Seamless Travel and Hospitality Bookings using Chat Desk

“Despite the difficulties the sector has been facing, our projections point to a strong decade of growth. Travel & Tourism GDP is set to grow on average by 5.8% annually between 2022 and 2032, outpacing the growth of the overall economy (2.7% per year).” – World Travel and Tourism Council

All the major tourism spots around the globe are noting the same thing – 2022 is the year for travel. The World Travel and Tourism Council anticipates the tourism economy could reach $8.6 trillion this year, almost back to pre-pandemic levels. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation noted that international tourism increased by 182% in the first three months of 2022 compared to 2021 – and it’s only going up.

And this is all completely understandable. Not only have people had to postpone travel plans and major events for three years, but there’s also been a shift in mindset to living life large now. The sentiment? Don’t wait any longer to visit the places and see the sights you’ve dreamed of.

So what does this mean for the travel and hospitality industries? It’s time to get ready for a massive surge in customer inquiries and bookings! To better facilitate this, while ensuring your agents aren’t completely overwhelmed, it’s time to get use Chat Desk If this concept is new to you, then read on to find out what you’re missing!

What is a Chat Desk?

Chat Desk is the  component of the Clickatell Chat Commerce platform, whereby your live agents, using one interface, can communicate with a number of customers across the world – no matter what chat app they’re using. Chat Desk not only enables real-time communication, it allows you to save chat histories for better insight into customer engagement and employee performance

What are the features of Chat Desk?

To give you a better idea of what Chat Desk can do and how it works on a practical level, here’s a look at the features you get with this advanced system.

• Multi-channel capability: Your customers can contact you using WhatsApp or SMS without the need to download a separate app. Messages from customers are delivered straight to Chat Desk with responses sent back from agents for a seamless engagement.

• Customer authentication: When dealing with personal information, it’s vital that you have the correct security measures in place. Chat Desk enables this through second-factor authentication such as one-time pins.

• Reporting dashboards: All customer engagements are tracked in Chat Desk so that you have insightful data on agent performance and customer satisfaction.

• Supervisor view: In addition to dashboards, Chat Desk also lets you monitor real-time agent activity for a superior customer experience

• Conversation management: Using Chat Desk, your agents are able to handle five times the number of conversations than traditional call centres.

• Chat management: Chat Desk allows you to allocate notes and flag chats for agents and supervisors to review for much better engagement.

• Automation: Analysing Chat Desk data you can compile frequently asked questions which can be automated for 24/7 response to customers anywhere in the world.

• Call deflection: Beyond automated responses, Chat Desk has a call deflection feature that re-routes from a phone call to a chat channel so there’s no need to switch over. This drastically reduces customer frustration. 

• Feedback: The only way to really improve customer engagement is by understanding what works and what doesn’t. Nobody knows this better than the customer! Chat Desk allows you to monitor your service through customer surveys. 

• Customisation: Over time, Chat Desk gathers data on customer interaction and allows you to build a profile and better customise the interactions going forward.

So, how is Chat Desk so useful for travel?

All these features make for an incredibly powerful travel and hospitality tool. Here’s an overview of how Chat Desk ensures a seamless travel experience. 

1. Facilitate bookings

Whether you’re running a hotel, airline or tours, you need to facilitate bookings for customers across the globe, simply and effectively. Chat Desk not only lets your customers make and pay for the bookings, it provides them with confirmation details, check-in notifications, flight status updates, boarding passes, seat upgrades, and more. Everything they need to have a great travel experience can be administered by an agent through Chat Desk.

2. Deal with changes or cancellations

Even before the pandemic, the travel industry has always had to contend with delays and cancellations, from extreme weather conditions and strike action to global unrest. While not unexpected, these sudden changes to a travel itinerary can be frustrating and stressful for travelers. Fortunately, Chat Desk can be used by agents to communicate any changes with the customer immediately as well as keeping them updated on the latest plans. This makes travelling much more pleasurable.

3. Opportunity for cross- and up-selling

Chat Deck provides you with a wealth of information on your customer which, when used wisely, can enhance this relationship and improve sales. You know their interests, their location and their budget, which allows you to provide travel suggestions. You can also work with bookings they’ve made to suggest offers that work well with their travel plans – such as shows, restaurants, and events.

4. Quick responses for overwhelmed customers

There are so many tour operators, hotels, and airlines available, it can be quite overwhelming for customers. Add in the fact that they then have to plan complex travel itineraries, and you’ll often find customers getting unnecessarily frazzled. Using Chat Desk, agents can provide the help and guidance customers need, and help them avoid getting lost in the noise of the internet.

5. Fill those empty spots

If you’re in the travel and hospitality industry and are noticing that booking rates are lower than they should be for this time of year, then agents can start enticing customers with last-minute deals and bookings via Chat Desk. People are more likely now than ever to take advantage of those spur-of-the-moment, budget options, and it’s better for you to have spaces filled – even at a lower price.

Don’t waste time and lose out on valuable revenue during peak travel season - implement the Clickatell Chat Commerce platform with  to ensure a seamless booking and travel experience for customers. With Chat Desk, you’re not only communicating with customers on the messaging app they prefer, you’re empowering your business with valuable data for better decision-making in the future.