NEW YORK, NY - A trend is emerging in both the travel arena and other retail avenues in which the online community is bringing the “human element” back to their operations in order to serve the needs of a growing consumer network that craves the validation and human accountability of a live person. In the travel industry, one company - Fareportal - with its CheapOair.com and OneTravel.comonline travel agencies has been on the leading edge of this trend since its inception.
“Despite the continued rise in virtual sales, many people still want to touch and see the product before buying it,” according to an article in Direct Marketing News, (March 2017) entitled Clicks Going Back to Bricks - Why Online Retailers are Opening Physical Stores. This is supported by reports in the travel trade media indicating an incremental use of travel agents by consumers, driven largely by the Millennial demographic.
While online shopping has been growing in both the travel industry and elsewhere for the past 20 years, it has not eliminated the need for the traditional travel agent industry nor the brick and mortar retail stores of any retail industry.
The Direct Marketing News article declared: “In recent years, traditional online retailer companies have opened more physical stores than ever across the country. Amazon.com opened its first retail bookstore in Seattle in late 2015. Encouraged by the experiment’s success, the online retailer has since opened up nine additional storefront locations and now boasts a physical presence in California, Oregon, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Washington."
Privately-held Fareportal Inc. and its multichannel travel brands have been achieving high customer satisfaction levels with an innovative formula integrating websites, call centers, mobile apps, email and live chat.
The company’s 24/7/365 telephone operation features call centers answered by trained Fareportal travel agents, providing customers with travel solutions and telephone bookings any time of day. “Our call center agents are what differentiate Fareportal from the competition; they take the extra step to not only book over the phone, but to find solutions to any customer’s problem,” said Sam S. Jain, CEO of Fareportal.
Fareportal’s unique high-touch, high-tech capabilities and impressive company-owned contact centers are vital to their success. Fareportal’s contact centers receive over 30,000 daily calls, manage over 450 emails and handle over 800 instant messages per day.
While Fareportal has been offering consumers access to live agents since its beginning, other large travel companies are now setting up a limited number of call centers with live travel counselors to service the needs of their customers.
“Beyond the human touch element which drives consumers to pick up the phone instead of completing an online purchase, people prefer to speak with agents who are based in their country versus overseas call centers,” noted Jain. “Whether it’s for sales or customer service, speaking with someone local provides an additional layer of confidence as the caller knows the agent fully understands their needs and concerns.”
Fareportal is headquartered in New York City with more than 3,000 employees spread across operations in Las Vegas, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Kiev and two locations in India.
In 2006, the company launched CheapOair to focus on booking affordable air tickets and rapidly became a force in the online travel agency arena. It has quickly and quietly become the second largest OTA in flight bookings, according to a company spokesperson.
In 2008, Fareportal launched another subsidiary, OneTravel.com, to expand its services to include a more comprehensive vacation experience including hotels, car rentals, attractions, transfers and insurance, appealing to a wider audience looking for more than just air tickets.
In 2011, the flagship brand made its way into new international markets when it launched CheapOair.ca, CheapOair.mx, CheapOair.co.uk, CheapOair.au and the CheapOair mobile app Together, these websites garner more than 16 million unique visitors and over 40 million searches per month, and the CheapOair mobile app has reached over 5 million downloads to date. The app receives thousands of bookings per week, ranking highest in user satisfaction among its competitors with its user-friendly interface and readily available customer care, while agents make arranging complex travel itineraries simple, whether over the phone or via live chat.
While Fareportal’s online channel continues to be its most utilized channel for bookings, the company has seen tremendous growth in the mobile app and telephone bookings. Call centers around the world are owned and operated by the company to maintain quality control which has resulted in outstanding service awards.
Fareportal’s websites and mobile app have been the recipient of nearly twenty awards within both the travel industry and technology world for their fast search times, outstanding service and overall excellence, including the Magellan Travel Industry Awards, Stevie Awards for Customer Service and Technology, Horizon Interactive Awards, and AVA Digital Awards.
