Magical agent app

Though the kinds of app technology available to travel agents is slowly improving, it currently comes down to a hodgepodge of adapted consumer applications and one-off trade apps dedicated to solving a single need, such as itinerary management.

This condition can be attributed to several causes, and some say it's a matter of agents being unable to decide what they want or need. 

In fact, the idea of some "Magical Agent App" is somewhat akin to the Great American Novel: more quest than reality, a fantasy that no two agents would likely see in the same way.

Is this Magical Agent App something that aggregates a number of travel-related functions, from itinerary management to weather alerts and flight information, into a single mobile portal for clients?

Is it primarily a communications app that makes text-based interactions between agent and client more efficient?
Or is it even an app at all? Are clients, in fact, better served by a responsive mobile website, with all the flexibility that technology embodies?
The most likely answer is, "Yes."

Developers and industry leaders spend a great deal of time trying to figure out the future of agent-supporting technology. Currently, the leading concept is an app that aggregates multiple services into one, including the all-important trend of in-app, agent-client messaging. 

Another favorite concept is a consolidation of existing apps that can communicate with each other, resulting in multiple pieces of software that act as a single aggregated app with multiple functions.

Mobile-enabled websites are another important piece of the puzzle. Almost everyone agrees they are necessary in today's smartphone-obsessed world, and in some cases, the websites can take the place of apps by offering available content quickly and easily. The app vs. mobile website debate continues, and it no doubt will for some time.
David Kolner spends a lot of time contemplating the future of agent-supporting technology. Kolner, the senior vice president of global member partnerships at Virtuoso, which sponsors the Virtuoso Incubator program, is dedicated to finding travel tech start-ups and helping to refine them.

Up to this point, Kolner said recently, agents have suffered from a lack of interest on the part of developers.

"I think, in general, agents are underserved by technology investment," he said.

But he pointed to an upside to that problem: In recent years, new start-ups have come online, "founded by disgruntled travel agents who just got tired of waiting for Silicon Valley to finally take five seconds and focus on our little channel, vs. chasing the eternal opportunity of direct-to-consumer [apps], which has sunk several billion dollars of venture capital into absolutely nothing."

Still, developer interest appears to be growing. More than 100 companies applied to be part of the Virtuoso Incubator program this year, with 12 making the cut.

Kolner said that some past developers supported by the Incubator have gone on to become Virtuoso partners. 

The all-in-one app

Some in the trade see the Magical Agent App as an aggregator that combines the functionality of several apps into one.

Lili Chemla is a developer who is currently creating a white-label itinerary manager that features agent-client messaging. Her first client is Altour, whose agents will be able to ask their clients to download her app. Should someone stumble across the app on their own, it will connect them with an Altour agent. It will also give agents' clients access to Altour's 24/7 client services if they run into trouble while traveling.

"A lot of people who are developing apps currently are really aiming for this all-in-one type of travel app," Chemla said, "having your itinerary, directions, features as small as currency exchange, the weather and alerts about flight changes, etc., all of that at your fingertips." 

In her view, the move toward an all-in-one app is about staying organized on both the agent and client side.

"I definitely see this theme of combining all the travel apps out there and putting them into one application," she said.
Libbie Rice, the co-president of Ensemble Travel Group, agreed that an all-in-one app is likely the direction development is heading. In addition to integrating services and features, she believes that such apps would have staying power on consumers' smartphones.

"People don't want to download [an app] for one instance of something they're going to do," Rice said. "So if you can get it to do lots of things, I think that's definitely a critical path."

Bonnie Lee, the CEO of Travel Quest, said she also sees apps heading toward the all-in-one model, but she said two things will be crucial for its success: It would have to perform all its functions well and would have to avoid complexity that might disrupt an agent's workflow.

Aggregation, integration, disruption

Combining solutions into a single app is a trend Karen Yeates, the executive vice president of information technologies at Signature Travel Network, also has on her radar. But Yeates is predicting a consolidation of existing apps: not necessarily an app that aggregates features so much as several apps integrated so that they can interact with each other on a single platform.

"What I think that we're going to be seeing is maturity of some of the other apps that are already out there," she said, citing as an example some of the itinerary-management apps that are already growing in popularity.

Partnerships with industry disrupters could also be on the horizon, Yeates said. As an example, she suggested including a link to Uber or Airbnb within an itinerary- management app. She likes that general concept because it could transform a competitor into a potentially commissionable partner for agents, depending on what kind of agreement could be struck with the service provider.

One important development that could potentially nurture what Yeates envisions is that Google and Apple are currently developing in-app linking technology, according to Faraz Qureshi, the general manager of Cruiseline.com. When available, that capability will help encourage partnerships in which apps will be able to communicate with each other, moving the user from one to another seamlessly.

Qureshi also said all-in-one apps, whether they employ links to other apps or actually provide multiple services within a single app, will make it easier to get the attention of consumers. As it is now, it's difficult to be discovered in vast app stores such as Apple's or Google's, he said.
Scott Koepf, the senior vice president of sales at Avoya Travel, predicts that offering as many services as possible in one place will be the key to technology as a whole, not just in the travel sphere. 

"It's not really ... new software or new programs that will change our world over the next couple of years," Koepf said. "It's how the existing programs talk together and integrate together."

Communication is key

Setting aside whatever other services travel apps might offer in the future, developers and agents alike agree that the most important one is agent-client messaging capabilities.

In the app world, messaging with businesses is on the rise, especially after Facebook announced that businesses can now communicate with customers via its Messenger platform.

Michael Jirout, the business development director at Cruiseline.com and co-developer with his brother of the Ship Mate app, said, "I definitely see booking moving more to a chat-and-text type communication channel, vs. right now a lot of it's done on the phone and via email."

Qureshi agreed. "I think what's going to happen in travel and other businesses is you're going to have this customer service that's going to happen over a messaging-type interface," he said.

Chemla's white-label app includes a chat function so agents will be able to keep in touch with clients before, during and after trips. Several other itinerary-management apps currently available also offer chat functionality, which Chemla said is a key feature that both agents and their clients want. She said in-app messaging features will likely become more and more common going forward.
Alternatives to the app

Some in the industry believe apps are falling by the wayside in favor of either other technology platforms or mobile-responsive websites.

For example, chat-based communication was important to Travel Leaders Corporate, but instead of developing an app, the company designed an independent messaging platform, which president David Holyoke calls the "anti-app."

With the platform known as Travel Leaders Connect, agents and clients can start chatting either through a browser window on their mobile phone or via their SMS text messaging program.

Holyoke said he is noticing others jump on the messaging bandwagon to connect agents and clients, and he predicted messaging technology will become an industry foundation.

"I think this is the future," he said. "I think people are spending a lot of time and energy in apps that specifically give you a snapshot of your travel itinerary and tell you flight information. There's too many and way too much of that, and how do you stand out and differentiate? At the end of the day, do people really want that?"

Holyoke also pointed out that many apps are deleted after one or two uses.

Mobile-friendly websites that agents and their clients can pull up on smartphones also remain important. In fact, some argue they are more important than apps, and they are far easier to update.

"I think being mobile-enabled is much more important" than offering apps, Rice said.

Kolner agreed. Virtuoso, he said, is investing in creating mobile-friendly websites, especially considering the challenges of building an app that will be both discovered by consumers and used regularly.

"I will actually acknowledge, though, that this is a matter of individual, corporate and strategic preferences, so everyone's got their own point of view," he said. "And it's kind of like, I don't know, Hillary vs. Donald. I mean, everybody has their own opinion, but the way that we [Virtuoso] are voting on this one is for mobile-friendly."

Sam McCully, the vice president of marketing at Avoya Travel, said it is difficult to continue investing in an app when mobile websites are easy to maintain and can be accessed across multiple devices.

"The verdict's still out, really, between mobile-responsive sites and apps," he said.

Koepf added: "I'm not sure any of us have quite the clear crystal ball about how that will end, but if I was a betting man, I'd say that it's going more toward the web." 

Qureshi, who manages both a website and an app, said he can see points on both sides of the mobile web vs. app debate.

"When people ask me which one's winning, I say, 'Yes,' because both are," he said. "We are seeing increased traffic from our mobile website, but it is not decreasing the desktop traffic, and we're seeing increased traffic on our mobile apps."

Regardless of which path agent technology follows, McCully said he is seeing a "renaissance" in the industry.

"There was a lot of talk about apps, different kinds of technologies," he said. "But I think, really, where it's coming back to is focus on the customer first and foremost, and then understand them and use technology as an enabler to add value and help them, because that's going to grow your business."

Source: Travel weekly