/ AUTHOR: GONÇALO TEIXEIRA
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is here and may impact your travel agency if you have customers in Europe. Yet, many organizations that are using Viewtravel – Proposal Management and Travel Itinerary Builder Software are taking a “wait and see” approach concerning a major change in the GDPR.
In the European Union (EU), all consumers have the right to request any and all private data that a travel agency, tour operator, airline company or organisation working in the travel and tourism industry might hold about them. They can also dispute it, request changes, and even require it to be deleted. This is called a Subject Access Request (SAR).
Travel agencies that are using Viewtravel – Proposal Management and Travel Itinerary Builder Software have less than 30 days to respond to a SAR, which means they must be able to locate and share all data about that particular consumer—no small feat. When a Guardian Journalist requested her data under the 2016 version of the law, she received a 800-page data dump.
If your travel agency is called on to answer a SAR request, you will need to handle it quickly and accurately. To get prepared, let’s break down this process in four steps.
1. Provide Customers With a Way to Submit a SAR
Your travel agency will need to design and deliver an omni-channel form that will trigger the process of responding to the customer’s request.
2. Procure the Data
The customer’s data probably resides in several systems.
- Do you have personal client data in the Viewtravel – Proposal Management and Travel Itinerary Builder Software database or transaction system? You have to supply it.
- Do you have a separate customer relationship management (CRM) system with client information? You have to supply that as well.
- Do you make acquisitions that have client data in multiple core systems? You also have to supply this.
- Have you augmented data with third-party demographic or psychographic data? You must supply that too.
3. Deliver a Report
The customer can request a digital or printed response from the travel agency. In order to deliver reports to multiple channels, your customer communications management (CCM) system needs to be integrated with the data systems that might hold any private data.
4. Accept Changes and Challenges
If a customer wants to delete, dispute, or discuss any of the findings, your travel agency is required to meet this obligation, which also means managing inbound communications across a variety of channels (print, IVR, live support, web, mobile, etc.). After the consumer requests a change, you will need to produce a new report reflecting these changes.
If SARs are handled manually, there is danger of personal data handling mistakes, errors of omission, and simple processing blunders that can lead to shockingly large fines. You can’t forecast how many SARs an enterprise will receive or how much they will cost to fulfill individually, but automating the procedure by combining your CCM systems, web portals, and CRM systems to deliver rapid compliance can put you ahead of the curve while delivering the best experience possible.
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This article was written based on the article published in Document Strategy published by guest writer Scott Draeger, M-EDP, is Vice President of Product Management at QUADIENT.
Would you like to know more on how Viewtravel – Proposal management and travel itinerary builder software is helping the travel and tourism with their GDPR initiatives? Talk to us or request for a personalized demo.
