Despite the expectation and positive uptrend, there is no absolute certainty when it is safe for us to book our next flight due to the ongoing border openings and closings as the virus evolves.  This means businesses in the travel industry face continual peaks and troughs in their workload in these uncertain times.  

BPO in the travel industry

During severe economic disruptions, businesses begin to tackle their attention to the largest expense item, people. Rapidly trimming the workforce is one of the survival reflexes and has been essential due to the severity of the reduction in travel demand around the globe. However, with the prediction of greater demand in travel this year, businesses still have to be able to deal with the number of tasks at hand as business improves even when their resources are compromised and they are not able to scale quickly and cost-effectively.  

Generally outsourcing, regardless of the function, reduces costs, increases efficiency and improves your product or service offering. In the travel industry, outsourcing is a common practice due to its flexible nature. During this unprecedented time, outsourcing gives the option to scale cost-effectively and allow you to utilise and reallocate your limited internal resources more effectively. 

There are a number of benefits that BPO can offer your business in these uncertain times, some key examples include: 

1. Experienced Professionals at your deployment 

Every hospitality business's top priority is service quality and customer satisfaction. By having professionals that are familiar with industry service standards and possess the know-how in your operational team, you will be able to deliver exceptional services and exceed customers' expectations.

Outsourcing your operation to BPO also means less hassle in recruiting, training and retaining your operation team. Since outsourced staff are employed by the BPO and not your company, your overhead will also reduce significantly, but your business will still be able to adapt to demand and growth in real-time with minimal inconvenience. 

2. Advanced Automated Systems to streamline your processes

Any airline delay or cancellation involves the processing of a large number of PNRs within a short period. To cater to the passenger requests and needs in a timely manner, it becomes imperative for airlines and agencies to manage their queues process efficiently and accurately.

Robots or digital workers are expensive to build and maintain but provide an incredibly efficient means to automate highly repetitive tasks like these.  BPO firms have invested heavily in this technology and make great partners from which to leverage this technology and its application in your business.  

3. Live Customer Support

With so many last-minute updates and changes, your customer support will be flooded with queries. Companies then will try to rely on chatbots to reach as many customers and resolve their issues in a short time. Unfortunately, not everything can be solved with automation. Bots are still limited and not always suitable to handle certain situations. Most might not be able to give customers answers beyond what they’ve specifically been taught to say. 

To achieve the best performance for customer’s satisfaction, your business will need a combination of both technology and professional talent. Outsourcing your customer support will give you the option to scale your specific support needs in a cost-efficient way whilst delivering the quality of service that you and your clients expect. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about the physical overhead of maintaining staff, office space and equipment.

About ATI

Businesses need to find the right BPO provider to work in partnership with that can enable them to achieve the right mix of skills, technology, and scalability, to proactively address their business challenges effectively.

At ATI we know travel.  We are focused on only providing outsourcing services and technology to the travel industry across the globe.  As a customer, you will only ever be working with a team that understands the world in which you operate as we have thousands of years of travel experience.

Our clients leverage our industry-specific skills and technology to take advantage of new opportunities for their business.  Our flexible and competitively priced service models also mean they only pay for capacity as needed and no job is too small or too large.