Written by Alain Pilon, founder at Textodog
During the pandemic, my team of developers and I decided to commercialize the most important customer experience system we use in my bus tour company: a group text messaging platform that allows sales and customer service teams to quickly communicate with all travellers on a booking.
Communication is at the core of a great customer experience. Text messaging has become increasingly popular for its ability to respond to multiple customers at once, who are often looking for simple answers, while reducing call volumes and working with smaller teams. In particular, this platform allows us to operate as efficiently, if not more so, with fewer resources.
Having experienced the popularity of this powerful communication tool, I decided to offer it to all those who work in the travel and hotel industry, so that their clients can also benefit from it. Since few people travel alone, group text messaging is the perfect way to communicate with couples, families or friends without having to wait in line to speak to someone.
Knowing how overwhelmed call centers can be, especially since the start of the pandemic with many travel cancellations to deal with, I realized how strongly this platform can help tourism industries get back on track, while improving the experience they offer throughout the customer lifecycle.
Textodog works first by creating a group when a reservation is made. Then, by quickly answering questions from all travellers on the same reservation. Then, by confirming their departure or informing them of any changes and finally, by thanking them, while offering them new deals. Considering that 99% of text messages are read compared to 20% of emails, this platform ensures almost 100% message reception!
In addition, group text messaging offers contactless benefits to maintain social distance and reduce friction at key points along the customer journey. Instead of waiting in line at the hotel front-desk, for example, guests can safely check-in without face-to-face contact and easily check-out with a simple text message.
Texting also allows guests to ask for more towels or room service, without having to wait on the phone to talk to someone. There are several other benefits to using group text messaging that can be appreciated by the travel and hospitality industry.
Advice from Alain to all new SaaS founders
My advice is to figure out your ideal customer profile and have as many conversations with them as possible. It’s important during these meetings to focus on their problem and take notes. It will help you build the right product.If you haven’t done this before, I strongly recommend you get a SaaS coach. It’s the very first thing I did even before writing a line of code. My SaaS coach is TK Kader and he’s amazing!