Sceptre Tours Woos Travel Agents with Smart Tools

Sceptre Tours is looking to recruit more than a few smart travel agents with a new set of online strategies and tools.

The new technology, which was rolled out at a press conference earlier this month, anticipates changes in itineraries based on customer feedback, and will hopefully discourage agents from working with travel companies that use business to consumer brands.

At the same time, Sceptre is debuting a new booking engine, dubbed “PerfectFIT,” allows agents to build a custom, multi-city vacation in minutes. To sweeten this new development, Sceptre is offering a special incentive to agents who register and make their first bookings by Nov. 15.

Better itinerary control based on client feedback
Sceptre’s inventory is now live and accessible, allowing agents to review and rework itineraries without engaging more than one screen on their desks. Clients can “try on” various components and agents can discard what does not work in the blink of an eye. The site interfaces with smaller devices such as phones and tablets.

Familiar with the pain points agents gripe among themselves such as the fear that tour operators will steal their clients, and how some clients can transform into time sucks instead of closed sales, Ben Block, CEO of CH Enterprise & Associates that recently reacquired Sceptre, said “As part of our research, we saw how hard travel agents work to build and maintain their relationships with their clients.  We don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“On the contrary, our approach is to empower travel agents to cement the bonds with their clients by helping them satisfy their client needs again and again,” he added.

With the new platform, Sceptre allows agents to keep clients engaged when they are not traveling.  The site also includes web content on destinations that is offered to clients to pique their interest, but does not include restaurant content.

“The goal is to help travel agents be smarter about how they manage their business when it comes to working with their clients,” Block said.

Topping the list of tools are the more than 450 pre-built packages to more than 40 countries that include all the components any client will need—flights, itineraries, complete pricing, pictures and maps of hotels, tours, cars, rail options, and transfers between cities and hotels.

For a limited time, the company is offering a $50 Amazon gift card for any travel agents who complete their first booking using the PerfectFIT booking engine. To qualify, the agent must complete the booking online and do so by November 15, 2018. Agents must be registered on the Sceptre website in order to use the PerfectFIT engine. Qualified agents will receive the gift card in time for Cyber Monday shopping.

A renewed relationship with travel agents
Something happened on the way to Sceptre being owned, sold and repurchased. The focus shifted to online bookings without catering to the trade. Block saw this as a huge mistake that would backfire.

“Ignore the trade at your own risk” is what he told Sceptre’s previous owners. By de-emphasizing the trade, and trying to create the business to consumer link, the company was missing a huge segment of sales that could represent big bonuses for the tour operator as well as agents.

By creating tools that could better insure agents can close sales quicker, Block felt that would also create a most necessary alliance with the trade. Currently, Sceptre counts on a database of 3,000 agents while the company attempts to add consortia and a wider base of agents to its team.

Based on Sceptre’s research, millennial agents shy away from using call centers, opting instead for online sits and options to print itineraries on demand for clients. Younger clients tend to opt for lower-end products priced under $1,000 versus the custom FIT that reaches a higher price point for older travelers.

DH Enterprise and Associates, which owns Great Value Vacations, is dedicating itself to travel agent success with the recent launch of several new tools designed to increase travel agent efficiency and revenue.