Softrip CRM Overview
Managing Customers and Managing Contacts
The Softrip CRM application allows users to store information pertaining to their travel agencies, travel agents, and passengers. Softrip defines these two different user groups as either Customers or as Contacts.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. The goal of Softrip CRM is to give an overall view of Travel Agency, Travel Agent, and Direct Consumer information regarding the following aspects.
Softrip CRM software is often used to centralize customer data, provide a 360-degree view of customer interactions, and enhance communication and collaboration within an organization. It is employed by businesses across various industries to build and maintain strong relationships with their customers.
Key aspects of CRM include:
Customer Data Management: Collecting and organizing customer information, including contact details, interactions, and purchase history.
Sales: Streamlining sales activities such as lead management, opportunity tracking, and forecasting.
Customer Service and Support: Managing customer inquiries, complaints, and support requests to enhance customer satisfaction.
Analytics and Reporting: Analyzing customer data to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends.
Manage Promotions and Credits: Review and manage Contact Promotions and Travel Credits.
Customer Definition
Customers are defined as the Travel Agencies. They are the bucket in which users will associate the travel agents (contacts) working for that agency.
A travel agency is a business that provides services related to travel and tourism. These agencies assist individuals, groups, and organizations in planning, organizing, and booking travel arrangements. The primary services offered by travel agencies include:
Travel agencies can operate as brick-and-mortar businesses with physical offices or as online agencies with a virtual presence. They act as intermediaries between travelers and travel service providers, aiming to simplify the travel planning process and enhance the overall travel experience for their clients.
Contacts Definition
Contacts are defined as either 1) Travel Agents that are associated to a Travel Agency (customer) or 2) Passengers that exist on a reservation within the Softrip application.
All of this information for the Customers and the Contacts is stored within the Softrip CRM. Here users can create, manage, store, and update all pertinent information all in one location. This includes information such as commission profiles, commission details, reservation history details, previous special requests, and more.
This highly integrated screen can be both accessed via the Marketing system or can be viewed from the reservations system.
The ability to view all customer and contact details on one screen from reservations can help staff with providing better customer service, viewing both past reservation history details, special requests, and more. To enable this option, please contact Softrip if users are unable to view the CRM from reservations.
Manage Customers—Overview
If the intention is to sell to businesses (selling to travel agencies), then users will need to set-up each individual Travel Agency under the “Manage Customers” screen.
Once users have accessed the manage customers screen, they can:
Search for existing Customers using multiple search filters
Set up new Customers
Jump to contacts associated to customers
Jump to existing Reservations under that customer
Manage account details such as agency address, phone number, commission tiers, and profiles/permissions.
Once the Customer Profile Search Screen is accessed, users can search for existing customers. Because this screen auto applies a wildcard in the search option, users can perform a general search to find an existing customer. All relevant results will return at the bottom of the screen, giving users the option to select the correct option. If the exact name or customer ID (typically the IATA/CLIA number) is entered into the search options, the customer profile will display immediately. To create a new customer, select the plus (+) sign.
Agency Summary Breakdown
Upon initial selection of the customer, users can view all pertinent details of that customer at glance.
Users can first view an overview of the agency information including the address, lead contact information, IATA number (ID), and commission code.
Selecting the information icon (i) will display the commission details pertaining to the commission code.
By selecting the “edit” icon, users can also edit the general information, address information, or additional account settings such as the commission code and profile of the agency. This is controlled by a user setting.
Select the copy icon to copy the profile and create a new customer.
Contacts/Travel Agents
All Contacts (travel agents) that are associated to a travel agency can be viewed under the contact list.
New contacts can be created by selecting the plus (+) sign.
Contact details can be edited by selecting the edit icon.
To view the contact profile, select the contact ID hyperlink
Note: The Contact ID’s are generated by the system. No two contacts will ever have the same Contact ID.
Reservation History
Review the reservation history of that particular agency. Any booking made under that travel agency will appear here.
Users can jump directly to the reservation by selecting the reservation number hyperlink.
Jump to the Contact Profile page by selecting the Contact ID name.
Use the Filter Icon to filter the reservation results by reservation status, departure dates, book dates, or the main contact.
Clean the screen by collapsing the reservation history view.
Note: The same view is available under ‘contacts’, however, the summary will be of the reservations associated to that particular contact only.
Opportunities
The opportunities section of the CRM gives users the ability to generate and keep track of leads for groups. By selecting the plus (+) sign, users can enter details about the requested departure date, the budget of the group, number of rooms, requested product, and more. This information can be later converted into a group.
Account Revisions
Any revisions associated to the account are all recorded under the account history. Users can view the full history by selecting the icon at the top right. An example of a revision to an account would be updating the commission percentage or the address of the agency.
Documents
Users can add customer documents. This is often use if a specific document, such as W-2's, need to be saved into the CRM relating to the customer.
Creating a New Customer
Defining the fields
To create a new customer, after accessing the manage customer screen, select the plus (+) sign.
Customer ID
The Customer ID is typically the IATA or CLIA number associated to the travel agency. If the agency does not have an IATA or CLIA number, then users may enter any numeric and/or alpha text in this text field.
Customer Name
The Customer Name is the name of the agency.
The Email field is the email address associated to the agency. This is typically the office manager or a shared office email account.
Phone Numbers
There are three different phone fields, one for office, one for mobile, and one, if applicable, for the agencies fax number.
Address Information
Users can add the address of the agency under the address information.
Note: There may be satellite contacts associated to the agency. The main contact address should be entered into the customer profile. Each individual address can be added to each contact (travel agent).
Additional Account Settings/Details
Users are able to control and update additional information associated to the agency. This includes applying the commission tier to the agency, managing the permission levels of the agency, updating the status of the agency (switching them to active to inactive), and more.
Origin
Defines the avenue in which the customer came in contact wtih the company. For example, a customer may generate from a campaign that was being run through a marketing advertisement which was set-up under campaign management. This type of information is typically tied to contacts (passengers).
Display Origin
Gives users the ability to manually update the text of the origin.
Customer Type
Pulled directly from Product Codes, defines the type of customer. An example of a customer type would be a Travel Agency, however other customer types may be a school or university.
Credit Status
Enter either I for invoice or S for statement.
Status
There are three options under status:
Active: Customers who are able to create bookings
Inactive: Customers who are unable to create bookings
Hold Commissions: Customers who are active, however, commission will not be paid out to them
Default Brand ID
If multiple Brands exist within the application, once a customer logs into the application, the Default Brand will display.
Territory ID
If territories are set-up under Marketing Territories, this field allows users to define the territory they are associated to.
Users can utilize the territories screen by setting up sales representatives or business development managers based on locations. An example would be that Business Development Manager X is associated to the Northeast Territory. Business Development Manager Y is associated to the Midwest Territory.
If an agency is located in New York, they would be assigned Business Development Manager X.
If any agency is located in Illinois,they would be assigned Business Development Manager Y.
Quote Currency
If multiple quote currencies are set-up under Product Exchange Rates, then the quote currency field identifies the default currency that the customer should be quoted in when creating bookings.
Profile ID
Identifies the profile the customer is assigned to. The options that display in this dropdown list are the profiles that are set-up under Security Profiles. These profiles control the capabilities that the customer will have within the application.
Commission Code
The Commission Percentage that will be applied to the overall agency.
Note: Agents within an agency may have a different commission percentage assigned to them.
GST % on Commission
The tax percentage to be paid on the commission
Associating Contacts to a Customer
Once a customer is built in Softrip, users can start to build/associate contacts to the agency. To accomplish this, select the plus (+) sign under the contact list box and begin building.
When creating a new contact, users can enter the following information:
General Information
Address Information
Manage subscriptions
Customer/IATA Information
Additional Account Settings/Details:
Traveler and Passport Information
Emergency Contact Information
Once added, all contacts associated to the customer will display under the Contact List when they are in the manage customers screen. The same view is available under the manage contacts screen.
Manage Customers- Customer and Contact association!
Manage Contacts- Contact and Customer association
Manage Contacts- Overview
Contacts, either passengers or travel agents, can be managed either by accessing Marketing, Manage Contacts or through the reservation site.
Passengers
Contacts that are traveling on reservations. Could be direct passengers or travel agents.
Travel Agents
Contacts associated to customers (agencies.)
When accessing the manage contacts screen, users can either search for existing contacts or create a new contact. Users can perform a general search for contacts by using standard filters such as first name, last name, contact ID, email, and phone. Users can also use the advanced search options to conduct a search.
Note: In order to create a new contact, users must perform an initial search to verify if the contact exists. This is to ensure that a duplicate contact is not created. To ensure all history, contact details, and special requests are recorded, it is ideal to guarantee that only one contact/contact ID exists within the application. Users can use the merge duplicate contact screen to identify if one contact has been created multiple times within the application.
Note: Prior to creating a new Group Opportunity, users must first search for an existing contact. If the contact that the group will be built under does not already exist (ex: a travel agent or a new group leader) then users can create the contact after the search is conducting. ALL group opportunities must be tied to a contact, therefore, the opportunity process is nested within the contact's profile.
Prior to conducting a search
No ability to add a new contact
After a search is conducted
Ability to add a new contact
Once a search is performed, the CRM will either open the contact profile immediately, or the search results will display at the bottom of the page. Users can differentiate between contacts associated to a customer verses contacts that are passengers within the search results. If a contact is associated to a customer, then the customer ID will display under the contact ID. Users can jump to the customer profile by selecting the customer ID hyperlink, or they can view the contact by clicking “select”.
The Contact Profile will display many of the similar features that the Customer Profiles displays with the addition of managing/adding special requests, managing subscriptions, and maintaining and/or adding promotion credits.
Promotion/Account Credits
The Promotion and account credits section allows users to either view contact promotions assigned to the specific contact, update certain fields under the contact promotion or add a specific promotion to the contact.
The promotions that appear that users can select from need to first exist under Marketing Promotions Any active or expired promotions will display under the promotions/account credits. Any active or expired promotions will display under the promotions/account credits.
Any active or expired promotions will display under the promotions/account credits.
Users can select the plus (+) sign to add a new promotion/account credit.
Users can select the edit icon to edit the details.
Adding account credits through the CRM
Contact Promotions are typically used to give a future discount to a specific passenger. These types of discounts either fall under an appreciation discount (example, future credit for booking with the company or a future travel credit for participating in a survey), or a customer service discount (example, a customer has a complaint about an existing booking).
The ability to add a contact promotion from the CRM screen is an easy way to provide quick customer service to any contact who reaches out to the call center or sales representative. Here, a user can view all the pertinent information pertaining to the contact while also creating a promotion.
To add a contact promotion from the CRM:
Access the CRM
Search for the Contact
Select the plus (+) sign on the Promotions/Account Credits Section
Search for an existing promotion to apply to the contact. Note: New Contact Promotions cannot be created here. Users will only be able to search for existing promotions that have been previously created on the contact promotions screen.
Set the status to active to ensure the contact is able to redeem the promotion Note: Contact promotion statuses can be set to Active, Expired, Pending, and Redeemed. Statuses such as expired and redeemed will automatically be applied through the system when a contact has redeemed a promotion or a promotion is expired based on the dates associated to it.
Enter any applicable overrides to the promotion such as the price, the valid book dates and the valid departure dates. Note: Updating the price and book dates under the contact promotion does not override the original promotion. The updates will only apply to the promotion assigned to the contact.
Select Save
Special Requests/Preferences
Special requests that display on the passenger page are controlled by the business. These special requests
can be chosen during the booking process and assigned to the passengers traveling. Once a booking is finalized, these special requests are saved against the contact and can be viewed within the contact profile in the CRM.
Users can manually edit the special requests directly within the CRM by selecting the edit icon. Once in the edit screen, users can select from a variety of default preferences that are available. These default preferences can be controlled under the contact preferences screen.
Subscriptions
The Softrip Marketing application gives users the ability to set-up the option to choose different subscriptions that they want sent to them. These types of subscriptions could be mailing lists on specific types of travels, on destinations, or all promotions that are run monthly. Users will typically the use a third party email marketing tool to send these blasts out to the contacts that opted into these subscriptions.
During the booking process, users or passengers have the option to sign up to subscriptions that are offered by the company. This data is stored against the contact and can be viewed within the contact profile.
Note: Users can edit the subscription list by using the edit icon, making it easy to subscribe and unsubscribe users to mailing lists.
Contact Billing
The contact billing information is stored within the CRM against the specific contact. This information will only include the cardholders name, last four digits of the card, and the card expiration date. This allows us to offer the card as an option to apply additional credit card charges to the same card using the token information. It's offered in the CRM as a option to remove the card for future use in case the client would not like that card to every appear again.
Creating a new Contact
When creating a new contact, users can enter a variety of information into the contact screen. Many of these fields, such as the address information, email address, phone numbers, and subscriptions, will be automatically filled in and stored when a reservation is created through the reservation system.
For example, Passenger A and Passenger B are traveling to Punta Cana for seven nights. They create a reservation in reservations in the Softrip application. Upon finalization of the reservation, the Softrip application will automatically assign Passenger A and Passenger B their own unique contact ID's. Any information entered relating to Passenger A and Passenger B in reservations will also be stored within the contact's profile.
Defining the fields
General Information
Store the email address, name, and phone numbers associated to the contact.
Address Information
Enter the contacts address. If the contact is a travel agent, the address can be different than the agency address if the agent is working from a satellite office.
Subscriptions
Update the contact to either opt in or out of the subscriptions.
Customer/IATA Information
Only relates to travel agents. If creating a contact while in a customer profile, this information will auto-fill.
Additional Account Settings/Details
Manage information such as the profile (permissions), the brands, and the territories. Most fields under this section relate to travel agents only.
Traveler and Passport Information
Store passport information for the contacts for future travel purposes.
Emergency Contact Information
Enter the emergency contact for the contact. Storing this information is helpful for passengers who may experience emergencies while on site.
Contacts from Customers
If creating a new contact that is associated to a customer (a travel agent associated to a travel agency), then it is easier to create a contact from the customer profile. By creating a contact from the customer profile, certain information will automatically pull into the contact profile. However, users have the option to update any of the information as it pertains to that particular contact.
For example, a contact that is associated to a travel agency may work from home. In order to ensure the correct address is associated to the contact, users can override the address.
Another option for contacts is the ability to override the commission code. This gives users the flexibility of either giving the specific contact (travel agent) a higher or lower commission value than what is associated to the customer (agency).
Contacts (travel agents) may also have different user profiles (permissions) associated to them in comparison to the customer (agency) and other contacts (travel agents) within the agency.
Because of the flexibility, users can begin creating a new contact (travel agent) from the manage customer screen to easily associate the two together, while also managing and updating independent user profiles and usability per contact.
Users have the option to create new contacts under the Manage Contacts screen. The manage contacts screen is designed differently than the manage customers screen in that users must first search for an existing contact prior to creating a new contact. Once the application responds with results, users will then have the option to create a new contact if the contact does not already exist in the application.
There are seven different groups where users can enter information relating to the contact. They are as follows:
General Information
Address Information
Subscriptions
Customer/IATA Information
Additional Account Settings/Details
Traveler & Passport Information
Emergency Contact Information
To create a new contact within the CRM:
1 - Enter general Information pertaining to the contact
Note: General information about the contact can be entered under the contact profile. This includes information such as the email address phone numbers, and contact name.
Note: Each contact, whether it is a travel agent or a passenger, should have an email address to ensure all the correspondences that are automatically sent from the application goes to the correct individual.
2 - Enter the address associated to the contact
Note: The address can be any address associated to the contact, including office addresses or home addresses. If the contact is a travel agent, the agent's address can be different than the agency address.
3 - Select applicable subscriptions (optional)
4 - Update Customer/IATA information
Note: This section is for contacts that are travel agents only. Users can apply a different commission value for the contact. If a contact has a different commission value than the customer, than the contact's commission value will be applied.
5 - Update the additional account settings/details
Note: The information under the account details can apply to either passengers or agents.
Example:
The contact type differentiates if a contact is a direct (passenger), agent (travel agent), group agent or leader, or an employee.
The profile defines the permission level of the contact which will typically not apply to passengers.
6 - Enter or manage traveler/passport information
7 - Enter the Emergency Contact Information
Note: If setting up a new application, users can mass import new contacts. This is a completely different screen that is available under the marketing system.
Contacts from the Reservations System
Once customers (travel agencies) and contact (travel agents) are created under marketing contacts/customers, they will be available to select within reservations during booking creation.
If the contacts are not travel agents, then while creating a booking through reservations and entering passenger information, upon finalization, the Softrip application will automatically create and store the contact. Each contact will automatically be assigned a system generated contact ID. These contact ID’s are independent and unique per contact and are never duplicated, ensuring all details pertaining to that contact exist within the profile.
Choosing a Customer or Contact
Once users select “book this itinerary”, they will be taken to the contact and billing screen. Here, users can either choose an existing customer (agency) or contact (passenger). If users search for an exiting contact (passenger) under find contacts, and the contact does not exist, then users can create a new contact within reservations.
If users search for an agency, they will then be prompted to choose an existing contact associated to the agency.
All of this information is pulled from the data that is entered under the Marketing Manage Contacts/Customers screen.
Passenger Page
New contacts (passengers) will be automatically created and saved within the manage contact screen once the information is added to the passenger page. Typically, this is how contacts (passengers) are generated and the manage contacts screen is used to make any modifications or updates.
Information entered on Passenger Page- Reservations
Information displayed under Manage Contacts
