The 2 Alternative Communication Channels that Every Traveler Should Know About
Communication, according to Webster’s Dictionary is the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information to an individual. It’s also a message that is given to someone. Every day we communicate with one another whether we’re at home or at work. We exchange information directly to people all the time in hopes that they can receive the message without any clutters in the way. Now, you’re wondering why I’m bringing this word up in my article. It’s because as a Travel Management Company, communicating to our clients is really critical especially when we have clients that need rebooking for their trips. Lots of critical things can happen when we have clients that are traveling all over the world. In fact, when they’re in trouble the first thing that they do is call our agency for assistance. I’ve mentioned before in one of my articles titled, “No Call Center? No Problem! Why Call Centers are a Waste of Time for Travelers,” about how large travel management companies (TMCs) typically have remote call centers, in which they have different lines for their clients’ different issues and it can cause a client to get lost and not receive the proper help right away. These remote call centers can also cause miscommunications between the TMC and their clients which isn’t good at all. Now if you were to call one of our travel agents right now, within three rings they will pick up the phone and help you out right away. No barriers no clutter just a straight direct connection. Sounds good, right? Well, even though the telephone is still an effective communication channel used by every traveler to contact their travel agent, when it comes to the amount of calls ringing into the agency it can sometimes be a challenge for travelers to get a hold of their travel agent.
The most commonly used communication channel that every traveler will use to contact their agent is by the phone. How do I know this? It’s because every day at the office, our phones ring pretty much on a continuous basis throughout the day. Problem is when the phones keep ringing and ringing, it can then be hard for our clients to get a hold of one of our agents. It can depend on the time of day as well. Most travelers think that the phone is the best and only way to get into contact with their agent. However, when you’re on your trip thousands of miles away from home, it can sometimes be difficult to connect. There are two other communication channels that no traveler would ever think about using and they can just be as effective like the phone, and I want to share with you these two alternative communication channels that can help you get into contact with a travel agent in case the phone isn’t working out for you.
Email:
Email is something that most of our clients know about and use especially when they’re booking their reservations with one of our travel agents. Even though the booking is completed in short time, still there are people that don’t think that they can still book their reservations or get help by just emailing their travel agent. Wait a minute, email might be good and all but wouldn’t the response time be slow? Well, actually no and let me explain why. For example, here at EWA Travel our travel agents will respond to a traveler’s email within 30 minutes. Each of our travel counselors have their own individual email addresses, and we do provide a listing of those travel counselors’ email addresses that are assigned to a particular client. In addition of using email, we have the ability to customize a reservation email for any of our corporate, leisure, or NGO travelers. In fact, travelers have the ability to make their reservations through a generic reservations email address which is hern@ewatravel.com. We can even make a special email address for a client and it can be formatted like this for example TheGrace&PeaceFoundation@ewatravel.com. This special email address can then be routed to our travel counselors that are assigned to that client. This email address can even be programmed for re-routing to an alternate service representative when the main assigned agents are not available. Even though email might take a little bit longer than calling an agent to get immediate assistance, you can still continue to receive that same fast and direct help from them.
Skype:
This is another communication channel that most travelers don’t really think about using when they’re in trouble, especially if they’re not getting good reception from their phones. Skype is a cloud based Internet software application where people can talk face-to-face to each other. Not only does Skype allow users to communicate face-to-face with a camera they can also talk to one another without the camera. Not only can you download this app on your laptop or desktop computer, you can also download it on your mobile phone and tablet as well (not to mention it’s free to download from the Google Play and Apps Stores). You can actually talk to a travel agent over Skype for free and still get your reservations or rebooking’s done for your trip. If you’re someone who is very tech savvy then this is an app that you can use when you want to talk to an agent to get help. And even if you’re not tech savvy, this is still a great app for you to use especially if you’re traveling internationally.
Email and Skype are the two best alternative communication channels that you can use to contact a travel counselor. The phone is the most common and traditional communication channel that everybody relies on the most for booking their reservations and getting help from an agent but when the phones are ringing non-stop during peak calling hours or you can’t get good reception on the road, then you should have another option to contact a travel agent to let them know that you need assistance.
Most places make it hard for their clients to get in contact with one of their staff members, but here we value each of our clients’ needs and we want them to have as many options as possible to be able to reach us if they are in need. Not to mention we don’t have any barriers in the way. Traveling can be challenge for anyone and it’s because most of the time things don’t go as according to plan. So it’s important for all travelers to have as many options to communicate to their agent especially when they’re in trouble and need help right away.
Paul Kacoyanis
Director, Social Media Marketing, EWA Travel