BLOG – THE BENEFITS OF SPECIALIST TRAVEL OUTSOURCING

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Back office processes can easily escalate to the point that they become cumbersome, resource hungry and costly. Whilst an increasing back office workload often means more business coming in, travel companies should not be in a position where they can’t support their own growth. But when this does happen, however positive the circumstances, it’s imperative that the right strategy is employed in response.travel outsourcing

GO OUTSOURCED
The main challenge for potential clients when it comes to their back office processes, is finding the right staff to carry out these tasks. They see it as a “way in”, soon get bored, and look to move. All the while productivity starts to diminish and the incidence of errors increases, which can be costly and time consuming. Also, keeping pace with the volume of changes can have a marked impact on speed to market and sales generally.

 

GO SPECIALIST
A Google search for outsourcing services will return thousands of results from BPO specialists offering their services. Whilst these may seem to tick some boxes, travel companies should be wary that the areas in which they require assistance are best performed by industry specialists. Processes such as hotel contract loading, handling stop sales, updating special offers and price bench marking, managing supplier payments and invoice reconciliation, flight ticketing and auditing, and managing web content are often specific to travel and require certain specialisms to be dealt with. So a change in that Google search to ‘Travel Outsourcing’ or ‘Travel BPO’ is much recommended.

 

GO DEDICATED
Your outsourced team should be as much of an extension of your own as possible. If you’re a travel company then your team should be experienced in your industry whether they work directly for you or not. Your outsourced team should also work exclusively for you and only on your processes. This promotes efficiency and puts you safe in the knowledge that your chosen BPO provider is looking after your business as if it were their own. Make sure you have the opportunity to send member(s) of your in-house team to consistently oversee your outsourced team and provide them with any training you think they need to succeed.

 

GO PROVEN
Any decision to take your administrative processes offsite should not be taken lightly. Look for a travel outsourcing specialist with a proven track record of speed, communication and accuracy working on processes similar to your own. Choose an outsourcing company with solid and well defined processes of their own in place. For example, transparency and regular reporting are a must.

 

At Open Destinations our outsourcing teams work with 99.8% accuracy and with any reservation system – including our own Travel Studio software.  With demonstrable 30% productivity improvements for clients including the likes of  Jet 2, Carrier, Destinology, Best at Travel, Travel Counsellors, Dnata, Travel 2, JAC Travel and Letsgo2, Open Destinations is the leading travel BPO specialist.

“Open Destinations are a valuable extension of our team in the UK, offering us a high quality service that helps us manage our processes and speed to market” – Deborah Windle,  Managing Director – Destinology

To learn more about how Open Destinations can improve your travel company’s back office efficiency and deliver 50% in cost savings email [email protected].

Manuel Mascarenhas is the Business Development Director of BPO at Open Destinations