The new TOPCALL solution allows the travel agency Hotelplan to communicate with its customers via SMS. This pleases the customers and reduces the mobile telephone costs by 90%.
Who would not like to receive a message saying that his holiday will start tomorrow? This possibility for customer retention is one of the pleasing side-effects of the solution that TOPCALL has realised for the Swiss-based international travel agency Hotelplan AG. The employees at Hotelplan used to advise their customers at the travel agency and then phone them as soon as their travel documents were ready to be picked up – this took a lot of effort and time and involved high telephone costs. For this reason, the company was looking for a simpler and cheaper solution to inform its customers. In addition, the solution should work as a customer care tool.
SMS makes it possible
TOPCALL and Hotelplan quickly found the appropriate medium that meets all requirements: SMS. The solution was seamlessly integrated with the existing SAP booking system. Every SMS message is customisable and may be used as a customer retention tool as well as an information tool. For instance SMS messages with standard texts such as "Happy Birthday" or "Welcome back" are sent to the customers directly from the SAP system.
Transparent costs
The transparency of the cost structure is an important advantage: unlike phone calls, every SMS has a fixed price – irrespective of the length of the message or the time it is sent. The SMS tool is also used for the purposes of internal server monitoring: In case a default occurs, the technicians are now reliably and cost-efficiently informed via SMS.
Enthusiastic feedback
The customers are excited about this practical solution. In one case, a traveller who had just received a “Welcome back” SMS paid a spontaneous visit to the travel agency to tell them all about his holidays. The Hotelplan employees are more motivated as routine phone calls or short inquiries now only take an uncomplicated SMS. The cost savings are sensational: An SMS is transmitted within a fraction of the time needed to make a telephone call and only costs a hundredth of the phone fees (0,15 CHF instead of 15 CHF).