Travel Agent Software Needs Flexibility

[Glenn Dean]

The internet has changed the way that the world researches and shops for everything from clothing to cruises. The ability for consumers to shop online means retailers now have the opportunity to sell their products or services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Today's online retailer virtually never closes their doors!

So today's travel agent software must be designed to provide the flexibility to serve these 24/7/365 consumers when and how they choose. You'll need an application that allows your travel business to serve customers via multiple channels including Business to Business (B2B) for those consumers that still like to speak with a travel agent call center to discuss and book their travel arrangements. For consumers shopping online, you'll need an easy to use Business to Consumer (B2C) online booking engine, but make sure it is a mobile ready so you can easily serve consumers using any device, including their smartphone.

The internet has also made the world a smaller place for retailers and the travel industry is no exception. No longer limited by “brick and mortar” store fronts, today's travel agent can serve customers anywhere in the world with the right travel agent software. Those who are looking to reach Latino consumers may want to consider an online booking engine that has multi-language capabilities so they interact with these customers online in Spanish. For those looking to expand beyond their country's boarder, the online booking engine needs to easily support multiple currency types. It will also need to consider any local requirements and regulations for online commerce in a specific market.

Your travel agent software will also need the flexibility to easily define business rules and promotions for each specific market so you can easily take advantage of market specific deals and promotions. Easy to use business rules will allow you to manage and localize what your customers are offered in each market. Choosing an online booking solution that has the flexibility to quickly define business rules using a wide variety of criteria can help any size business compete with even the largest online retailers.

The ability to quickly and easily customize a sub-website's “Look & Feel”, including unique headers and footers for each can be a powerful tool when working with an affiliated agency or group. Flexibility to choose the language or currency used as well as products offered can be critical to your success in a new market.

So whether you are looking to serve a new customer group, expand your service into new geographic markets or just distribute online to multiple websites, flexibility is key. Flexible & fully scalable applications can help you grow your business to serve new customer groups as well as new easily expand into new geographic markets and still allow your business to maintain it'sown unique brand identity.

Flexibility to grow and expand your business is key when deciding on the right software for your travel agency, choosing the right technology partner can be even more important.

In this article author writes about Odysseus Solutions. So today's travel agent software must be designed to provide the flexibility to serve these 24/7/365 consumers when and how they choose.