https://sleekflow.io/customer-stories/egltours-use-case
Hong Kong-listed travel agency EGL Tours offers package tours, free independent traveler packages, individual travel elements, and other travel-related products and services in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and other places. It also runs EGL Market, an online shopping platform.
Read to find out how EGL Tours Hong Kong improves operational efficiency by using SleekFlow’s automation solutions to organize social media campaigns, set up a WhatsApp chatbot to route leads, and send customer care messages.
Henry Lee, Head of Marketing & PR of EGL Tours, explained how running a travel company is a challenging endeavor in the post-pandemic world.
“Travel products are very complicated nowadays due to the sheer number of options available to customers,” he said.
As travelers book flights, accommodations, tours, activities, transportation, and travel insurance, each of these products have various options, such as the destination, airline class, tour package (basic or all-inclusive), and transportation options (car rental or private transfers). Furthermore, each product has its own terms and conditions. The complexity of these travel options and extensive process of the purchases then pose a challenge to customers shopping on EGL Tours’ platform.
“In addition to guiding customers through the buying process, we also need to make sure they are kept informed of any changes to immigration policies, flight routes, or destination restrictions that may affect their travel plans after their purchase.”
Before the pandemic, the majority of EGL Tour’s advertising budget was allocated to traditional media such as newspapers and television. Customers would visit physical stores or call the center’s helpline to learn more. Now, around 70% of its customers discover their products on Google and social media. They also prefer to use instant messaging to talk to a business anywhere at any time. The company’s previous operations were unable to accommodate the needs of these digital savvy customers.
Henry explained: “Our call center staff used to handle both calls and WhatsApp conversations. Unfortunately, messages pile up unread due to the limitation of automation features and the number of devices that can be connected to the free WhatsApp Business App account. We have a team of sales representatives who are experts in specific products and can provide the best advice to the customers. But we were bottlenecked by having to wait for supervisors to manually assign conversations to the staff based on their expertise.”
EGL Tours Hong Kong uses SleekFlow to integrate WhatsApp Business API and Facebook page into their operations, implementing an omnichannel strategy to adapt to new consumer behavior and grow their business.
During the awareness stage, EGL Tours uses SleekFlow's Facebook ad automation tool to run flash sale campaigns and comment-to-win contests.
In comparison to simply placing ads, they notice a significant increase in post click and engagement rates by ensuring that all commenters receive replies via direct messages (DMs).
The snowball effect is incredible. Each time someone engages with our content, the Facebook algorithm understands that users want to see more, and it helps us get seen more in the news feed of audiences with similar interests.