Let's start with the tourism sector, which has probably been affected earlier than others by the pandemic.
Tour operators, airlines, hotels, and booking sites are trying to handle an unprecedented number of requests (cancellations, information, and refunds). Many have confirmed that they are not yet organized to do this as best they can.
Under normal circumstances, standard procedures are a fairly straightforward process, but in an extraordinary case like this, the volume of requests is really substantial and the dynamics vary from case to case. Switchboards are ringing, customers want answers.
"We're getting hundreds of thousands more calls," Sarah Waffle Gavin, vice president for global communications at Expedia, which also includes sites like Orbitz and HomeAway, told the New York Times.
Expedia's call volumes are five to seven times higher than average, in fact picking up thousands more calls than they would normally have received, even during busier times.
How do you support this workload, optimize resources, and help agents better handle all customer inquiries?
If you work in the tourism industry or if you are facing extraordinary demand with your business-think of the GDOs and e-commerce that are going mainstream right now-we want to give you two pieces of advice. Organize your work by integrating a cloud PBX with your Customer Service, here's why.
A cloud PBX such as Aircall (we also use it in power2Cloud), with a customer management system such as Zendesk, optimizes your internal resources and all communications, plus it ensures a better customer experience even in this time of smart working and pandemic.
With these two tools you can manage the number of incoming calls in reasonable time and from any device, you can record conversations, ensure an omnichannel solution (phone, email, chat, Social), monitor business insights and performance of your agents.
Your agents will be able to access each customer's history before each contact, this will facilitate all interactions and save Customers the frustration of repeating themselves.
Also, don't forget that your company can leverage artificial intelligence, including voice Ivr, chatbots and social, to give effective and timely responses to customers while your agents can focus on more complex cases.
One thing is certain, Aircall and Zendesk give continuity and transparency to your work, allow you to customize support services , and automate all first-level processes. So service and sales teams can collaborate in a more connected and productive way.
The integration of Zendesk and Aircall results in:
A cloud PBX like Aircall has countless benefits for both customers and the Company.
Customers don't have to waste time on hold or repeat requests for support, while the Company no longer needs hardware and can work quietly in smart working, responding even from mobile or computer, with the ability to add new agents easily, securely and effectively.
What about Zendesk, a software designed to manage and improve the relationship between Companies and customers.
Using a single platform, your agents can monitor and organize all the communications they receive from customers across all touch points: email, phone calls, chat, Social.
Zendesk and Aircall work perfectly well on their own, but together they can build a meaningful customer experience.