Quite naturally, there are countless numbers of questions a
traveler or tourist asks when planning a trip. How is the weather there? Will I
get internet facility? What kind of hotels included in the package? Are there
restaurants for vegans? And, the questions are as diverse as our lifestyles and
cultures. By adding live chat support
to your website, you gain a competitive edge over others because you provide
direct customer support and personalized answers to their specific questions in
real time.
Live chat is nothing but an instant messenger service
through which you can provide instant customer support and information.
Here are some advantages of online chat for travel and
tourism business.
Speed up
decision-making and thereby bookings
People who intend to travel usually start doing research
online before they settle on a destination or travel package. And especially
leisure tourists go into planning the choice for car rental, air travel,
hotels, cruises and vacation packages. Live chat opens a direct communication
opportunity with such potential customers. Your prompt reply navigates them to a
direction where they can take decisions or clear out confusions if any. Hotels,
travel planners, travel agents, ticket booking firms and other tourism related
service providers can use live chat
customer service to drive customers’ curiosity and excite them to the level
of making a purchase through their website.
Cross-sell offers and
travel packages in real time
When your customer wants to book a room with a view directly
with the hotel, you can approach the customer and tempt him with a much better
room with a view of the mountains or sunrise. Then you may approach him with
Deluxe or rooms with superior amenities. Most customers don’t mind switching
from “moderate” to “amazing” experience for a few extra dollars. So, the
central idea is, when you chat with your customers, you will know what they
want or their priorities and can propose packages accordingly. The best time to
convince travelers to buy more is when they have not yet booked the trip.
Give you more direct
bookings if you have hotel business
Online travel companies like Expedia or Opodo direct many
potential customers to the hotel’s website. If they make the booking through
OTAs, then the hotel has to pay the commission fees. But, if you can convince
the customer to book directly with the hotel when s/he visits the hotel’s
website, then the profit margins are higher. So, every time, any potential
customer enters your website, you provide live chat support and respond to customer’s queries faster. For that you need to
add live chat tool on hotel website.
Never go out of mind
for prospective customers
Prospective travelers may forget the name of a hotel or
travel company they came across in Google, but they can remember the specific
conversations they had with a live chat
customer service agent. You can also remember the prospective customer and
nurture as leads.
You can easily keep a combined record of all website
visitors, their interactions with chat agents and the links visited by them.
You can follow up through other mediums like social media or email newsletters
campaign by using this data.
