SOUTHLAKE, Texas -- Sabre unveiled an automated voice-response
system for travel agencies and airlines that enables clients to
search for flights, hotels and car rental information and to cancel
segments without interacting with a live agent.
Sabre Inform, which is geared toward corporate travelers, also
includes an alerting service, under which agency clients can
receive real-time alerts about flight status over the phone and
through personal digital assistants, e-mail, two-way pagers or fax
machines. (A similar service is already in place for agency clients
through Sabre's online marketing tool, Sabre Virtually There.)
Several travel agencies are beta-testing Sabre Inform, and two
other customers, Southwest and Wal-Mart, already have signed up.
Both companies are using the voice service to enable their
employees to retrieve travel information and to cancel
segments.
Greg Webb, Sabre's vice president of product marketing, noted
that "time spent on the phone" is a major expense for airlines and
agencies. Sabre Inform can shift some of the volume to a
lower-cost, automated system, he said.
Webb declined to detail the costs but said agencies are charged
for the automated voice-response service based on a per-minute fee
as well as a transfer fee if the agency decides to have some calls
transferred to one of its live agents.
Here's how the automated system works:
An agency client calls a toll-free number and hears an
agency-branded message. The voice system is tied directly into the
Sabre GDS through the TellMe platform, provided by TellMe Networks
of Mountain View, Calif.
Through a series of prompts, travelers can search flights,
hotels and car rental options and retrieve real-time flight
information from 110 airlines.
Agency clients with existing reservations can cancel segments
without speaking to an agent or cancel the reservation in its
entirety.
Webb of Sabre said all standard GDS fees apply to cancellations,
which are queued to the agency.
The agency can customize the voice solution to transfer the
client to an agent or an outsourced call center if the client wants
to book a trip or change a reservation, Webb said. The agency also
can tailor the system to ensure that travelers comply with
corporate policies.
"This can be used for both corporate and leisure agencies," Webb
said. "Corporate travelers are more attuned to automated services
and are much more likely to use this out of the gate."
Future versions of the voice service could incorporate automated
bookings, flight reaccommodations and even seat assignments, Webb
said, but Sabre is evaluating whether there is a market for these
services.