travel essentials

Transformation @ Work

Episode 50: Project Rewind: Salesforce Travel Essentials

travel essentials

Transformation @ Work

Episode 50: Project Rewind: Salesforce Travel Essentials

Transformation @ Work

Episode 50: Project Rewind: Salesforce Travel Essentials

Cruise & Vacation Desk logo

George A. Barnett

Jr., President and General Manager
Cruise & Vacation Desk

George has been part of the Cruise & Vacation Desk team for over 20 years, eventually taking over the company from his father and stepping into the role of president and general manager.

Andrew Bonichi

Andrew Bonichi

Vice President and COO
Cruise & Vacation Desk

Andrew has worked in the travel industry for over 30 years, the past 21 of which has been with Cruise & Vacation Desk. As Vice President and COO, Andrew leads his team in delivering industry-leading vacation packages and rewards programs to their customer base.

Ketta Riley

Ketta Riley

Travel, Tourism & Entertainment Leader

Ketta has over 35 years of travel and hospitality leadership experience, 10 of which have been spent working on Salesforce implementations. She leverages her experience combined with extensive knowledge of industry market trends to support our customers’ businesses.

Valentine Christopher

Valentine Christopher

Director of Delivery
Gerent

Valentine brings over 25 years of experience in IT consulting to his current role, with over 8 years specifically in the Salesforce ecosystem. In his current role, he leverages that experience to help set up businesses in the travel, tourism, and entertainment industries for success with Salesforce.

Travel agencies take pride in offering customers a relaxing, simplified alternative to the chaos of booking flights, hotels, and vacation destinations. But what is simple for the traveler is often anything but for the professionals responsible for coordinating vacation logistics. Too often, agents are overwhelmed by data and left to navigate unsupportive, user-unfriendly booking and CRM systems.

Travel agencies take pride in offering customers a relaxing, simplified alternative to the chaos of booking flights, hotels, and vacation destinations. But what is simple for the traveler is often anything but for the professionals responsible for coordinating vacation logistics. Too often, agents are overwhelmed by data and left to navigate unsupportive, user-unfriendly booking and CRM systems.

This is precisely the problem Cruise & Vacation Desk was dealing with — and why the agency’s leaders reached out to Gerent to help them find a better solution. In this episode on Transformation @ Work, we break down the end result of that partnership: Travel Essentials, a bespoke Salesforce solution purpose-built for the needs of the travel industry.

Key Highlights

01:40: Challenges faced by travel agents when booking vacations for customers: complicated data streams, managing multiple relationships, and more

03:41: The complexities of managing customer data and relationships without a comprehensive CRM

04:47: The current state of how travel agencies manage data: complicated, costly house-built CRM solutions

06:34: Why Cruise & Vacation Desk sought out a better option for managing customer data

07:20: Key features Cruise & Vacation Desk needed in their CRM to truly simplify the booking process

09:45: How Travel Essentials helped Cruise & Vacation Desk transform the booking experience

10:45: Business outcomes Cruise & Vacation Desk were able to unlock with Travel Essentials

11:24: Exploring the scalability that Travel Essentials offers Cruise & Vacation Desk and similar travel agencies

12:38: How Travel Essentials supercharges Cruise & Vacation Desk’s marketing capabilities

14:55: How Cruise & Vacation Desk plans to leverage Travel Essentials for future growth

16:58: Looking ahead: what Travel Essentials offers to the travel industry at large

About Our Guests

Cruise & Vacation Desk

Cruise & Vacation Desk is a fully-bonded and insured travel agency with 25+ years experience in mass-market, boutique, and river cruising. The organization also has an extensive knowledge of and expertise in the all-inclusive resort, destination vacation, and escorted tour markets.

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