What’s Holding Some Suppliers Back from Advance Commission Payments?
byDori Saltzman/
上周旅行市场报告探讨beplay客服了为什么有些供应商会听取旅行顾问社区的电话to make advance commission payments available。但是,并非所有供应商都在做出改变。
Here, we look at why advance commission payments aren’t as easy as advisors might wish, and why some of the complexities of paying commissions ahead of travel are holding suppliers back from making the switch.
为什么有些供应商退缩
除非您从头开始建立预订和支付系统(例如Explora Journeys所做的),否则要弄清楚如何进行预付款(如有必要,请给他们回电)并不容易。这是供应商的普遍回应,但不仅仅是一个空的借口。
Even building from scratch wasn’t a walk in the park, said Chris Austin, chief sales officer at Explora Journeys.
“从我们在Versonix的合作伙伴的反应中,他们对这个想法的创造力表示了荣幸,然后这不是一周的工作。如果时间是复杂的因素,我会说即使在一个全新的平台上,他们也必须考虑一下。”
我们与我们交谈的每个供应商都提到了进入这样一个系统的接触点的数量。
Collette全球业务执行副总裁Christian Leibl-Cote解释说:“您必须与之合作。”“呼叫中心,会计,执行团队,全都共同努力……这不是一件简单的事情。”
每个人还找到了自己管理程序的方法。
“We had to look, as a company, what is feasible for us to do from an efficiency standpoint,” said Ann Chamberlin, vice president of sales at Scenic and Emerald. “We realized those are some things we couldn’t do [payment on deposit], that would be more difficult to do.
取而代之的是,风景秀丽的祖母绿和祖母绿都在全额付款中进行了佣金,必须批准代理机构。
“It isn’t carte blanche,” she added. “We needed to go with an enrollment because we wanted to make sure that we were capturing the agency information correctly and ensuring the owner of the agency was approved.”
At the Globus family of brands, advance commissions are handled manually, chief sales officer Camille Olivere told TMR. The company has been paying commission upon full payment for several years, but recently added payment on usage of letter of credit as well.
“It is difficult,” she said. “We don’t have technology to address this. We do it manually.”
这不是大多数供应商可以做的。
“一些大的邮轮公司,我可以certainly empathize. It would be a huge challenge for them. Investing in technology that doesn’t have a direct impact on revenue is a challenge as well,” Olivere said.
“Suppliers have to take a look at their own systems and their efficiencies,” Chamberlin said. “While I think all of us want to do right by the trade and help them recover quickly and get money into their hands more quickly, but there’s also the process behind the team to generate that.”
换句话说,公司不仅需要支持交易的愿望。他们需要金钱和人力资源。
“I think it is quite a legitimate comment,” Austin said. “It’s not just a fabricated answer because people don’t want to do it.”
The Elephant in the Room
Among the many complications with advance commission payments is what Chamberlin called the “elephant in the room” – commission recalls. It’s part of why Scenic and Emerald went with a sign-up program. Their vetting applicants to ensure they’ll get the money back if a recall is required.
“我们参与其中,因为他们必须在计划上签字。我们觉得我们得到了承诺,”她说。
“This is the nature of our industry,” Olivere told TMR. “That goods that are purchased can be returned until they’re past the final payment period.”
她补充说,召回是Globus品牌家族付款而不是存款的主要原因之一。
“We think that’s the best way to ensure that an agent doesn’t become in debt because at any point there can be a cancellation… I think that travel advisors need to be cautious in what they’re asking for because getting too much money in early, when you have that risk of cancellation. Then you become in debt and that’s not a good place to be either.”
Collette决定完全跳过这个问题。旅游公司从不召回预付款付款。
Leibl-Cote说:“对我们来说,最大的区别是我们不会回电。”“即使我们取消旅行或客户取消。我们想做的是认识到代理商完成了所有这项工作。您已经赚了200美元。”
Explora旅行选择了一个中间立场。邮轮公司为旅行顾问提供了一个六个月的窗口,以找到新的预订以支付佣金付款。
“We’ve been told, yes, if it happened, they’d be able to find another client,” Austin said. “Of course, in the eventuality that they hadn’t [found another booking], then yes, full transparency, we would do a commission recall.”
(奥斯汀和张伯林补充说,他们的公司的灵活,无需收费的变更政策也有助于防止许多取消。)
Host Agencies – Another Layer of Complexity
Adding another layer of complexity to getting commission payments into advisors’ hands earlier is that of the host agency. All suppliers pay commission to the parent agency that’s booked with them. How those commissions are then passed on to individual advisors is up to the parent company.
In some cases, suppliers can work with hosts to ensure that commissions get passed down.
“We’ve had to finesse [our program] a little bit with our host agencies,” Chamberlin said. “Some of them operate on a commission split basis and what would happen in the event of a commission recall. So, we are working on an individual basis with the host agencies that are interested in the program where they can pay their ICs if that works for their business model.”
尽管她没有提到Avoya的名字,但联合首席执行官杰夫·安德森(Jeff Anderson)在接受TMR的采访时提到,Avoya确实与供应商合作,能够提供ICS提前付款。出于所有其他原因,许多其他供应商都不会犹豫。
未来的浪潮?
当被问及他们是否认为自己是提前委员会付款政策的新波的一部分时,供应商高管TMR与他说,他们相信其他供应商正在观看。
“他们很好奇,”张伯林说。“它在我们方面取得了成功,然后我认为他们会更多。”
Austin said much the same. “Some may look to see if their share is moving to those other brands that have created these programs,” he said.
Leibl-Cote同意,该行业将看到更多的公司开始进行一些高级佣金,但补充说:“每个人都会有不同的规则。”
奥利维尔说,这一浪潮已经开始。她告诉TMR:“现在有更多的供应商在做这件供应商(佣金付款)比先前的供应商。”
在旅行前支付佣金的供应商中,有一些邮轮行业的知名人士。例如,狂欢节邮轮公司在收到全额付款后支付佣金(如果有后续的取消,确实会召回付款)。
其他供应商也在努力将时间表提升,即使不早于Collette。Windstar Cruises正在升级其系统,以便能够在出发前14天支付佣金。(根据Windstar的说法,升级计划在Covid-19之前已经制定了,预计将于23年春季推出。)