 Today we challenge one of our elements that have a greater contact with our customers to share how the Home Office has been for him. Having already a long experience in the e-GDS support team, today we challenge Mário Guedes.
First of all, we want to know how you have been dealing with this new way of working? What practices and actions have been taken to ensure that your work would not be affected?
Home Office has been very interesting and challenging, as well as surprisingly enjoyable! At home, other situations that are not just work, and being more "at home" to solve is very good.
Work and home are always present in our day-to-day, and we have to be much more disciplined and responsible for achieving a healthy life!
As we work with technology, the transition was very simple. We are more relaxed and focused with a different pace than the office, with more productivity.
Being so close to the hotels' reopening, what kind of support has been given to e-GDS clients? What are your biggest fears?
Clients have been concerned with loading offers for years to come, so that there is already an offer and the possibility of reservations. Promotions and discounts, as well as the flexibility of cancellation policies are also the elements that customers have questioned.
The need awakes curiosity and doubts arise… we always give all the necessary and very close support, so that customers can rest easy and feel that we are here to help them: having confidence is fundamental for using technology-based solutions and webbased as ours.
One of the biggest fears is the uncertainty that reigns at the moment, and the restrictions that have to be applied for the business to open that will limit the coming times until this pandemic passes.
How do you see the future of the hotel industry and how can e-GDS support it?
What is happening is something unprecedented, for which we were not naturally prepared. It is therefore a time of reinvention, of focus, adaptation and change. Hoteliers will have to reinvent themselves!
New technologies are a fundamental and a support for this and, therefore, we are focused on providing information and support to customers that could help their business at this time.
Almost finished, we want to know what have been the most peculiar questions you have received throughout your support experience?
As in life, there is a lot of diversity… There are both customers who quickly use our tools effectively and confidently, as well as others who are more insecure and with more doubts. And of course we have also been faced with changes in the hospitality industry: there are issues like "what is a Stopsales", or "what is a PMS", etc ... that are commonly used in both hospitality and information technology that are sometimes not so present ...
Nobody is born a hotelier, you have to learn! And these peculiar questions from customers have demonstrated this: there is still a lack of training and technological awareness in hospitality. But fortunately that is changing! And we are here to help with that ...
Finally, what incentive word do you want to leave to e-GDS customers?
This is another challenging phase that we are all going through, and that we will overcome together… so, let us take advantage of the moment and what we have, to reach the customer effectively, using all available tools, giving him the right price, all confidence and security when booking and staying. And better days will come!
We would like to thank our colleague Mário Guedes for sharing this experience, which is undoubtedly a fundamental part of the e-GDS team. |