Applying Cable Company tactics to your Travel Business
Posted by John Broaddus on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 @ 10:44 AM
I talk to travel agents pretty much every week. Whether it is existing customers or new customers whom we are trying to sell, I constantlyhear the same two things: either they have absolutely no technology, or they have a medleyof technology from multiple vendors. Other than the very small agencies, it always blows my mind to talk to larger agencies that don’t have a mid-office solution. How can they think that doing things manually is the way to go? I get the “it’s the way we’ve always done it” or the “if it ain’t broke don’t fit it” arguments. However, most of the times things are “broken”. The agency just doesn’t know it. But that’s a story for another time.
This post is about those agencies that have technology. In fact, they have too much of it. Well, not really too much of it, but too much from too many different vendors. Why does that matter you ask? Perhaps this anecdote will illustrate the point I am trying to make.
Not too long ago, I made the decision to switch from my cable company, Comcast where I had “the bundle” (TV, phone, and internet) to DirecTV, and AT&T for my internet and phone service. After about a week, I noticed that my on demand service was not working (on demand is like pay-per-view). With Comcast, the on demand started the moment you bought the movie…they stream it directly to your TV. With DirecTV, you have to wait for the movie to be downloaded before you can watch it (something they conveniently forgot to tell me when I signed up). To make a VERY long story short, after many calls to DirecTV customer support, they finally came to the conclusion that my problem was not their problem. It was either my internet connection or my router or both or none of them. Either way they were convinced it was not their fault. So, I called AT&T (the company DirecTV partners with for internet) and they said “everything’s working fine on our end” and that it was either the cable company or the router (and they are not authorized to give me any help on the router since they didn’t put it in). Needless to say, my blood was boiling at this point. Against my better judgment, I decided to call the manufacturer of my router. You guessed it. They ran some tests and my router checked out. According to them, it had to be a problem with my internet (AT&T) or with my DirectTV service. One thing I didn’t mention is that each of the service providers, AT&T and DirecTV, had several pieces of equipment installed in my house; the actual problem could have been in one of 8 different pieces of equipment or services.
ARGHHHHH! This back and forth went on for a month. I finally got so frustrated that I yanked the services all together and went back to Comcast and my bundle. Yes, that’s right, I paid a $400 early termination fee with DirecTV and went back to the cable company! The reason wasn’t because my pay-per-view didn’t work. It was because when I have a problem with anything having to do with my TV, phone, or internet, I simply call one number and get it sorted out. Since they control everything, they can’t conveniently blame a third party (and yes, they even help troubleshoot my router).
I tried so save money by getting multiple companies to deliver my services. In the long run, it ended up costing me more money, time, and headaches. So it is with trying to work with too many technology vendors. I understand that as an agency, you want to offer your customers choices. So, working with several booking tool vendors makes sense. However, when it comes to technology involved in agency operations (back office, mid-office, profile management, reporting, etc), you really don’t need to have three, four, or five different vendors.
Look for technology partners who can provide bundledsolutions. For example, TRX not only provides a mid-office solution, CORREX, for QC functions, but included with CORREX is auto-ticketing, low-fare search, seat assignment, and document delivery. If you purchase all of these from TRX, you not only get an integrated solution, you also get the benefits of bundled pricing. So, whether it’s your TV, phone, and internet or your agency operations technology, take a look at vendors who can bundle. Not only will it save you money, but a lot of headaches in the long run.