voice channel
Why Independent Call Centers Often Outshine Hotel Brands
Travel Outlook Hotel Reservation Call Center Services | October 7, 2020
Most hotels have suffered a major decline in sales leads from reliable digital channels. Can the voice channel pick up the slack and drive direct bookings? Doug Kennedy, President of the renowned Kennedy Training Network, certainly believes it can. In the following interview, Kennedy discusses why the voice channel matters more than ever, and how hotels can convert more phone inquiries. He also discusses why well-trained independent call centers often outperform hotel brands. Interviewer: What are the most interesting and rewarding parts of your job? Doug: I would say the most interesting part is that I get to work with an incr...
Advantage Reserve Announces Collaboration With Kennedy Training Network to Optimize Reservations Sales
Advantage Reserve | July 29, 2020
Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 29, 2020 — Advantage Reserve, the leading provider of high-quality central reservations services to the hospitality industry, has announced the launch of a new sales training partnership with Kennedy Training Network (KTN), the lodging industry’s best source for hotel training programs. This collaboration will enhance the guest experience, improve performance levels, and increase reservations conversions for Advantage Reserve’s diverse customer base of luxury hotels and resorts. During this unique period across the world in 2020, the hospitality industry faces a crucial time for reservations sales, and the v...
Driving Voice Channel Results in Today’s New Normal
Aspire | May 19, 2020
“Industry experts” have predicted for decades that the voice channel is dead. First, they said that the voice channel would be replaced by the GDS channel. That proved to be pure rubbish. Then, they predicted complete disintegration by third-party distribution channels like Expedia and Hotwire. And don’t forget the predictions that brand websites would entirely replace call centers as it was cheaper and more efficient despite the fact that website and online marketing costs are never-ending and significant to maintain. Retailers like Zappos didn’t believe that the voice channel was dead. They have shown the retail industry what can...
Assisting Hotels in Regaining Stability, Travel Outlook Gets Armed With Effective Sales Tactics Developed by Kennedy Training Network
Travel Outlook Hotel Reservations Call Center Services | April 21, 2020
Santa Fe, NM – Travel Outlook premium reservation call center, a virtual hospitality company specializing in voice reservations and guest service, uses down-time to upskill with Kennedy Training Network. Like all other hotel reservations and call center teams, during the first 10 days of the COVID-19 crisis, Travel Outlook’s certified call center agents were inundated with calls to cancel or postpone. Now that the call volume has temporarily softened, rather than laying off staff, Travel Outlook is using this quiet phase to upskill its call center team by scheduling additional private, live webcam training with Kennedy Training Ne...
CoralTree Hospitality and Travel Outlook Join Forces in Exciting New Partnership
Travel Outlook | November 7, 2019
CoralTree Hospitality and Travel Outlook Premium Voice Reservations join forces in an exciting partnership to deliver a new level of personalized service to both independent properties and chain hotels. The combination of CoralTree Hospitality and Travel Outlook is a natural fit. Both companies empower hotels to deliver meaningful guest experiences, while taking a results-orientated approach to driving direct business. Commenting on the collaboration, John Smallwood, CEO of Travel Outlook said, “The CoralTree Hospitality team is comprised of some of the more experienced and well-respected hotel professionals in hospitality, and we are h...
Why You Should Be Listening to What Your Voice Agents Are Saying Right Now to Potential Guests
Doug Kennedy | September 24, 2018
By Doug Kennedy As I often say in my conference presentations and training sessions, voice reservations is the forgotten distribution channel, at least at most hotels these days. Too many marketing and distribution execs buy-in to stereotypes such as "Millennials only book online and never want to talk with humans…" and "The only ones who still call are elderly and don't know how to work a computer..." On the surface, the numbers might even support this as web booking continue to grow while voice bookings decline. However, many of those who book online started out by first calling the hotel; others call after booking but prior to...
It’s Time for Hotel Brands to Wake Up and Re-Evaluate Their Voice Channel
Robert Post | December 19, 2017
By Robert Post The voice channel delivers from 20 to 50% of bookings for hotel brands. So why has the Contact Center become such an overlooked hospitality distribution channel? In my opinion, our industry has forgotten the impact of this valuable asset, its power to generate revenue, and the customer service it can provide to satisfy the demands of today's busy traveler. In a recent survey, we discovered a startling fact - Contact Centers are an increasingly poorly managed channel. In fact, we learned that a surprising number of organizations did not have a handle on their voice revenue conversion. And even when they had these numbers, ...
26 Questions 2 Ask: Drive Your 2017 Voice Channel Results
Aspire | September 20, 2016
Consider this: Some in the hospitality industry may think that the voice channel is dying. The truth is, it just looks different. Many of these same people thought GDS would go away, too! Your voice channel's margin averages 85% flow through — far higher than any 3rd party you do business with and you control the channel on your own terms! If you ask the smartest retailers in the world, like Zappos and L.L. Bean for instance, they will tell you that the voice channel is a cornerstone to their capture of wallet share, upsell and loyalty. As you think through your 2017 leisure revenue growth strategies, defining your conversion, REV...
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