Increasing customer conversion through bespoke software for a leading UK travel company

One of the UK’s leading travel companies.

Over the past twelve months, the client has handled £5.8 million of online bookings.

Between August 2017 and August 2018, 564,000 unique customers entered the holiday booking process on the client’s website.

As a leading travel company, the client specialises in holiday bookings for customers wishing to travel to different locations across the world.

However, as the client attracts an older demographic customer who may not feel comfortable completing the booking process online, it was noted that conversions were not as high as otherwise may be expected. Therefore, the client was looking for a way in which they could follow up with customers offline – preferably by telephone. They were specifically looking to contact the customers who had entered the booking process but may have “got stuck” or those who were simply just looking for more information.

The client was looking for a bespoke system which not only capture the relevant customer details but would enable the sales teams to make personal contact during quiet periods. The system also needed to allow full reporting capabilities for the sales teams after contact had been made.  

Due to the complex nature of the challenge, there was no ‘off the shelf’ product available, therefore the client needed something which was bespoke for their needs.

• To create a system which would capture customers personal data and enable the client’s sales team to make personal follow ups offline.
• To create a system which would log all customer enquiries in one place along with the customer’s specific preferences, allowing for greater customer service.
• To enable the sales team to record all details in a consistent way producing comprehensive, consistent and detailed reporting.
• To integrate the final platform into the company’s existing systems.

We worked closely with the client’s Marketing Director to establish the key requirements which would need to be incorporated into the final system.

Firstly, we needed to establish how much time the sales team would be able to commit to these personal outbound calls and determine which key metrics would need to be captured and reported on.

We produced a detailed specification which was developed in conjunction with the sales team leaders, allowing confidence that the team would have full buy-in with the new system.

The result was a fully integrated system which allowed the sales team to easily capture the customers name and telephone number as soon as they entered the booking engine. We also implemented a dedicated call back window which appeared when it detected a user’s intention to leave the client’s website. This allowed customers the opportunity to officially request a dedicated call back from the sales team at a mutually convenient time.  

It was important that the system allowed the sales teams to offer greater levels of customer service to its audience. Thanks to a dedicated Online Booking Abandonment Conversion (OBAC) system, the sales team were able to log the customer’s specific preferences and requests which enabled them to tailor their call backs related to that customer’s needs.

The system was easy to use and worked in accordance with the sales team’s processes. For instance, once a record was marked as “call started”, it would automatically lock down and only provide access to that particular agent. Not only did this adhere to privacy regulations, but it also ensured that the customer would not receive multiple calls from different members of the sales team.

Reporting was made simple. Once the outbound call was finished, the record was given a specific status – customer unable to be contacted/customer chose not to book/customer completed a booking over the phone. These statuses allowed the client to record the details in a consistent way, enabling them to provide detailed and comprehensive reports.

Finally, the new system was fully integrated into the client’s existing systems which reduced the need for additional login details and further supported the sales team buy-in.

The delivery of the project was swift.

The development of the specification and engaging with the sales team took two weeks, with development concluding four weeks later.

The client was pleased with the system and have noted that employee productivity has increased.

Due to the commission-based nature of the business, the sales team have actively used their quieter times to log into the OBAC system and make further outbound calls. They understand that successful conversions will directly increase their own commission as well as boosting revenue and bookings for the business.

• The client has been able to gain deeper understanding into the reasons why a customer may not complete a booking online and has been able to adjust the booking process accordingly.
• Thanks to the increased number of conversions, the client has boosted revenue and number of bookings.
• Since the initial implementation of the system, it has been expanded and is consistently used every single day by the sales team.

• Between August 2017 – August 2018, the system resulted in an additional £1.17m revenue generated as a direct result of these personalised outbound calls.
• 16% of all outbound calls resulted in a customer booking.

Struggling to find off-the-shelf software that ticks all your boxes? Talk to us today. Call 0844 736 2747 or find more ways to contact us.