Agents "waste 25% of their day"

Need for more automation

Elaine Seeto, Amadeus

Nearly half of UK agents questioned in an Amadeus survey said they felt they wasted 25% of their day.

They said this time was spent doing tasks which could be done more quickly with automated processes and technology.

The travel IT company's survey found that the agents spent 80% of their day processing bookings.

This included initial research information through dealing with changes in itineraries to issuing the final ticket.

This left little time for "customer engagement", the company said.

It added: "Nearly 30% of those questioned agreed that they spend too much time searching for the best available fares and rates, time that could be reduced by the implementation of technology already in the market.

"As the economy starts to show signs of recovery, it is critical for agents to focus on customer service, not business processes that have limited impact on customer experience, retention and growth."

Amadeus predicted a new style agent, which it called Agent 2.0, would emerge who was "keen to harness the power of new technology to enable greater customer focus".  

Elaine Seeto, Amadeus UK's director of marketing, said: "Agents may not be using the services and software on offer to their full advantage

"By using technology to gain instant access to information, time spent trouble-shooting is reduced, leaving agents free to focus on customer service."

Amadeus questioned 152 agents from both leisure andbusiness agencies for its survey.

www.amadeus.com