Automation Will Accelerate the Travel Industry’s Recovery
As the calendar turns from March to April, what have you been doing to take advantage of down time in your business to improve your prospects for success in the inevitable post-COVID 19 recovery?
The reality is that what worked for your business in Q2 of last year is not going to work in Q2 of 2020 or the rest of this year, and probably longer. Companies in the travel industry, especially those in the SMB segment, will only find success in the post-COVID 19 world if they create a sharper focus on optimizing costs, enhancing their workers’ productivity and efficiency, ensuring speedy and secure settlement of transactions to preserve liquidity, and laying the groundwork to be able to respond nimbly to future marketplace disruptions.
It’s imperative for companies that are going to come out of this downturn successfully to take this downtime as a prime opportunity to re-tool and automate in a sustaining way to accelerate the path to recovery, and leapfrog those competitors that will inevitably go back to the pre-crisis status quo.
“The RPA industry is at an inflection point right now because economic uncertainty makes efficiency, accuracy, and—above all—maximizing human intellect critical to survival and growth,” said Kyle Kim-Hays, the CMO of Softomotive. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2020/03/14/robotic-process-automation-rpa-is-it-recession-proof/
At Clear Chain Travel, we’ve created a set of robotic process automation (RPA) and blockchain solutions that provide the gateway for our clients to meet these new market conditions and to thrive in the post-recovery world. Here are some examples of what that means and how it can be achieved:
Building process documentation allows companies to re-examine and re-evaluate business as usual practices for more optimal activities
This is the perfect time to re-examine the manual processes that everyone in the industry seems to harp about, but does nothing to fix. Identifying and documenting existing processes is a required first step in building any automation platform, as not everything can or should be automated. RPA at its best involves evaluating an individual business process from a human and results perspective to get to a matrix of processes that can be weighted and ranked based on criteria important to each business. i.e., company culture implications, effects on downstream processes, impact on (internal or external) customers, and high frequency of occurrence, to name a few.
Digitizing contracts and other documents provides cost savings and enhanced operational efficiency
Taking existing print-formatted documents and agreements that are prevalent in the travel industry and moving them into understandable smart contracts and other documents that can be processed digitally with complete accuracy and efficiency, as well as securely stored and retrieved at will without the chance of them being compromised.
Mitigating the historic and pervasive difficulties for hoteliers in finding qualified personnel to work on property by automating processes
Automating processes will provide a better opportunity for hotel personnel to do what they were hired to do, which is to engage with customers, and think and make decisions based on brand standards and other principles that enhance the bottom line for the customer and company. Technology and automation can play a critical role in reinventing processes that are not weighed down by legacy technology, practices, and ideas. Well executed RPA gives hotels the chance to do more with less, in a way that provides a cultural fit for your individual company and its brand promises.
According to BeMyGuest CEO Blanca Menchaca “The ability to endure this situation along with the regeneration of our industry will be dependent on keeping costs to a minimum and automating the essential sales process. … [A] colossal spotlight has been activated, shining directly on the massive inefficiencies of manual processes in our industry” Source: https://www.phocuswire.com/wit-tours-and-activities-coronavirus-recovery
Clear Chain’s proprietary solution combining those RPA-derived process improvements with blockchain’s enhanced security, transparency, and efficiency can help your company achieve these outcomes:
- Enhanced customer experience via accurate billing, timely responses to common inquiries, and other fundamental business practices which builds loyalty and an image of reliability, strengthening your brand against the next downturn and general uncertainty;
- Optimized, secure and transparent audit trail to ensure regulatory compliance and accurate reconciliation;
- Increased efficiency of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable activities helps Finance organizations manage cash flow better, resulting in enhanced liquidity which is critical for success in the current environment.
Are you ready to position your company to fully take advantage of the recovery when it inevitably arrives? If you’ve been putting off true digital transformation because you couldn’t find time in between day to day busyness and crises to build the necessary foundation, chances are this is the only time you will be able to correct your course by using the current quiet period as a time for internal improvements.
Please get in touch with our team to learn more about our consulting curriculum and software solutions at contact@clearchaintravel.com, via our LinkedIn page or via Twitter @ClearChainTvl
Stay at Home and Stay Safe. We’ll get through this together and will be better as an industry and a global community when it’s over.