Here’s Why You Need to Reach Loyalty Status With Select Suppliers
The travel industry is bursting at the seams with supplier partner programs for land, air, and sea that are designed to help travel advisors maximize their earnings. But not all advisors are reaping the benefits. Here are some thoughts to consider and help determine if you’re making full use of reaching loyalty status with your select preferred partners in order to grow your revenues and profits.
The magnet of incentives, bonus commissions
“激励措施是我们决定预订的一个因素,”旅行顾问兼Travel Savvi,Inc。的所有者Kristi Huss说,大多数经验丰富的旅行顾问都会同意。“通常,我们查看提供优势的最佳地点,并比较看看哪些是为客户提供的最佳选择。”该机构的优势是:“例如,当您进行一些预订时,佣金又有5%或更多的佣金时,就会好像您正在获得其他预订一样。
“我认为忠诚计划是双赢的。作为代理商,我们从额外的佣金,激励措施和旅行福利中获利。反过来,我们将他们作为我们的最佳选择之一,因为我们收获并亲身经历了他人。供应商从我们的业务中获取更多的业务,而不是将其传播出去,并能够与他们建立更好的关系。”
但是要警告,并非所有忠诚度计划都是平等的。丹尼斯·威金斯(Denise Wiggins)全球执行顾问/首席执行官丹尼斯·威金斯(Denise L.服务。“是的,金钱是金钱(无论是如何交付),但是在我看来,出售产品以降低质量激励措施并不明智。我评估所有低悬挂水果的报价,但我不会流产一个为客户服务的品牌,只是为了获得有限或一次性的低奖励。
Wiggins offered this further caveat: “I will never compromise a client's trip for an incentive that does not serve or match the client's needs just to pad my pocket for extra rewards. I have known advisors who have lost time and money trying to fix their client’s trip when it went south for a less-than-quality trip that missed the mark because the advisor desired the incentive and was not putting their client’s needs first. If it's not right for the customer, it's not right for me. It's important that incentives are not the driver behind what I choose to quote/offer to my clients for the sole purpose of serving me. Yes, it's part of the equation, but not the driving force. But, being organized and knowing what agent incentives are on the table can allow me to benefit should there be an alignment.
“The ultimate key is a supplier brand recognizing the value of an advisor program because it confirms to me that they recognize the value I can bring in return - and being in business together is good for everyone, including our mutual clients.”
Better educated advisors sell more
As travel advisors participate in FAMs and Seminars-At-Sea, they experience the hotel, cruise line, or destination firsthand much like their clients will. They become the expert, better able to sell the experiences offered by select travel partners.
Steven Gould, CTC ECC, president/CEO of Goulds Travel, explained in more depth: “Travel advisors have the opportunity to decide how they would best like to work with their preferred suppliers. We can either book directly with the hotel or through a tour operator of our choice. By using a preferred tour operator, we have the ability to ‘double dip’ into the tour operator’s loyalty programs, as well as that of the individual hotel. By having access to tour operator and hotel loyalty programs, we can essentially build our complimentary nights and bonus commissions to experience the products or destinations we sell firsthand. I believe this really helps travel advisors become the expert to better sell the experience rather than reading off a fact sheet.”
Creates built-in marketers
威金斯(Wiggins)关于忠诚度计划如何帮助营销提出了一个有趣的观点:“我注意到何时高质量的产品品牌(我在这些年中取得了重大成功,并且我的客户总是非常满意)提供忠诚度好处,我的客户成为我的内置营销人员。客户获得了一场高质量且令人难忘的旅行,与他人分享(有时甚至在他们离开之前,由于他们的兴奋而离开),并且我的忠诚度优势成倍增长,因为新销售来自门口。
“Do I still sell these brands without the promo? Absolutely. Do I love the loyalty programs? Without a doubt. I love watching my agent promo benefits grow quickly … It's definitely an incentive to keep such brands on my radar.”
Wiggins noted that she also creates marketing around supplier incentive programs, which gives her exposure and is highly advantageous for her agency. She is empowered to extend great deals to her clients, and sometimes then uses the loyalty reward to put back into her business to grow it.
Better tracking tools for business forecasting
Partner programs also offer valuable business operations tools, as Gould explained: “As an agency owner, supplier loyalty programs really help me create a better perspective of how we’re selling a particular brand or product. Many loyalty programs track the number of sales, dollar amounts of each booking, and much more, so we can easily forecast our growth with our preferred suppliers.”
The enhanced sales tracking also helps advisors to identify and offer bonus booking incentives for clients based on overall volume; and to more easily identify appropriate offers that combine cruise and hotel, for instance.
“Clients typically do not know of the relationship between suppliers and advisors; however, through trackability of loyalty programs, travel advisors are also able to offer bonus booking incentives for clients based on our overall volume,” said Gould. “So, even though the client may not know about the individual loyalty programs, they do help make us look like Rockstars!”
Strengthens advisor-supplier relationships
Loyalty programs strengthen the relationships between advisors and suppliers. “Travel advisors like to work with brands/partners that work WITH us, not against us,” Gould said. “By creating loyalty programs, many hotels and cruise lines have created additional value for travel advisors to do business with them specifically, and it’s usually a small way to give back and say thanks for the partnership that we’ve created together.
“We’ve also noticed many suppliers doing things like VIPing a client at check-in, offering a welcome amenity that they may not normally receive, or even an upgrade, solely based on the partnership we have with our preferred suppliers.”
Gould recommends that travel advisors meet with their BDMs and preferred suppliers at least once a quarter, if not more regularly, to discuss how they are trending based on their supplier loyalty programs. And, he said, “I know I’m personally guilty of it, but I’m sure we’ve all been told time and time again – REGISTER YOUR BOOKINGS! Remember, when you book directly with your preferred supplier partner, chances are the bookings will be registered automatically. However, if you’re double-dipping by using a third party, you could be leaving a lot of money or incentives on the table!”
对于大多数旅行顾问关于底线the relationships they have with travel suppliers is just how Wiggins described it: “Give me a quality brand that knows exactly what drives my business while providing robust programs (incentives/benefits/education) and we're in a partnership for the long-haul.”
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