Intrepid Group

We’re using Salesforce to reimagine everything we do so we can surprise and delight our customers – before, during and after their trip.”

Michelle Beveridge | Chief Information Officer
 

17%

YoY business growth with the help of Salesforce

 

Intrepid blazes a new trail in travel with sustainable adventures for everyone

Retaining the title of world’s largest adventure travel company requires a passion for new experiences. That’s why Intrepid continues to innovate and create new ways for customers to connect with the world. The B Corp certified travel company balances purpose and profit and believes in giving back to the places and people it visits. “We believe that travel can change the way people see the world, so we want to deliver experiences that keep them coming back for more,” said James Thornton, Chief Executive Officer.

Today, those experiences are more tailored and seamless than ever as Intrepid transforms with Salesforce to get closer to customers and scale internationally.

Embracing new opportunities

Intrepid’s transformation began after it emerged from a four-year partnership with a listed company and, once again, became independent. Intrepid’s founders saw an opportunity to take their vision for travel to a like-minded audience globally, but first, the business had to adopt new ways of working.

The company had the data but lacked the technology to personalise the customer journey across its brands. Weighed down by manual processes, it was difficult to scale. So Intrepid decided to centralise all of its customer data on Salesforce and use the platform to power smarter service and personalised engagement.

Michelle Beveridge, Chief Information Officer of Intrepid, said “We’re using Salesforce to reimagine everything we do so that we can surprise and delight our customers – before, during and after their trip.”

Personalising the customer journey from end-to-end

With the customer at the centre of its transformation, Intrepid has now established a dedicated CX team with a remit to improve the end-to-end customer experience. Using Marketing Cloud, the team has been working to improve that experience by increasing the timeliness and relevancy of communications.

Angela Flynn, Global CRM Manager, said that in the past the company was missing out on opportunities to connect with customers.

“For trips like our tours to the Antarctic, customers may book up to two years in advance. There’s a lot they want to learn during that time about the trip and how to prepare, but we weren’t engaging with them as often as we should have and this is one area where Salesforce has made a big difference. We’ve set up personalised journeys where we can trigger a series of communications to help customers get ready and really excited about their trips,” said Flynn. 

Intrepid has established a series of other journeys to drive more efficient and regular engagement with current and future customers. These include abandoned cart journeys, trip anniversary journeys and journeys in response to brochure requests. With Einstein Email Recommendations and integration with Google Analytics, Intrepid is able to add personalised trip recommendations to these emails based on customer’s previous travels and interactions on the website. Some of these journeys are seeing open rates up to 50% compared to average open rates of 20%. More importantly, they are helping to bring Intrepid closer to its customers.

The company is using Social Studio to help centrally manage planning and scheduling for all its social media channels. Regional teams manage moderation and engagement which ensures customers receive a quick response. Intrepid ultimately plans to expand its use of Social Studio and integrate it with Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud so that it can interact seamlessly with customers across channels and their entire journey.

“Social media is a huge growth channel for us and we want to use Salesforce to better manage all of the communications coming in and direct it to the right teams for a faster response,” said Flynn.

Delivering faster, more proactive support

Intrepid has already integrated Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud to provide a more holistic customer experience. It can now press pause on a customer’s journey in Marketing Cloud while it works to resolve a case. It can also react faster to NPS feedback by automatically triggering support cases. These small touches extend the efficiencies and broader support capabilities Intrepid has gained using Service Cloud.

“We were managing everything out of email and spreadsheets before and it could take up to 20 days to respond to a complaint. Now, all customer data and cases are linked which has increased transparency and provides a better experience when responding to customers,” said Beveridge. “We’ve also introduced live chat which our customers and travel agents love as it makes it easier for them to interact with us at a time that’s convenient for them.” 

With the introduction of a new support team in Sri Lanka, Intrepid has also extended its support hours to better meet customer needs. So when they are online in the evening researching or booking travel, they can reach out via live chat and get the help they need right away.

Rebuilding for scale

To achieve its desired growth and improve the experience of employees, partners and customers, Intrepid Travel is continuing to innovate and use technology to simplify and scale its operations. Sales Cloud is helping it to better manage relationships with travel agents and Intrepid’s destination management company (PEAK DMC) is using Sales Cloud to manage client relationships for a relatively new and fast growing business white labelling tours on their behalf.

Leveraging the single customer view, Intrepid has built a mobile portal using React Native that connects with Salesforce to streamline collaboration with trip leaders. Leaders can log onto the portal and access trip manifests rather than printing out spreadsheets. They can get a clearer view of customers to better manage their individual requirements and make the check-in process more seamless.

The results of these transformations include 17% year-on-year growth as well as a 31% increase in sales for the destination management companies. At the same time, Intrepid is operating much more efficiently with the time to complete processes like customer insurance checks reduced by 90%.

Intrepid is also forging a deeper connection with its customers which will support its continued expansion as well as the aims of The Intrepid Foundation. The company’s not-for-profit supports projects in areas like healthcare, education and human rights along with environmental and wildlife protection.

“The transformation underway is touching every part of our business, from the projects we support through The Intrepid Foundation right through to supporting our employees and partners to deliver an even better customer experience,” said Beveridge. “It’s a journey we’re all excited to be on.”

 
 

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