TA productivity tool ‘an idea whose time has come’ - Abacus
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
With the region’s travel agencies already feeling the pinch of a steep downturn in travel, many are now turning to a new frontier, productivity, in the battle to remain competitive.
With so many factors in the external market outside their control, the agents are naturally turning to those factors that are more within their power to influence said Robert Bailey, President and CEO of Abacus International.
“Historically, the travel industry has been saddled with an image of being labour-intensive with relatively low productivity… This is now beginning to change as the pressure comes on and travel agents reach for the arsenal of new tools the industry has developed to improve productivity,” Bailey said.
Bailey added that the company’s most recent survey of more than 40 leading travel agents in the North Asia markets of China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan showed almost 40% of these companies identifying ‘Business Process Automation’ as the single best way for global travel distributors such as Abacus to help their businesses ride out the current financial crisis.
“As well as reducing ongoing operating costs, the new generation of productivity tools enable the travel agency staff to focus on what’s really important - connecting person-to-person with the customer.
“Going forward, those wanting to retain and win customers will have to work much harder on all aspects of client servicing to justify the fees they charge which is where the use of productivity tools to free up resources becomes important,” Bailey said.
Comments are closed.