing the caller to the appropriate and available agent.
This way, a call flow builder and multi-level IVR systems can create personalized communication systems to assist customers, regardless of the time of the day.
5. Use Global Support Strategies
24/7 global support strategies range from using VoIP features to distributing workforce. Here are strategies to consider:
- Establish a network of global and regional contact centers or leverage remote agents in different time zones to provide round-the-clock support.
- Train agents to understand, distinguish, and respect cultural differences when working with global customers.
- Ensure smooth handoffs across different regional teams with proper documentation within a CRM or help desk software.
- Use IVR to automate responses to common FAQs and redirect or provide self-service options for callers. For instance, directing travelers to the best websites for booking flights can empower them to find quick solutions on their own. This lets your caller independently get the help they need swiftly.
- Utilize multilingual IVR systems to cater to callers who speak different languages. Provide prompts and menu options in multiple languages, allowing callers to select their preferred language for assistance and then route them to teams located in those regions.
- Use translation features like voicemail translation and call recording translation to increase comprehension and accessibility, leading to efficient follow-up and resolution. Check out our guide on how to translate voicemail in your preferred language.
Learn more in our guide to global customer support strategies.
6. Prepare for High Call Volumes
Anticipate peak travel seasons and prepare for high call volumes using automated routing tools for self-service and escalation. With these tools, you can:
- Reduce wait times
- Distribute workload efficiently among agents and teams
- Enable customers to resolve simple inquiries on their own
- Free up your support staff to handle more complex issues and handle every call with care
- Set up backup support options during high call periods, and so on.
Design an escalation matrix within your IVR and ACD systems for callers who require further assistance. This makes sure high-priority inquiries are attended in a timely manner.
7. Optimize Outbound Calling
Outbound calls with recognizable caller ID, such as your local business number, are more likely to be answered. This is because travelers may be wary of answering calls from unknown or unfamiliar numbers due to concerns about potential scams or unsolicited marketing calls.
By using and displaying local phone numbers, you can streamline the follow-up process, making it easier for your agents to engage with missed connections. Local numbers will also encourage more return calls (callbacks) from customers.
8. Integrate with CRM
Adding cloud telephony to CRM systems allows your support agents to access comprehensive customer profiles. They can:
- Access real-time booking information and purchase history,
- Assist with reservations and queries, and
- Review customer preferences and interactions.
With this information, your agents can personalize the support experience without needing to catch up on the call. They can address customers by name and anticipate their needs based on past interactions. Plus they can add notes and make and receive calls directly from the CRM interface. This reduces the need for customers to repeat information, enter data manually, or toggle multiple platforms.
VoIP CRM integration systems provide valuable insights into customer behavior, trends, and preferences. You can analyze call data, customer interactions, and booking patterns to identify opportunities for improvement and refine marketing strategies.
How Can GCF Help?
Cloud telephony solutions can greatly help in offering 24/7 global support. Pair these with your customer support strategies, and you can improve customer experiences across the board.
Global Call Forwarding has been helping businesses across industries worldwide with top-notch cloud telephony solutions. We can help you design a global support system with our advanced calling solutions.
Want to see how we can help your travel business? Call us or chat with us online today!
