Omnichannel The travel and hospitality industry has seen its fair share of disruption and

upheaval over the years, much of it driven by technology. As a result, there’s been
an unrelenting focus to reinvent traveler experiences to meet unique demands.

made easy But putting technology and cool amenities aside, an exceptional customer
experience across all touchpoints remains at the forefront of successful hospitality
brands. This means providing your guests with a true omnichannel experience

Implementation checklist backed by the people, processes and technology to make it all happen.

for travel and hospitality To support executive discussions, TELUS International sought out Everest
Group to create a two-part series to help organizations assess their omnichannel

companies readiness (From Multichannel to Omnichannel Customer Experience) and

to help them prepare for omnichannel implementation (Delivering Omnichannel
Customer Experience). Building on these reports, we’ve distilled lessons
from omnichannel experts into a clear checklist to help today’s most successful
brands gain traveler loyalty while managing the complex process of moving to an
omnichannel strategy.

PEOPLE
□□ Establish an omnichannel customer experience as a
strategic priority across the organization and engage
executive management to champion the effort
□□ Create an internal transition team drawn from senior
leadership across departments to drive and advocate
the delivery of omnichannel services
□□ Increase employee awareness about the benefits
of omnichannel and its impact on current roles and
responsibilities
□□ Identify training and hiring requirements by cataloging
the most critical skills required for omnichannel
services, mapping them to existing skills, and noting
gaps
□□ Redesign recruitment and training processes to ensure
the development of critical skills and expertise to
handle cross-channel interactions
□□ Plan and budget for costs associated with retraining
and new hiring profiles
□□ Revise the compensation structure and incentives,
aligning both to new performance expectations that
target business outcomes
For more information about the omnichannel customer experience, download our omnichannel brochure or
reach out to one of our omnichannel specialists to arrange a free omnichannel readiness assessment.
Implementation checklist for travel and hospitality companies
Source: Delivering Omni-channel Customer Experience, Everest Group, 2017
PROCESS
□□ Engage process leaders across the organization to
ensure buy-in
□□ Redesign business processes to achieve centralization
of customer insights that will make channel-agnostic
support possible
□□ Map end-to-end customer journeys to ensure proactive
response to customer need and to identify critical
moments of truth during travel to enable proactive
customer outreach
□□ Streamline all customer touchpoints with consistent
and relevant information throughout their entire travel
experience
□□ Engage customers in their preferred channel of
choice with contextual and personalized content and
information
□□ Identify opportunities for continuous improvement of
customer experience by implementing design feedback
loops for all services transitioned to omnichannel
delivery
□□ Identify new omnichannel KPIs and metrics for decision
points in the customers’ travel cycle including research,
booking, travel, and feedback
□□ Optimize locations and delivery mix strategies to
support the requirements of omnichannel service
offerings
Omnichannel made easy
TECHNOLOGY
□□ Adopt standardized technology architecture and non-
invasive open platforms that can seamlessly integrate
with existing legacy systems where applicable
□□ Connect all digital and physical channels eliminating
siloes for customers to enable them to start and end
their travel cycle from any channel
□□ Create a centralized database of customer profiles,
travel history, behaviors, experiences and feedback
drawing from multiple channels (chat, social media,
email, etc.)
□□ Ensure consistency and visibility of customer data
across all channels
□□ Engage the customers throughout their travel with
automated self-service solutions to conveniently
change schedules, report problems, and receive
updates
□□ Leverage predictive and prescriptive analytics solutions
to proactively notify customers about travel delays,
upgrade options, and dining options, and to forecast
demand to optimize pricing in real time
□□ Implement secure digital transactions with trusted
payment gateways and dynamically generated
passwords and security questions
□□ Redesign websites, mobile, and tablet apps to offer a
consistent customer experience
□□ Identify omnichannel technology functionality that will
support timely cross-sell or up-sell opportunities to
address travel needs
□□ Develop a sourcing strategy to partner with technology
vendors and service providers that offer omnichannel
travel and hospitality services