Collinson
1m+
COVID-19 test results stored in Salesforce
200
million marketing communications sent per annum
Collinson leads travel sector recovery with Salesforce
Collinson provides a range of products and services that help its clients deliver better experiences to millions of consumers around the world.
It enriches the traveller journey with more than 1,300 lounges and airport experiences. “We want to make every touchpoint on people’s journeys as rewarding and effortless as possible,” said David Evans, Joint CEO for Collinson. “With Salesforce, we can keep improving our services and products to deliver even richer travel experiences.”
As a key partner to global airlines and hotel groups, Collinson is helping to get the world travelling safely again. Its insurance and medical and security assistance solutions provide confidence in the traveller journey.
Collinson also enables its clients to build stronger customer relationships with real-time engagement and conversions that increase the value of loyalty and rewards programmes. Its services touch more than 400 million consumers in nearly every corner of the globe.
Collinson fast-tracks growth and innovation
Collinson has been at the heart of the world’s travel industry for more than three decades. It operates Priority Pass - the most recognised airport lounge and experiences programme, which spans more than 600 airports in 140+ countries.
Maintaining consistency and quality when operating on such a massive scale can be a challenge. But not for Collinson. Thanks to the passion and expertise of its 2,000 employees, the company is trusted by some of the world’s most ambitious brands in the travel, financial services and retail sectors, including Eurostar, Cathay Pacific, Mastercard, Revolut and Hackett.
Collinson’s reputation for innovation and excellence has resulted in annual growth rates of around 25%. “Technology helps us deliver more creative and compelling services that meet the changing needs of customers and travellers,” commented Evans. “With Salesforce, we can react faster and operate smarter.”
“We want to look back in 10 years and know that we made a difference during a global crisis.”
Testing services help travel sector recover from pandemic
Collinson has put this agility to the ultimate test during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We wanted to help the travel sector get moving again by redeploying the skills of our medical assistance experts,” explained Stephen Simpson, Global Marketing and Communications Director for Collinson.
The medical assistance team, which handles 95,000 emergency calls a year on average, already had a track record in helping clients respond to previous pandemics. Collinson leveraged this expertise to develop a new proposition to support the changing needs of its customers and the struggling travel sector.
In October 2020, Collinson launched the UK’s first pre-departure rapid testing facilities at London Heathrow Airport in partnership with Swissport. Testing at borders is crucial for the recovery of global travel, which makes a massive contribution to economies, supply chains, and communities. Since then Collinson has introduced testing facilities at seven UK airports, The O2, and St Pancras Station in London, as well as in Singapore and at Dallas-Fort Worth International, in the US.
But the impact isn’t just economic; travel is important for people’s wellbeing - especially during tough times. “Travel is an important part of our lives - it enables us to reconnect with friends and family and discover new places and experiences,” said Simpson. “It’s been fantastic to see the industry come together to help restore confidence in business and leisure travel and try to protect millions of jobs and livelihoods.”
Portal provides rapid access to results
Collinson’s COVID-19 testing services went from concept to reality in just a matter of weeks. From registration to results, Salesforce underpins the entire COVID-19 testing journey for travellers. “With Salesforce, we can help to stimulate the recovery of the travel sector by providing scalable and reliable testing at airports around the world,” said Evans.
Results for Antigen tests are available within a maximum of 90 minutes via a portal built on Service Cloud and Experience Cloud. The portal provides people with visibility of their latest and previous test results and enables them to print certificates to share with airlines.“We looked at the different technologies available and Salesforce was the fastest way for us to get to market,” explained Lawrence Naested, Collinson’s CTO. “The platform is highly scalable and provides the built-in security controls needed for handling sensitive personal data.”
To accelerate and simplify the COVID-19 testing experience, Collinson has used Lightning Flows and established APIs with off-site labs. Its airport centres can carry out thousands of tests every day. “With Salesforce, we can manage capacity at different testing locations to keep pace with demand as travel restrictions and corridors evolve,” commented Naested.
To date Collinson has administered more than one million COVID-19 tests globally, with all data stored in Salesforce.
Collinson helps people return to work safely
Collinson’s COVID-19 testing services can also be adapated for other situations, such as passengers arriving in the UK from abroad and for employees at their workplaces. Demand for workplace testing is increasing and will be key to safeguarding business continuity and ensuring people feel safe when returning to the workplace. A research study revealed that only half of employees currently feel their workplace is safe.
Collinson is already conducting thousands of daily tests at film and TV studios across the US as well as food manufacturing sites and cruise lines in Europe so business operations can continue safely. “When we build something on Salesforce, we know it’s going to work. The platform is trusted not only by our leadership team but by our clients too,” said Evans.
Collinson clients are also able to request discount codes for their employees, allowing up to 20% off on all testing options, in the UK locations. “I want to look back in 10 years and know that we made a difference during a global crisis,” said Evans. “The tests are our way of supporting travel companies and local communities.”
As a family business, Collinson’s culture has always been founded on caring for others and giving back. “We want to use our expertise to have a positive impact on the world and make our colleagues and customers proud to work with us,” added Evans. In 2020, Collinson embarked on a three-year relationship with Save the Children, which will see the company’s employees provide support to young people in China to help improve their job prospects.
Collinson’s testing expertise has resulted in more than 5,000 reviews and an ‘Excellent’ 4.3 score on Trustpilot, with great reviews demonstrating the impact on individuals and families.
Achieving visibility across multiple products and regions
Like many entrepreneurial companies, Collinson has expanded into multiple markets during its 30-year history. To provide customers, which include 1,400+ banks, with a more joined-up experience, it embarked on a One Collinson programme to unify its global operations and brands. Consolidating its systems and datasets was key to the success of the programme. “We want to be able to track and measure our activities across all product lines and regions in a consistent way,” explained Naested.
To achieve this visibility, Collinson has stepped up its use of Sales Cloud across its business development and account teams in 13 countries. “We now have a global view of our business pipeline, which helps us better understand and respond to the market needs and meet with our customers’ consistently through our regional teams,” added Naested. “Sales Cloud was key to transforming not just our sales operation but how our entire business responds.”
Collinson is also transforming how it engages with prospects during the sales cycle through its use of Pardot, Salesforce's B2B marketing solution. By combining Engagement Studio, Pardot’s lead nurturing engine, with engagement history metrics captured in Sales Cloud, Collinson tracks how prospects interact with different content on different digital channels. “With Pardot, we can segment prospects more effectively and develop more personalised campaigns and content,” said Simpson. “This will help to boost prospect engagement and new business conversion rates.”
Boosting customer engagement for global brands
Collinson’s loyalty and engagement teams have already mastered the art of personalisation when it comes to consumers. The company helps to enhance and run loyalty and engagement programmes that enable big brands to reward and retain their customers. “With Marketing Cloud, we can bring new campaigns and communications to market faster,” said Simpson. “It enables us to share performance analytics with our customers, so they can keep enhancing their loyalty programmes to maximise engagement.”
Collinson uses Marketing Cloud to deliver highly personalised communications for dozens of clients in a number of sectors, including retail, travel, and financial services. It sends around 200 million marketing communications per annum to millions of consumers in every continent using a combination of Email Studio, Interaction Studio, and Journey Builder.
Collinson inspires greater loyalty with millions of consumers
Customer engagement has always been a big deal for Collinson. In fact, it was a desire to boost loyalty in the travel sector that started the Collinson story back in 1987. “My dad was inspired by his frequent travelling to launch the world’s first loyalty agency. He knew there was the potential to deliver richer customer experiences,” revealed Evans.
And Collinson has harnessed that potential to benefit millions of consumers and thousands of companies around the world. “We are focused on long-term value not short-term return,” said Evans. “With Salesforce, we can help our customers build stronger relationships and deliver better experiences that drive greater loyalty and engagement.”
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