Skift Take
Digitizing, streamlining, and simplifying how employees communicate and collaborate is essential to truly empowering firstline workers to deliver results. Providing them with the right tools is key.
In order to meaningfully engage employees and customers, it’s increasingly important for travel companies to empower their employees with communication tools that allow them to connect and collaborate so that they can solve problems in real time.
In fact, 78 percent of travel industry leaders say that empowering their firstline (or frontline) employees is critical to their long-term strategy, according to a Harvard Business Review (HBR) report commissioned by Microsoft. However, only 23 percent of firstline workers feel that they have the right technology to do their job, according to a Forrester study, also commissioned by Microsoft. The Forrester research additionally reveals that 46 percent of employees ranked the ability to collaborate with their colleagues as one of the top five capabilities they need to fulfill their responsibilities.
“Today’s airline and hospitality customers are looking for swift problem resolution, real-time support, personalized service, and consistent experiences across all touchpoints,” said Julie Shainock, managing director for travel, transportation, and hospitality at Microsoft. “Therefore, travel brands must extend the application of advanced technologies to all levels of the organization to unlock productivity, efficiency, and ensure that the firstline workers have the tools they need to capitalize on the moments that matter most to customers.”
Breaking down information and communication silos
According to Shainock, “each department in airlines and hospitality often uses disparate tools that are specific to their tasks. While these tools work successfully within each departme
