Chasing suppliers is the most frustrating part of an advisor’s day – and entirely avoidable, according to the founder and CEO of tour and activity software provider Hubsteer.
“Confirming availability, getting pickup times, checking whether a change went through, waiting on a reply from an operator who’s out on the water,” Dinesh Kaku said. “If the supplier’s systems answer instantly and accurately, that whole category of work disappears.”
Kaku said automation should handle logistics while advisors keep the relationship.
“Clients don’t value an advisor for sending a confirmation email or looking up a pickup time,” he said. “They value judgement, local knowledge and someone who has their back when things go wrong.”
He said the supplier side’s job was to make sure operators answered logistics queries instantly, “so advisors get their time back for the part only a human can do”.
Hubsteer, formerly Dazhboards, sits across the booking, messaging, review, marketing and accounting software operators already use, integrating with platforms including Rezdy, FareHarbor, Bókun and Ventrata. The Melbourne-based company says automating repetitive tasks cuts operators’ admin time by more than 30 per cent.
Kaku said the AI behind it had to do more than answer questions.
“A chatbot that answers questions but then hands the guest a phone number is another tool to manage,” he said. His test for any operator is whether they have fewer tabs open after switching it on.
The company says operators have recorded more than $36,000 in chat-assisted sales through its chatbot, much of it from after-hours enquiries that would otherwise have waited until morning. Kaku said third-party distribution “will always have a place, especially through advisors”, but that operators should not pay commission on guests already on their own website.
The company announced the rebrand on 10 November, changing its name, logo, colours and tagline – “Simple. Connected. Sorted.” – after two years of operator feedback that the Dazhboards name was hard to say and spell. The product is unchanged and Dazhboards Pty Ltd remains the legal entity.
duniapermainan.id