05 Feb 2024by Harry Kemble
The Travel Village Group (TVG) has introduced new “time-saving” technology for cruise sales agents within the business.
Phil Nuttall praised Vertical Systems and Dreamlake for meeting the deadlines he set (Credit: TVG)
Travel technology firms Vertical Systems and Dreamlake developed the “end-to-end” service for the Blackpool-based agency after TVG chief executive Phil Nuttall approached them in November.
The service means a file is generated in the back-office system as soon as the customer makes a cruise booking, boosting efficiency without incurring any additional labour costs.
Vertical Systems said the service is a “valuable asset for both individual agents and businesses, offering a convenient solution while upholding data transparency”.
It hopes to release the Dreamlake and Tarsc integration to other customers “in the coming weeks”.
Vertical Systems currently support Barrhead Travel, Advantage Travel Partnership, The Travel Network Group’s homeworking division – Independent Travel Experts, and Midcounties Co-operative Travel with their back-end systems.
Nuttall said: “It’s been an exciting journey working with Ben Rodger [Vertical Systems managing director] and Ewout [Smits, business development at Dreamlake].
“Everything we asked for has been delivered on time and [TVG brand website] Southampton Cruise Centre has had its busiest month ever in January. There has been a 100% success rate in the hand-off.”
Rodger added: “When Phil came to us at the beginning of November and asked us for an end-to-end solution before peaks, for his increasing number of cruise bookings, we knew we had our work cut out.
“To deliver it to him and his team as promised is testament to ours and Dreamlake’s mutual desires to deliver agent performance enhancing technologies.”
Smits also hailed the “exciting” development journey, saying: “Working with equally dedicated partners such as Vertical Systems to deliver the vision of Travel Village has been an exciting journey of challenging the norms.
“Together we have created a solution that will allow Travel Village to continue on a path and challenge the rest of the cruise agency industry to truly embrace e-commerce and digital sales.”
In September, TVG made its ocean cruise website – Southampton Cruise Centre – bookable in a bid to capitalise on the growing number of customers searching for sailings outside the business hours.
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