Dan Langevin — Vice President, Sales and Marketing — Softvoyage

In today’s competitive marketplace, travel agents need all the help they can get when it comes to staying ahead of the pack. Enter Softvoyage, Canada’s leading travel tech company, which recently announced the launch of two new powerful – and free – sales tools for SIREV users. We ask Dan Langevin, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, about the highly touted Personalized Vacation Brochure and Trip Book, and how both products make sharing, browsing and booking easier for agents.

1. How exactly does the new Personalized Vacation Brochure benefit agents?

It simplifies the process of sharing information with customers. With only a few clicks, the agent can share a very professional online brochure about the vacation or vacations just discussed. It has tons of relevant information such as summary of the trip (price, flight times, etc.), description of the property with pictures and in some cases videos, the exact location on a map, a Travel Guide about the destination as well as the latest comments about the property from Monarc.ca. Of course, you can also set alerts if the price drops or increases so the agent can inform their customer.

2. Why do you think travel agents need Trip Book?

Tripbook is a post-sale tool. At the discretion of the agent, they can share booking information with their customers. The electronic ‘Add Payment’ or ‘Cancel’ tabs are great new features that make the life of the agent a little easier. It provides central and secure access for the client to retrieve the detailed itinerary and the supplier’s official electronic travel documentation (e-docs), while becoming familiar with the destination, hotel and local activities. It is also very well received by clients. It is personalized from the agent and the look and feel is very professional.

3. How easy is it for travel agents to learn how to use these new products?

Most of the agents in Canada are already familiar with Sirev, whether they are using www.sirev.com or some of our partners such as Amadeus Tours, Galileo Vacations and Sabre Vacations, all of which have access to Tripsearch and Tripbook. One of the most complicated things we do at Softvoyage is keeping things simple. It is easy to get carried away. In this case, we made it very easy for agents to use and embrace.

4. What has been the initial reaction so far from the travel agent community about these two new products?

The feedback we have been receiving is very positive. Once they use it for the fist time, it becomes an integral tool that they really enjoy and so do their customers. It’s a win-win. We received good feedback about new features agents would like to see and we are working on some of them as we speak and will be adding very soon.

5. How much does agent feedback play a role in determining new products and services?

What a great question. It is 100% what drives all the development at Softvoyage. We are software developers exclusively for the travel industry. Nothing else. We do not sell travel, our customers are the ones selling travel so the feedback is extremely important to our development cycle. We take all the ideas and decide on what can be executed.

To learn how to use Personalized Vacation Brochure and Trip Book, watch training videos:

For more information visit softvoyage.com.