How to sell trips with WhatsApp

If you have a travel agency, a DMC or you’re a simple travel designer, you’ll know that WhatsApp is the channel that, more than anyone else, helps you empathetically connect with potential travellers and maximise sales.

WhatsApp is certainly the most used messaging app in the world. Here’s why: it’s essential for your travel agency or your DMC to study an effective strategy to maximise sales through this channel.

Selling trips online allows you to have a potentially massive market: since there are no geographic constraints, customers can reside in and contact you from any part of the world. But how can you best connect with people who want to travel? What brings a customer to confirm a journey with you instead of a competitor?

You must study a simple path in which the customer can “travel” towards the purchase, by using the communication methods that the web makes available to us.

How can you sell a trip with WhatsApp

Here is a brief summary of the steps to be taken if you want to increase travel sales using WhatsApp:

NB: If you don’t have a WhatsApp Business account, consult this short guide first

1) Begin the first WhatsApp conversation with the customer

2) Optimise conversations to be more effective

3) Create a personalised and direct relationship

4) Manage a sales team with the same WhatsApp account.

Find the best solutions for mobile (quoting, payment)

Begin the first WhatsApp conversation with the customer

If you generate leads through a request form on a website or a blog, certainly one of the most simple options is to add the customer’s number to WhatsApp and write them a message. This isn’t always the best solution, however (particularly if you manage a large number of conversations), because your number could be easily flagged as Spam and you will find yourself blocked.

A good alternative is to install the Callbell widget to your website, which will allow you to create conversations through WhatsApp. In this case, the client will be the first to contact you and so will not be able to report you as spam. Click this link to see an example of how the widget works.

Optimise conversations to be more effective

There are many techniques to be more effective. The first is certainly to use WhatsApp from a PC, either through WhatsApp Web and through the Callbell platform.

This will allow you to manage a larger number of conversations in a more organised and structured way. Another method is to use “quick response” templates which allows you to save and reuse messages that you send frequently to quickly respond to the most common questions.

Last tip: set a welcome message that will be sent once the customer’s first message is received and an out-of-office message, sent when you are contacted outside of the work hours you have set.

Create a personalised and direct relationship

In the world we live in, most people prefer a quick relationship, with little waiting in between requests for information and the response. In these cases, WhatsApp is the perfect tool.

A large number of travel sellers confirm that this tool doubles sales. Empathy, the ability to manage client requests, urgency in offering the best response, attention to detail and time dedicated to WhatsApp conversations are the elements that have a far greater weight than price.

By sharing the WhatsApp contact of a travel agency from the beginning, the potential traveller feels immediately reassured, knowing that they can rely on direct support, even in the travelling stages. In addition, upon returning, you can use WhatsApp to get informed on how the experience went, to receive feedback.

Manage a sales team with the same WhatsApp account

If you’re at the beginning and you expect a low number of messages and you are alone, you can opt for WhatsApp Web, the desktop interface that allows you to respond to chats from your PC.

If instead you’re a team of travel agents and you need to distribute different conversations to more users and manage the influx of requests in a more structured way, we recommend you try the Callbell platform for free.

Among the main advantages of using the platform, we have:

1) Centralising all conversations in one WhatsApp account with the ability to distribute among various people in your team

2) From your admin profile you can consult all agent’s conversations to check and improve the sales process

3) Tag and profile different types of clients/conversations

4) A mobile App is available on IOS and Android

Find a mobile payment solution

Obviously, 99% of users that you communicate with on WhatsApp will do so on a mobile device. That’s what it is very important to be ready and identify the solutions that best fit this channel.

There are many tools on the market that allow you to generate mobile friendly quotes so to make the most of the travel offer that you send the traveller. Among these we would like to point out: Wetu, Toogo, or Better proposal.

The same goes for payment solutions: from the famous (but costly) Paypal to Stripe, to the lesser known Payplug if there are plenty of solutions to collect a payment quickly and securely from mobile.

If you liked this guide and would like to find out more on how to use WhatsApp and other main direct messaging applications to grow your Business, you can take a look at our blog.

Thank you and happy sales!