Productivity Tools to Streamline Your Agency’s Workflow

If you feel overwhelmed by the online world, you’re not alone.

The Internet, mobile devices, email, social media – these were all supposed to make us more productive, not less. But in today’s digital world, most people, travel sellers among them, are getting less done than ever during the workday.

Here’s a selection of apps, plugins and online services that can boost your productivity and help you regain a sense of control. They include recommendations from a savvy travel agent, a social media consultant and a technology expert, plus a few favorites of our own.

Google tools
Google offers a number of free tools to help you better organize your online life.

Google Reader. This lets you subscribe to a number of websites and blogs with one click, so you can read a single list of stories, instead of opening your browser bookmarks one at a time.

“I read it just like I would my inbox,” said Sophie Bujold, travel industry consultant.

Google Alert. A service that will send you an email anytime a search term of your choice is mentioned online. It keeps you up-to-date on what the Internet is saying about you, your agency, your competitors, current events, supplier issues, and more.

Google Apps for Business. For businesses looking to share information among employees, access to services starts at $5 per month, a major discount compared to Microsoft Office.

“I’m a big user of Google Apps for business – their Gmail platform and all the plugins that go with that,” said Bujold. “You can access your documents everywhere, and there are a ton of productivity tools to make it even better.”

Gmail plugins
You can customize your Gmail experience with plugins that expand the service’s capabilities.

•    Boomerang. This plugin manages the flood of emails by letting you schedule incoming mail to be re-delivered to you at a time of day when you can respond to it; Boomerang also allows you to pre-schedule outgoing emails as well. “It’s great for anything you need to follow up on and allows you to send email at a later date,” Bujold said.

•    Rapportive. This Gmail plugin automatically displays in your inbox current data culled from the Web about your email contacts. This gives you immediate access to vital information from sources such as LinkedIn and Twitter, saving you research time when responding to a potential sales lead or new customer inquiries.

Social media shortcuts
Let’s face it – diving into social media can be time-consuming inefficient. It’s not just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn either — the list of platforms for reaching current and potential customers keeps growing. (One of the latest additions is Vine, Twitter’s platform for six-second videos.)

Keep it simple with these tools.

Buffer. Tired of figuring out how to time your social media posts so they have maximum impact? Buffer can help.

The service automatically schedules your posts during the day so they reach the maximum number of followers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

“Buffer listens to when your followers are online and helps you tweet according to that,” said Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer of Columbia University, speaking earlier this year at the 10th annual New York Times Travel Show.

TweetChat. Twitter chats have emerged as a novel way to communicate with other travel professionals and consumers. This service simplifies the process by condensing chats outside your main Twitter feed.

“Tweetchat shows you a dashboard of just what’s happening in that chat,” said Bujold. “It also automatically adds hashtags to all replies.” (Hashtags are used to categorize tweets, making it easier to find related tweets on a given topic.)

Boxcar. This app allows you to receive notifications from several social media accounts at once on your mobile phone, so you no longer have to switch back and forth between accounts.

“I oversee three business accounts and my personal one. Anytime someone mentions me, replies to me, re-tweets something of mine or direct messages me on any of the accounts, it pops up on my phone,” said Maya Northen, president of Chimera Travel in Philadelphia.

“I do a ton of my communication with vendors through Twitter – it’s often the easiest way to get a hold of them, especially if you need information quickly – so it’s very helpful.”

Ning. Building a digital community around your agency or travel specialty is a daunting task. Ning makes it easy by integrating your website and blog with social media, giving users a central location to interact and share.

“It’s like a private Facebook that you build or a private LinkedIn,” said Sreenivasan. “It’s a social media platform for the community you build where users can connect and share. The cheapest [account] is just $25 a month.”

Tools for daily business tasks
There are plenty of apps available that promise to save time on daily business tasks. Here are a few that were recommended to Travel Market Report.

Expensify. Keeping track of your business and personal or household expenses, especially when you’re on the road, can be a major headache. Expensify  automatically tracks what you spend, allowing you to create simple reports afterward.

“I use Expensify on my iPhone and computer,” said Bujold. “It’s pretty amazing. You can connect it to your bank account and it will track your expenses, even if you are out on the road.”

TimeTrade. This is an online appointment scheduler that syncs with your calendar, so clients and potential clients can schedule a meeting or call when you have time available and avoid endless back-and-forth emails. You can post a link on your website and/or email it to contacts. You’ll never have to worry about a conflict again.

“For the small agencies especially, it makes the process of prospecting a lot easier,” said Bujold.

Evernote. This is a sleek solution to the challenge of organizing notes that you take in multiple places, including your computer and mobile devices.
 
“Evernote is my absolute favorite,” said Northen. “I can jot down random notes (i.e. ‘I loved this restaurant’), take notes at a meeting, write articles and access it from any of my devices and the Web. You can add tags, categories, pictures, and more, and make it as organized as you’d like.”