Tauck Revamps Travel Agent Incentive Program And Adds Materials To Help You Sell

Tauck’s Swiss Emearld. Photo: J. Wayne Higgs

In a “crowded and sometimes confusing European river cruising market,” Tauck aims to distinguish itself by enhancing its travel agent incentive program and adding new sales materials to help its best distribution. 

Now in its third year, the agent incentive program rewards agents with credits that can be applied to their own Tauck vacations. “It gives agents the opportunity to be one of our guests, to earn and travel on any of our trips and bring anyone they want with them,” vice president of global sales Steve Spivak told TMR. “When advisors have experienced the product, they are that much more connected to who we are and what we do.”

Where in the past Tauck just did a flat agent discount, the new program awards points for bookings and offers an automated site where agents can review their points balance, track pending points from bookings, and apply earned points to their own travels.  

The goal is to “mirror the on-tour experience for our agents,” Spivak said, and provide the same “excellent experience to the people who sell your products” as to those who pay for it.  

The Tauck Academy program, which provides agents with free face-to-face training and product experience, was created with the same thoughts in mind. “Our agents are very much like our guests, in terms of their love of travel, their belief that travel is transformation and that it’s something worth investing in,” he said.  

Materials to help you sell
Tauck also is adding materials to its agent marketing site, including a new 24-page sales guide to serve as “a desk reference to help illustrate ‘the Tauck difference’ to our agent partners,” Spivak said.  

The sales guide includes information on Tauck’s all-inclusive pricing, onboard staff, destination experience and river vessels; there also are tools to help agents sell, such as suggestions on types client agents might target, an FAQ and conversion strategies.  

“We know there’s a lot out there in the market in terms of content; if you look on the surface, it’s a sea of sameness,” Spivak said. “What we provide to agents is a reference guide that gives them all the details they need to tell the full story to the client. 

The guide will be mailed to travel agencies, along with a poster with information on Tauck’s river-cruise product and a printed grid comparing Tauck to other cruise lines in terms of onboard experiences, excursions and cruise components.  

“We enjoy a very strong relationship with the travel agent community,” he said. “Everything we do from a sales standpoint is really geared toward supporting agents, helping them grow their business and giving them the tools they need to convert their customers to sales.”