In today’s episode of the Conversational Messaging Podcast, Thiagarajan “Thia” Rajagopalan, Founder and CEO of Tripeur, joins Srini to discuss how conversational messaging can massively get rid of customer pain points while increasing brands’ efficiency. Tune in for a conversation about how better communication equates better brand reputation. 

The Changes in Consumer Requirements 

COVID has definitely brought massive changes on the way people travel, regardless if its for leisure or for business. According to Thia, people demand more information about travel arrangements, places they’re travelling to (restrictions, policies, etc.), and have expectations in terms of the place, hotel, etc.). All of these are driven by the fact that people’s regard for safety alongside convenience has become higher. This drives the need for better communication. 

“I would say the travel industry is innovating and adapting to the new needs of the travelers. I would say this is just the beginning, we are just scratching the surface.” - Thia Rajagopalan

The Increased Need for Communication

Because people’s priority is safety, communication has become more important than ever. As many travelling transactions are affected by the pandemic, there is also an enormous need to provide consumers with the information. Hence, it is important to provide contactless but reliable communication to consumers. 

Thia believes that automating this process through conversational messaging is the best way to optimise operations.  

“Since we are a tech company, we started focusing on, ‘how do I let the user help himself or herself, without having to speak to anybody without having to even pick up the phone and talk to somebody?’” - Thia Rajagopalan

Ensuring Your Brand’s Good Reputation 

Before, brands’ reputation used to be completely based on their customers’ offline and real-time experience. However, with the accessibility of technology, the market has become so much more competitive than the way it used to be. Consumers now assess brands in terms of their online services (e.g. mobile apps performance, etc.). Hence, today, brands should be making an effort to impress the users not only while they are actively transacting with brands but also before and after their transactions. Brands can do this by sending out personalised messages to customers, which Thia believes to have a positive influence on brands’ reputation.

“Social media is becoming very, very common for all the users. The direct connectivity between the service provider and the consumer is only going to accelerate, and it'll go to the next level.” - Thia Rajagopalan

Bio:

Thiagarajan “Thia” Rajagopalan founded Tripeur, an AI-powered end-to-end corporate travel management platform. With a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Computer Science, Thia is a known figure in product management and product marketing associated with telecom giants such as Motorola, Qualcomm, and Mobileum . 

Srini has over 2 decades of experience in running marketing for high-growth technology companies and managing corporate marketing, product marketing and demand generation. Prior to Gupshup, he held marketing leadership positions with Qubole, Pluralsight, Mobileum and Tejas Networks.

Resources:

Gupshup.io

Tripeur.com