As business and leisure travel around the world continues to rebound after COVID, nomad.me has created a unique new service at just the right time: a first-of-its-kind membership site for booking travel.
Because the startup company operates as a subscription-based, closed user group, nomad.me can give its members access to deals on flights, hotels, and other services at far lower rates than the public ever sees. And because the company’s revenue comes entirely from members’ $295 annual fees, nomad.me is also able to pass these deals straight through to members with no markup or commission.
This unique booking service has caught on quickly with travelers around the world. As a result, nomad.me is scaling its operations at a rapid pace. Fortunately, the company chose a cloud communications solution that’s keeping its team connected and productive no matter where they’re based in the world or how quickly the staff grows.
Startup + lockdown = big change of plans
Chief Operating Officer Sarah Abbott explains that when the founding team began building nomad.me in 2020, their vision was to have everyone working in the company’s new Los Angeles office. But the lockdowns disrupted those plans, and nomad.me needed to pivot to operate as a remote organization. A cloud-based unified communications solution quickly became a must-have for the growing company.
As Sarah explains, “The first thing that impressed me about RingCentral had nothing to do with the platform itself. It was the team behind it. The account managers were never pushy, and they never tried to sell us something we didn’t need. They were patient, listened to our needs, and helped us customize a communications environment perfectly suited to our remote staff and our changing needs.”
Sarah felt even more confident about her decision when RingCentral’s implementation team helped the staff get up and running on their new communications platform. “Our implementation team was so helpful. They helped us record our phone greetings, walked us through using the online admin portal to set up our call routing plans, and patiently answered all our questions.”
The biggest perk of an all-in-one communication platform
As the nomad.me staff began using the RingCentral apps on their computers and mobile phones, Sarah explains, they quickly found ways to improve their workflows with each of the platform’s communication services—starting with voice calls.
“We’ve been a global team essentially from day one. Our developers are in India, our designer is based in Italy, and we have other creatives working on nomad.me in San Diego. Everyone can communicate easily by phone because they’re all in our RingCentral cloud environment.”
The team also appreciates being able to communicate with vendors and partners by SMS text using their RingCentral business number. “The SMS capability is great because we can have those text communications in our RingCentral environment and never give out our personal numbers,” Sarah explains.
Additionally, Sarah points out, she uses the built-in RingCentral Video for business meetings as well as to interview candidates. “If I’m talking with anyone outside our company, say a potential partner or a new-hire, I’m probably going to use the RingCentral Video. I really appreciate how clean and easy to use the app is, and that I can host or join a meeting from anywhere using the app on my phone.”
When it’s time to grow, be ready
Finally, Sarah explains that RingCentral has proven such a flexible and powerful communication solution that it’s now playing a central role in several of the company’s plans for growth. As one example, she cites the forthcoming nomad.me customer support operation.
“We’re planning to roll out more RingCentral features to power our new customer call center. That will include the call queues, the skills-based routing, the analytics engine, and integrating RingCentral with both our help desk app and our HubSpot CRM. It’s great to know we have a communications solution capable of growing with us—and in fact helping us to grow even faster.”
Originally published Jan 27, 2022, updated Dec 30, 2022
