Search Travel Market Report

alg
ALG Sponsored
mainlogo
www.travelmarketreport.com
  • News
  • Packaged Travel
  • Cruise
  • Hotels & Resorts
  • Destinations
  • Retail Strategies
  • Niche & Luxury
  • Air
  • Training & Resources
  • Who We Are
    • Brian Israel
    • Briana Bonfiglio
    • Dan McCarthy
    • Dori Saltzman
    • Jennifer Arango
    • Kelly Fontenelle
    • Keri-Anne Slevin
    • Louis Intreglia
    • Tom McCarthy
Sponsored By ALG
Sponsored By ALG

Still Haven’t Embraced CRM? It’s Time to Get Onboard

by Marilee Crocker / October 13, 2015

This is part one in a three-part series.

Travel agents who aren’t making good use of a customer relationship management system, or who lack access to a CRM application altogether, are losing out in a big way.

“Without question, a serious travel agent should have a CRM system. If you don’t, you’re just playing,” said Scott Koepf, CTC, senior vice president of sales for Avoya Travel/American Express.

“From our perspective, client relationships are the most important asset a travel company has,” agreed Karen Yeates, executive vice president of information technologies at Signature Travel Network. “The only way to stay on top of that is to have a CRM system.”

If you are among the many agents who still are mystified by CRM systems, or challenged by the technology, Travel Market Report offers the following primer.

What is CRM?
At its most basic, a customer relationship management application gives agents tools to record, track, and manage everything they need to know about their clients, from personal data to information about trip preferences and upcoming travel plans. It acts as a central repository for information about each client, and can be used for both transactional and marketing purposes.

“It is the one place where all of the data is kept, so you can retrieve it in an easy manner,” Koepf said.

Having all that data in centralized client profiles enhances three critical aspects of an agent’s business: sales, customer service and marketing.

Building lifelong relationships
Client profiles allow agents to respond to and reach out to customers in a way that “enhances the relationship, so the customer feels the agent really knows them, is looking out for their needs and thinking about them,” said John Werner, CTC, president and COO of MAST Travel Network.

It’s all about providing communications to customers that are personalized, timely, and relevant.

Sabre’s Sharon Meyer offered a big-picture explanation. “The heart of it is the customer and what we know about that customer, so we can leverage this lifelong relationship with them.”

CRM really “enables an agency to evolve its brand through effective marketing, exceptional service, and high-touch client strategies,” added Meyer, director, agency back office and CRM for Sabre, whose Clientbase application dominates the market. (Other CRM offerings for agents include ClientEase, newcomer VacationCRM, and a few home-grown proprietary systems, such as one that Avoya makes available to its agents.)

High-touch service
Agents can use the applications to manage all phases of client contact, from trip planning and booking to follow-up. Ideally, an agency’s CRM system is “the cornerstone of all client interactions,” Yeates said.

It begins when agents create an electronic client file in the CRM, ideally when a customer makes his or her first inquiry about a booking. Then the agent uses that file to record their interactions every step of the way, including research, vendor quotes, client itineraries, documentation, payment reminders, notes about client conversations and preferences, and more.

This client file, which in Clientbase is called a Res Card, is key to the kinds of high-touch strategies that can differentiate a leisure agent from the competition.

Signature Travel Network, for example, uses Clientbase as a platform for tools that make it easy for its agents to push out information and reminders, such as prompts about buying insurance and booking trip add-ons, as well as content about destinations, and messaging during and after the trip.

The idea is to use branded communications to excite the customer and keep them tied to the consultant throughout the whole process.

“They’re touching their customers with basic things, like welcoming new customers when they come in, bon-voyage and welcome-home messages, passport renewals, celebrating anniversaries,” Meyer said.

Targeted marketing
CRMs create a huge marketing advantage for an aegncy, providing tools to deliver targeted and timely promotions. As Koepf explained, agents use customer relationship data “to make sure they’re sending the right offer to the right person at the right time.”

Increasingly, travel agency consortia use CRM to power their marketing programs, using data gleaned from client profiles and Res Cards to market more effectively on their members’ behalf.

MAST, for instance, ties some of its marketing to Clientbase. “Our email marketing and even direct mail customer list segmentation is very reliant on Clientbase as a tool,” Werner said.

Signature uses Clientbase to get what Yeates called a “unified view” of clients, including their responses to Signature marketing, such as which messages they opened and clicked on. “We use that whole picture to make the best choices to send them the most relevant messages.”

The consortia also provide those analytics to member agencies, so they can follow up with clients who have demonstrated interest in a product, product category, or destination.

. . . and more
CRMs incorporate many other functions as well.

They interface with web-based booking engines and/or GDSs, allowing agents to export profile data into the passenger name record (PNR) and in turn import reservations back into CRM customer profiles, saving agents time and increasing accuracy.

They provide efficiencies, such as agent reminders and daily to-do lists, and facilitate business functions such as invoicing, financial accounting, and internal reporting.

They make it possible to analyze sales data, useful both in supplier negotiations and in guiding future sales and marketing efforts.

And they can be a big help to agencies involved in the group market, streamlining management functions, such as creating group reports and rooming lists, and group marketing.

Next time: How to get more out of your CRM

  12
  2
ALG Sponsored
Related Articles
Nobu Hospitality Expands "NB" GDS Chain Code
The Travel Institute Releases New Logo for Travel Agent Proficiency Test Graduates
ASTA Launches Four New Travel Advisor Career Pathway Trainings
Nexion’s 2023 Rising Star Reveals How She Succeeds as a New Travel Advisor
Five Star Alliance Opens StarHub Hotel Booking Platform to More Agencies
United Will Remove Basic Economy from Non-NDC GDS Channels in September
Corporate Travel and Aviation: Providing Connections and Genuine Service
What Travel Advisors Should Know About 2021 Taxes
The Sitata App Offers Travelers Peace of Mind While Abroad
Delta Air Lines CEO Talks the Future of Free WiFi, AI and More at CES 2020

MOST VIEWED

  1. The Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Travel Deals for 2023
  2. The Ten 'Most Christmassy' Towns in the U.S.
  3. U.S. State Department Warns Travelers About GPS Dangers in South Africa
  4. The Worst Airports for Holiday Flight Delays
  5. What Will Be the Biggest Travel Trends of 2024?
  6. Royal Caribbean Monitoring Haiti Violence


  1. Here Are the New Cruise Ships Debuting in 2024
  2. Dondra Ritzenthaler to Join Azamara as CEO
  3. Iceland Travel Update: Southwest Earthquakes Heighten Risk of Volcanic Activity
  4. The World's Most Expensive Flights
  5. CBD Gummies Result in Lifetime Passenger Ban for Carnival Cruiser
  6. Southwest Pilots Set Up Regional Strike Center in Preparation for a Strike
TMR THIS WEEK
Presented by Windstar
//services.travelsavers.com/AMGService.svc/REST/GetImage?ImageID=31e281c0-9d92-ee11-adc6-005056a855ed&Width=350&Height&250

Consultative Selling for Travel Advisors: Why It is Important and How to Do It

With consultative selling, a travel professional is viewed as a trusted advisor (more akin to a lawyer, financial advisor, or other high-level consultant). 

Read More...
TMR Subscription

Subscribe today to receive daily in-depth coverage, analysis of industry news, trends and issues that affect how you do business. Subscribe now for free.

Subscribe to TMR

Top Stories
10 Things Travel Advisors Need to Do to Wrap Up This Year & Prepare for the Next (Part 2)
10 Things Travel Advisors Need to Do to Wrap Up This Year & Prepare for the Next (Part 2)

Five more things advisors told TMR they do to wrap up the year and position themselves for an amazing next year.

Read...
Mazatlán – A Colonial City on the Beach
Mazatlán – A Colonial City on the Beach

If you pride yourself on recommending fabulous vacation destinations that aren’t the typical hotspots, consider Mazatlán, the Pearl of the Pacific. 

Read...
10 Things Travel Advisors Need to Do to Wrap Up This Year & Prepare for the Next (Part 1)
10 Things Travel Advisors Need to Do to Wrap Up This Year & Prepare for the Next (Part 1)

The first five of 10 things advisors told TMR they do to wrap up the year and position themselves for an amazing next year.

Read...
Willamette Valley Oregon to Serve as Host of Tourism Cares' 2024 Travel Summit
Willamette Valley Oregon to Serve as Host of Tourism Cares' 2024 Travel Summit

The 2024 fall Meaningful Travel Summit will be held in Eugene Oregon, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. 

Read...
Survey Reveals Americans Seek Mindful Travel in 2024
Survey Reveals Americans Seek Mindful Travel in 2024

Travelers are taking more factors into consideration for their 2024 trips.

Read...
Classic Vacations Partners with Freelance Marketplace Provider for Low-Cost Advisor Memberships
Classic Vacations Partners with Freelance Marketplace Provider for Low-Cost Advisor Memberships

Membership gives advisors access to a marketplace of pre-qualified administrative assistants, content writers, and more. 

Read...
OUTLOOKS & WHITE PAPERS
Trends in River Cruise, 2023
European Travel Trends 2023
Winning in The Tech Era: Essential Insights for Travel Advisors
View All
Advertiser's Voice
//services.travelsavers.com/AMGService.svc/REST/GetImage?ImageID=eab7b0d4-2e94-ee11-adc6-005056a855ed
Video: What Makes a Good Travel Advisor?
ALG sponsored
About Travel Market Report Mission Staff Advisory Board Advertise
TMR Resources Webinars Calendar of Events Outlook/Whitepapers Previous Sponsored Articles Previous This Week Articles
Subscribe to TMR
Select Language
Do You Have an Idea Email
editor@travelmarketreport.com
Give Us a Call
1-(516) 730-3097
Drop Us a Note
Travel Market Report
71 Audrey Ave, Oyster Bay, NY 11771
News |Packaged Travel |Cruise |Hotels & Resorts |Destinations |Retail Strategies |Niche & Luxury |Air |Training & Resources |Who We Are
© 2005 - 2023 Travel Market Report, an American Marketing Group Inc. Company All Rights Reserved | 243 South Street, Oyster Bay, NY, 11771 USA | Telephone (516) 730-3097| Terms and Conditions
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy