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Bangladesh’s Leading Online Travel Agency Aims Higher: An Interview With Flight Expert CEO Salman Bin Rashid Shah Sayeem

Propelled by rising incomes and a growing appetite for exploration, outbound travel is on the rise in Bangladesh. An increasing number of Bangladeshis are now traveling abroad and spending generously. In 2014, some 1.5 million Bangladeshis visited abroad, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. Outbound travel spending rose from $404.7 million in FY15 to $436.4 million in FY16, a 7.83 percent rise from the previous year. It shows a sign of the rise of a new middle and upper class in the country. These numbers are set to rise significantly in the coming years.

Flight Expert, one of the earliest online travel agencies in the country, has maintained a strong leadership position through investments in customer service and technology. It helps travelers with everything from flights and hotel bookings to planning tour. It also launched a B2B platform Flight Expert Agents, which has seen a steady growth in last one year.

Although OTA is a relatively recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, the number of OTAs has increased in Dhaka in the last few years. The total number of OTAs, of all sizes, are now somewhere north of 50 in the country. According to industry insiders, OTAs now control about 4-6% of the total travel market. The competition has also intensified.

For last two years, Salman and his team at Flight Expert have worked hard to build a strong brand in the market, invested heavily in customer experience and in building lasting relationships with customers and in establishing a strong internal organizational structure and process. The move has paid off. Flight Expert has experienced sustainable growth last year.

Flight Expert CEO Salman Bin Rashid Shah Sayeem sat down with Future Startup Co-founder Ruhul Kader to discuss Flight Experts business, its growth strategy, how it has been investing in building a strong organization, its growing B2B business, the state of online travel agency business in Bangladesh and much more.

Future Startup

When we last spoke in 2018, you had about 25 people in your team, on the platform you had about 500 airlines, 2.5 lakhs hotels, you had a growing business, could you please give us an overview of Flight Expert today?

Salman Bin Rashid Shah Sayeem

The team has grown in size a bit - we are now a team of 48 people. We have expanded to two more cities in Bangladesh - we offices in both Chittagong and Sylhet.

We are exploring district-wise expansion, mostly on the side of B2B. There is an opportunity there to work with a large number of small travel agents who could benefit from our B2B platform.

We have added one lakh hotels last one year. The number is now somewhere north of 3.5 lakhs. Airline wise, it is the same as the previous year number. You could not essentially grow the number at will. One major change is that we have started working with all major local airlines. Last year, we only had Biman. Now we have all three airlines on our platform - Novo, Regent and US Bangla. It has been a positive development because our users now can get domestic tickets as well.

We have become Amadeus's number one agent in Bangladesh. Our ranking was between 15th and 20th last year. They have almost 1000 agents in Bangladesh. We are topping the list consecutively for the last three/four months.

We have invested in figuring out and growing our B2B business. Our B2B business is pretty nascent. We started it last year. It has evolved pretty significantly.

Growth-wise, we have grown up pretty consistently month to month. For many companies, sales often fluctuate. You sell a lot in one month and it drops in another month. It did not happen to us. It has been a year of consistent positive growth. We did not experience huge jump per se but we grew every day. We have grown pretty well from where we were last year. If we consider the entire OTA market in Bangladesh, I would say we own 60% of that market share.

We have matured a lot as an organization as well.

Future Startup

That's something we would love to learn. How much has Flight Expert evolved as an organization?

Salman

One major change is the orientation within the company in terms of customer service. We have always been a customer oriented company, but we have become even more serious about customer service and experience during the last one year. Throughout last one year, we have constantly thought about how we could serve our customers better. We have invested in areas that would help improve the experience of our customers.

We used to be very big in promotion in the past. We cut back on that and instead decided to invest more in customer service and customer experience. We have paid more attention to ensuring better service instead of giving discounts.

The focus has been on building a sustainable business. Instead of offering hefty discounts and offers, we have tried to attract the customers by offering them better service and building a sustainable differentiation in the market.

The strategy has served us well. After sales service is an issue in Bangladesh. Many companies take customer service for granted. We took it as an opportunity and made a decision that we would build one of the best customer services in the country. We have started doing that religiously. That's one major change - instead of focusing on external and ad-hoc things, we are paying more attention to internal things to build lasting relationships with our customers.

We have invested a lot in customer education as well. People still prefer to visit our office and pay in cash. But we try to discourage that. When a customer comes to us, we try to encourage them to buy tickets online. We request them to buy it online sitting in our office.

We have matured as a Team. Unlike the early days, we understand the market better. Since we have gotten better at what we do, customers are also getting better service. Our after sales service has improved a lot. We have made changes to the office hours. Before we were only open 10 am to 6 pm in the weekdays but now we are open 9 am -9 pm during the weekdays and 10 am - 6 pm on weekends and holidays. Flight Expert does not sleep now. We are 365 days open. No matter what, we are here to help our customers. We are putting more investment into customer service and in making our customers happy instead of going after paid marketing. When a customer reaches out to us with a problem, no matter from where we move earth and heaven to help him or her. Today, we support our customers' event at 3 am in the morning. We have decided not to take the discount route, instead, we are offering better after sales support. If you book a ticket with Flight Expert, our internal motto is simple: making you happy. When a customer comes to us, we ask their requirements and accordingly arrange that with our suppliers. We try to guide our customers regarding what is best for them instead of merely doing whatever they are asking for. If we could save them a few penny, we try to do that.

We are doing it for our B2B customers as well. When a B2B company works with us, we try to help them grow and make money whenever there is an opportunity.

We have invested in developing process and systems in the last year. We have learned the benefit of having an established system and process. It makes everything better. We are not done with that yet but we have started the journey to become a process oriented company.

One major change is the orientation within the company in terms of customer service. We have always been a customer oriented company, but we have become even more serious about customer service and experience during the last one year. Throughout last one year, we have constantly thought about how we could serve our customers better. We have invested in areas that would help improve the experience of our customers. We used to be very big in promotion in the past. We cut back on that and instead decided to invest more in customer service and customer experience. We have paid more attention to ensuring better service instead of giving discounts.

Future Startup

Are you sustainable now as a business?

Salman

We are doing well, business-wise. We are at operational break-even on a month to month basis. We are not burning tons of money. Since we are investing in growth, it is different. We see that there is a huge opportunity to exploit and grow in the market and we want to grow. We have that ambition. But in order to grow, you have to invest. We are in conversation to raise investment so that we can take this business to the next level.

Future Startup

How much has your product/platform evolved?

Salman

We have been offering instant ticketing from the beginning. This is nothing new. When you have IATA, you could do it. As I mentioned earlier, we have partnered with all the local airlines.

We have improved the platform a lot because it is a challenge for OTAs to ensure best searching option for customers so that they could find the best deals and compare. We have made meaningful improvements to our platform to ensure that it works for our users.

In B2B, we are now focusing more on customer education. Previously, we did not take much time to do that. We had developed a platform and we thought if we give login and an account to the platform, we are done. But we have changed that approach. We are now going to B2B people, authorized travel agents, who are trying to explore the space and educate them and help them to get started. We also have made changes to our platform to improve the user experience.

Future Startup

How is your B2B business doing? When we last spoke you just launched the platform - flightexperagents.com. How many clients do you have there?

Salman

Our B2B business works with travel agencies. We work only with the agents who have a legal license for doing the business. When we last spoke, we had about 15 agents there. It has not grown drastically. You understand it is B2B business and it takes time to grow. Moreover, we are still piloting the platform and learning the issues that our partners face and support they really need.

The agency business is a bit different. It requires a lot more work than B2C. The needs of B2B businesses are very different from consumer business. When a B2B client needs support, we have to ensure the support instantly. Because they need to support their customer. If we delay in serving them, it limits their ability to serve their customers. If a customer comes to us, we can request him or her to wait for a few minutes but that's not the case with the B2B clients because they depend on our support for serving their customers.

We ensure that we provide instantaneous service to our B2B clients. We are always working hard to improve it. We have started B2B not long ago. It has grown pretty fast in the past few months and is giving us a good business every month.

I would say that the agent experience has improved a lot. We have made changes to the platform. We learned a ton from working with agents and implemented some of those lessons to improve the service. We are now investing a lot of time in educating our B2B clients so that they could do well and operate their business better.

Future Startup

What percentage of your business comes from B2B?

Salman

Almost 40% of our business is coming from B2B. Again, we are very selective when it comes to working with B2B partners. We did not open it up for everyone. There are three companies doing well in B2B space - Haltrip, BeFresh and the another is us.

Future Startup

How do you see the OTA market in Bangladesh now? What's your take on the competition?

Salman

Flight Expert started as a small operation. When we started in Dhaka, OTA was a not a thing yet. Our goal initially was very small - in the first month, our goal was to sell one lakh taka worth of tickets. That was our goal. Fortunately and to our surprise, we outgrew that ambition from day one. That trend has continued since.

The second thing is that we have worked hard to build trust in the market. After us, many new players came and they also worked hard to build trust. This is an expensive and high-end market. A lot of money involved here. A ticket from Dhaka to JFK or London worth a good amount of money. In order to do business here, you have to build trust in the market. Luckily, we have been able to build that trust. People trust us now.

This is not only about us alone. It has happened industry-wide. People now trust OTAs when it comes to managing their travel.

For example, we are among the top ten companies in terms of the online transaction including OTAs, eCommerce companies and all other companies that receive online payment in Bangladesh.

These are some very positive development. When we started, there was very little awareness. Over the past two years, the market has grown. Awareness is there. The trust is there. If you combine these three things, the future can only go one direction - up. So I’m extremely hopeful about the future of OTA business in Bangladesh. This is a tremendous opportunity and we are just getting started.

We have been trying to do is growing sustainably. Building the trust in the market so that it helps us down the line 4-5 years when there is a big business to be built.

Flight Expert started as a small operation. When we started in Dhaka, OTA was a not a thing yet. Our goal initially was very small - in the first month, our goal was to sell one lakh taka worth of tickets. That was our goal. Fortunately and to our surprise, we outgrew that ambition from day one. That trend has continued since.

Future Startup

How big is the market?

Salman

OTA almost took 4-5% of the entire travel market in Bangladesh in the last few years. We launched about 22 months ago and most OTAs are of similar age. It means the market is pretty nascent but the growth has been tremendous. Our estimation is that by 2025 OTA should take north of 45% of the market. The signals in the market are very positive.

Future Startup

As you mentioned there are a few other players there as well. As the market grows, the competition is likely to intensify. Are you concern about competition?

Salman

We are far from competing in the market. We are at a growth stage and everyone is trying to serve their TG. Yes, if you could stay ahead in the market, it would offer long term advantage. But growing the overall market is a major challenge now and it can't be done by any single player. Everyone has to come forward and do it together.

I think this is a time of heavy lifting and we can’t think about the competition now. Instead, we are focusing on building better relationships with our customers.

I think it would be even better if we have more players in the market. It means then we would be able to grow the market faster. The competition will start after a few years.

The best way to grow your business is becoming a customer first company. When your customers trust you, you don’t need any marketing to grow. Be transparent with your customers to build a relationship of trust. We have taken that lesson to heart in 2018.

Future Startup

You have been working on raising investment, any update on that?

Salman

We have experienced tremendous growth in the past two years. We are aware that there is a huge opportunity to explore in this market in Bangladesh. We believe if we could raise some investment, particularly, smart investment, it would be useful to expand our operation and grow further. We have not started the process yet. Our goal is to start exploring opportunities from mid this year.

We are considering to raise an initial round since we see there is a huge opportunity to grab and we believe smart investment and investors with aligned ambition could help us to grow further. We are in conversation with a few local and international investors. Let's see how it goes.

We are currently working with PwC to structure our operation. We are working on establishing corporate governance and bring the proper operational process and due diligence.

Future Startup

What are a few goals for 2019?

Salman

Learning more, as an organization, is a goal. Whatever we have learned in 2018, apply that lessons and grow further.

Corporate governance is a priority. We want to clean-up all the departments of the company in 2019. We have worked a bit on developing process and systems in 2018. We plan to accelerate the pace of that in 2019. Our ambition is to become a completely process oriented company in 2019. That's going to be the major priority. If we could have a well-functioning organization, the rest should take care of itself.

Growth is always a priority. So that's there. We are always working hard to grow further, grow our sales and so on. This push will continue. But we believe our growth will further accelerate if we could get it right as an organization.

Future Startup

What are your predictions for OTA in 2019?

Salman

There are about 50 OTAs operating in Bangladesh at this moment. This tells that there is a minimal level of awareness in the market. This is a welcome development so to say. The thing now we need to pay attention to is offering proper customer service so that people trust OTAs and they use the service.

The importance of understanding my team and then developing a better of working relationship with them is the biggest lesson for me in 2018. I have learned that it is people who build a company.

Future Startup

What are some lessons you have learned in 2018?

Salman

That I have a lot to learn and that I should prioritize my learning. I mentioned it as our organizational goal in 2019. But that’s something that I have learned for myself as well.

Offering hefty discounts is not the only way to grow your business. Instead of offering discounts without a strategy, what we should prioritize is that we should invest in understanding our customers better and then offer them what they need and want. In the entire 2018, we did not offer any discount on ticket and we have grown pretty steadily. We have put a lot of importance on service, which has helped us a lot. The best way to grow your business is becoming a customer first company. When your customers trust you, you don’t need any marketing to grow. Be transparent with your customers to build a relationship of trust. We have taken that lesson to heart in 2018.

The importance of understanding my team and then developing a better of working relationship with them is the biggest lesson for me in 2018. I have learned that it is people who build a company. We have built a wonderful team of people who genuinely own their work. But we have a lot more to do there.

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