Travelheart Family improves customer service and sales with HubSpot integration
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About Travelheart Family
Travelheart Family is a family of travel agencies built on the common purpose of offering Danes a lifetime of travelling the world. The company was established in 2023 by Bjarke Hansen, who started his independent travel adventure in 2009 with the renowned travel agency, Primo Tours.
Today, the Travelheart family consists of 15 travel companies made up of dedicated employees who work every day to provide Danes with fantastic travel experiences.
Challenge: Missed calls and overlooked email offers
At Travelheart Family, they saw a trend of travel agents' emails often drowning in customers' overflowing inboxes - a trend seen across industries. This resulted in customers missing the offers sent by travel consultants via email, and that's obviously not sustainable.
"Today, our email inboxes are quickly filled with all kinds of stuff. Especially when bargain hunting. SMS is a tool we can use to increase response and ensure that our offers are actually seen."
Brian Kristiansen, Head of MarTech at Travelheart Family
Travelheart Family wants to make life easier for their employees and for customers to book their dream holidays.
That's why they decided to implement SMS as a natural part of the organisation's communication with customers.
Solution: Optimised customer service with SMS in HubSpot
The SMS channel is not new territory for the Travelheart Family Group, but in 2023 they decided to find a new SMS provider to integrate with HubSpot.
They found it with inMobile, and as the first agency in the Travelheart portfolio, USA Tours is now actively using inMobile as part of their customer service in HubSpot.
Once a customer has spoken to a USA Tours travel consultant, an email is always sent to the customer with their customised travel offer. To ensure that the offer is actually seen and to increase the response rate, USA Tours sends a follow-up SMS. Here, they inform the recipient that the offer has been sent to their email.
In addition, Freja Asplund, a supporter at USA Tours, says that customers often don't answer the phone when they call them. That's why USA Tours also uses SMS to send a follow-up message if a customer hasn't answered the phone, as well as to send important information to customers who are already at a holiday destination.
"Many people don't like to answer the phone if they don't know the number. That's why we send the customer an SMS to let them know that it's us who called. Then they have the opportunity to call back - and many do."
Freja Asplund, Supporter at USA Tours
Result: Optimised service and increased response
"The text messages clearly have a positive effect," says Freja Asplund.
More customers see and respond to the offers that are sent to them. The travel consultants at USA Tours also see that customers appreciate the extra layer of service provided by receiving reminders and important information via SMS.
"Not everyone checks their email while on holiday. But the vast majority have their phone with them. That's why it's very easy to give a quick message to customers via SMS if there is something important they need to know."
Freja Asplund, Supporter at USA Tours
Good support and reasonable SMS prices
Brian Kristiansen from Travelheart Family says the travel company chose inMobile for several reasons when selecting its new SMS gateway.
First and foremost, Travelheart was looking for an SMS gateway that could integrate with HubSpot. Travelheart Family uses HubSpot's CRM to keep track of their customer data and communication.
They wanted to be able to send SMS messages directly from HubSpot's user interface, which is currently not possible without an SMS integration for HubSpot like inMobile's.
They were also looking for an SMS gateway that could send SMS to Danish numbers at reasonable prices. They also wanted to work with a company with which they could build a close relationship and seek advice over time. Fast and competent support was a crucial factor in this regard.
"At Travelheart Family we use HubSpot CRM. That's why it's important that our SMS gateway can also talk to HubSpot. At the same time, it was important for us to choose a company with fast and competent support. We found that at inMobile."
Brian Kristiansen, Head of MarTech at Travelheart Family
With inMobile, they found an SMS provider that could fulfil all their needs.
SMS via HubSpot integration
Using inMobile's integration with HubSpot, USA Tours no longer needs to leave their setup in HubSpot to send SMS messages. Instead, they can manage everything from setting up the SMS message to selecting the recipient and finally sending it directly in their HubSpot account - the integration ensures that the message is delivered instantly to the chosen recipient.
"For me, it was important that it was as easy as possible to send an SMS to the customer, directly in HubSpot. inMobile has solved that need. We are very happy with their HubSpot integration."
Brian Kristiansen, Head of MarTech at Travelheart Family
A bonus of inMobile's HubSpot integration that USA Tours often uses is the template feature. Saving text templates for SMS in HubSpot allows them to reuse SMSes over and over again. This means that travel consultants don't have to start from scratch every time they need to send an SMS.
"We are especially happy with the template feature in HubSpot. It makes our process really quick and easy when we need to send an SMS message." says Freja Asplund.
Instead, they can simply select the most relevant template, customise the text to the individual recipient, and click send - quick, easy, and efficient.
A look into the future with SMS marketing
Today, only USA Tours uses SMS via inMobile's HubSpot integration, but the plan is for all Travelheart Group travel agencies to have this option in the future.
Brian Kristiansen also explains that currently only USA Tours' travel consultants can send SMS in HubSpot. At Travelheart Family, however, they are very interested in the possibilities of SMS as a marketing channel.
"Right now [May 2024], only USA Tours is using inMobile's HubSpot integration, but eventually the plan is for all brands to have this option. And we are also interested in the marketing possibilities of the SMS channel."
Brian Kristiansen, Head of MarTech at Travelheart Family
By utilising SMS in both the customer service and marketing departments, travel agencies are able to serve customers even better. For example, by offering loyal customers exclusive access to favourable offers before everyone else.
We at inMobile look forward to continuing the close collaboration and further developing the HubSpot integration with USA Tours and the rest of the Travelheart Family.