7 Ways VoIP Benefits Travel Agencies

Communication is an important part of running any enterprise but even more so with travel agencies. Effective, efficient, and reliable communication is how you provide the best travel experiences for your clients. That’s why every travel business must have dependable and high-quality phone systems. VoIP providers enable excellent communications with customers, reduce expenses, and enhance an organization’s productivity. This article will help you understand how to choose a VoIP provider for your travel agency. VoIP stands for Voice over IP (Internet Protocol) and is a method for delivering voice communications over the Internet. People work with travel agencies to ensure their trips are a more rewarding experience. Hence, travelers always need information that they expect your travel agency to provide. Clients will often call-in to ask questions about nearby attractions, suitable accommodations, and amenities at their destinations. Not to mention other inquiries like travel expenses, car rentals, airfare, all-inclusive packages, and much more. Clearly, communication with consumers is constant, and especially during peak travel seasons like summer, for travel agencies. That means your call volume is typically higher than most. The best VoIP service(s) can manage massive incoming and outgoing call volumes more efficiently than traditional telephone systems. Internet phone service providers offer travel agencies more flexibility and seamless communications with their clients. Here are some key reasons why you should consider switching to Internet phone service providers.

1. Lower Cost

You can significantly lower your operating costs by using a VoIP phone system. VoIP eliminates the need to set up and maintain an in-house foundation or rely on traditional outdoor phone infrastructure. That means fewer capital expenditures and recurring monthly fees. Companies also save an average of 75 percent in long distance fees using VoIP according to a Vonage study. Most VoIP providers use the cloud to offer their services. So you’ll be shifting IT maintenance and management cost to your VoIP provider via cloud technology. Also, say goodbye to ever needing a separate network infrastructure for additional phones due to how VoIP operates.

2. Flexibility With VoIP Providers

There’s more freedom to control how a VoIP phone system runs, which is important for travel agencies. You can pick and choose only the features that best serve your organization. Tools like 3-way calling, anonymous call-blocking or video conferencing that normally requires a considerable investment with traditional phone systems are affordable with VoIP. Here’s an example. Vonage is a VoIP provider that offers all of the aforementioned features and more for less than the price of a gym membership. They’re considered one of the best VoIP for small business. So you’re free to choose all available features or just the ones your enterprise will use, including the freedom to upgrade/add features later. Such as easily adding additional phone lines or channels as your travel agency grows.

3. Redundancy Measures

You run the risk of losing money whenever an unexpected outage occurs with traditional phone systems. Imagine losing your phone systems and having to wait for hours or even days for the city to rectify the problem. That’s guaranteed to be a nightmare for any travel agency. However, a VoIP phone system makes it easy to set up redundancy measures or plan for outages in advance. For instance, you can set up call routing or redirection plans that’ll reduce the impact of outages on your business. Ideally, each of your locations should have a routing plan where the ones online will immediately start accepting calls for those offline. Your VoIP provider can easily set this up for you.

4. Increased Productivity

Internet phone systems offers travel agencies amazing convenience. VoIP enables access to the phone system remotely so you can work on the go. You can receive and make calls from practically anywhere on the planet and sometimes, at no additional cost. You’ll typically have to install the VoIP provider’s app and have a headset on-hand. Several top VoIP phone service includes a mobile application. All in all, this helps travel agents be more effective at their work. They can easily connect and engage clients from any location, which improves customer relations. VoIP ensures your employees have access to the tools they need around-the-clock and 24/7. Also, your organization doesn’t need any special equipment to facilitate collaboration between teams. That’s because the best VoIP for small business or larger enterprise supports advanced collaboration tools like video conferencing, shared screen sessions, etc.

5. Automate Some Customer Assistance

As previously noted, travel agencies receive tons of customer inquiries. Fortunately, you can automate some of that with VoIP such as pre-programming answers to frequently asked questions. This will no doubt alleviate the workload and improve your entire travel agency’s responsiveness. You’ve probably seen it in action before and many prominent banks use this capability. Highly advanced VoIP systems can even listen to inquiries and automatically provide answers without the customer pushing a button. VoIP automated phone features streamline workflow and improve productivity.

6. Affordable Hardware or Software

You may be concerned about additional hardware or software cost if your travel agency switches to VoIP. However, switching to VoIP doesn’t require hardware replacements and there’s typically no need to purchase new devices or software. This is because VoIP can work with your existing phone equipment. Additionally, the vast majority of VoIP providers don’t require specialized installation and setup to get you going. For instance, RingCentral provides organizations like yours with a complete cloud business phone solution that demands ZERO additional hardware and/or software installation.

7. Better Long Distance or International Rates

Many VoIP providers offer low long-distance rates or include them in packages for free. Though long-distance or international rates will vary among VoIP providers. Some offer pay-as-you-go rates or a flat monthly fee. Jive, a leading VoIP service provider offers different low-cost long distance/international rates. They’re one of the best VoIP phone service regarding international rates.

How to Choose a VoIP Provider

Travel agencies deal with customers over the phone a lot, making it easy to drive the cost through the roof. But as we’ve discussed, there are many ways VoIP can help business communication and profits. VoIP offers travel agencies great flexibility, increased productivity, protection, and the ability to leverage automation in addition to cutting cost. To further aid your search, take some time to look at our reviews of the best VoIP providers to make a sound decision for your business.