Let's help each other out! Any travel companies present?

Coconut Travel Collective

Good afternoon,

My name is Olmo from the Netherlands and I run a travel agency. Would there be any other PD-users with a similar occupation be interested in some brainstorming in how we can make use of PD in the best possible way. I'm facing several challenges (and I might be able to help you out on others):

A 'large' (?) number of incoming leads (this can be 10-20 per day), how to keep that structured? Many of them will also be 'very cold' leads

In general: how do you go about with sending reminders to leads (after no or one contact moment but no further reaction from their side?)

PD apparently is working on a better email-automation tool. I would love to send automated emails based on a 'date field' (the period of their holiday, 1 week before departure etc.). How do others go about with this?

Possibly I would have some tips to make your life easier and there are still tons of improvements on our side as well which I didn't mention here.

Let's connect!

Cheers, Olmo van Beurden, SurfaWhile/Coconut Travel Collective

Coconut Travel Collective

Anyone that would like to connect? Happy to hear your experiences. You can always reach out through olmo@surfawhile.com

Sebastien_45989

Hey Olmo, 

I work with a travel agency and we recently switched to Pipedrive so the subject is very interesting to me. 

I'll start with what I think could work for you then follow with some questions and ideas. 

Leads structure

I think it depends on the form you're using but here's how we structure leads. Each lead is sorted by: 

• hot/warm/cold etc
• Budget
• Destination
• Type of trip
• Date
• Number of travellers 

That way we know which lead we should take care of first, and it's also good data to analyse later on. 

 

Reminders

We have different sequences for different cases. For example, if the lead doesn't reply to our very first email they go in sequence A and if they don't reply to a more advanced offer, sequence B and so on. 

We tend to be not to aggrassive with follow ups and reminders with one 3 days after first contact, then 4 days, one week, 2 weeks, a month (goodbye email). 

 

Automated email

For now we just use email templates for each destination and season. Not the best way I guess but I haven't found anything better yet. 


Questions

We have a lot of manual processes: for exemple one of them is checking with all suppliers their availabilities, then checking the plane ticket price online, and manually inserting these infos in a template. Do you have a better way ? 

 

Cheers ! 

 

Seb 

Coconut Travel Collective

Sebastien said:

Hey Olmo, 

I work with a travel agency and we recently switched to Pipedrive so the subject is very interesting to me. 

I'll start with what I think could work for you then follow with some questions and ideas. 

Leads structure

I think it depends on the form you're using but here's how we structure leads. Each lead is sorted by: 

• hot/warm/cold etc
• Budget
• Destination
• Type of trip
• Date
• Number of travellers 

That way we know which lead we should take care of first, and it's also good data to analyse later on. 

 

Reminders

We have different sequences for different cases. For example, if the lead doesn't reply to our very first email they go in sequence A and if they don't reply to a more advanced offer, sequence B and so on. 

We tend to be not to aggrassive with follow ups and reminders with one 3 days after first contact, then 4 days, one week, 2 weeks, a month (goodbye email). 

 

Automated email

For now we just use email templates for each destination and season. Not the best way I guess but I haven't found anything better yet. 


Questions

We have a lot of manual processes: for exemple one of them is checking with all suppliers their availabilities, then checking the plane ticket price online, and manually inserting these infos in a template. Do you have a better way ? 

 

Cheers ! 

 

Seb 

Thanks a lot Seb! Great and insightful to read.

We work with an external booking software and more and more sales come in without prior contact (which is good!). We luckily do not have to check prices and availability as the tool tells us (or: the client). 

We have a number of templates that I manually send to people (a first email) based on what they've filled out (we see so many more leads coming in through the Chat, rather than forms). After that, it's either email communication or we drag them to another stage and the automated reminders (1, 2 and 3) come into play.

So I guess I wouldn't have a way to help you in terms of the price-checking etc. as that happens automatiically in our case (other software).

Happy to connect! I'm based in Amsterdam by the way,

Sebastien_45989

Sebastien said:

Hey Olmo, 

I work with a travel agency and we recently switched to Pipedrive so the subject is very interesting to me. 

I'll start with what I think could work for you then follow with some questions and ideas. 

Leads structure

I think it depends on the form you're using but here's how we structure leads. Each lead is sorted by: 

• hot/warm/cold etc
• Budget
• Destination
• Type of trip
• Date
• Number of travellers 

That way we know which lead we should take care of first, and it's also good data to analyse later on. 

 

Reminders

We have different sequences for different cases. For example, if the lead doesn't reply to our very first email they go in sequence A and if they don't reply to a more advanced offer, sequence B and so on. 

We tend to be not to aggrassive with follow ups and reminders with one 3 days after first contact, then 4 days, one week, 2 weeks, a month (goodbye email). 

 

Automated email

For now we just use email templates for each destination and season. Not the best way I guess but I haven't found anything better yet. 


Questions

We have a lot of manual processes: for exemple one of them is checking with all suppliers their availabilities, then checking the plane ticket price online, and manually inserting these infos in a template. Do you have a better way ? 

 

Cheers ! 

 

Seb 

That's great, what software are you using ? There are so many it's hard to make a choice. 

 

Cheers ! 

 

PS: I'm based in the south of france 

Coconut Travel Collective

Sebastien said:

Hey Olmo, 

I work with a travel agency and we recently switched to Pipedrive so the subject is very interesting to me. 

I'll start with what I think could work for you then follow with some questions and ideas. 

Leads structure

I think it depends on the form you're using but here's how we structure leads. Each lead is sorted by: 

• hot/warm/cold etc
• Budget
• Destination
• Type of trip
• Date
• Number of travellers 

That way we know which lead we should take care of first, and it's also good data to analyse later on. 

 

Reminders

We have different sequences for different cases. For example, if the lead doesn't reply to our very first email they go in sequence A and if they don't reply to a more advanced offer, sequence B and so on. 

We tend to be not to aggrassive with follow ups and reminders with one 3 days after first contact, then 4 days, one week, 2 weeks, a month (goodbye email). 

 

Automated email

For now we just use email templates for each destination and season. Not the best way I guess but I haven't found anything better yet. 


Questions

We have a lot of manual processes: for exemple one of them is checking with all suppliers their availabilities, then checking the plane ticket price online, and manually inserting these infos in a template. Do you have a better way ? 

 

Cheers ! 

 

Seb 

We use Bookinglayer, that's used by many surf camps.

I'm from SurfaWhile (Olmo van Beurden). Feel free to connect through LinkedIn.