Agents Prefer Short, On Point Webinars

Vendor Webinars have multiplied over the past few years, and agents have heard enough to know they want them to be shorter, more to the point, focused on what’s really new as opposed to sales pitches on old products, and available online for replay — or as an alternative to listening live if the time is not convenient.

“I find the most useful Webinars to be those from top executives that present major news about their product, including policy changes,” said Alan Rosen of Sand & C Travel, Boynton Beach, FL.

“Another plus is when the execs provide their perspective on the overall industry: trends in pricing, demand, etc., not just talking about their product. Those that are just reiterating the same sales pitch year after year are not very worthwhile,” Rosen noted.

Lack of flexibility can be an issue, said Lynne Chittim of Travel Leaders, Dundee, Il. She said that they are examples of the growing depersonalization of the business — fewer local reps being replaced by telecommunications from a company’s headquarters. “If a rep comes in for a talk and gets interrupted by a customer, they stop and return when the customer is done. With a Webinar, it doesn’t work that way.”

“Sometimes, the content is very important,” she said. “If it’s on a new product, great. I can’t say they’re a waste of time, but they’re generally not conducive to our time frames of doing business. Being in a mall location, we have a lot of walk in traffic. I’d much rather have the agents dealing with the customers coming in the door than tying up the computer and phone on a webinar.”

She observed that luncheons, breakfast, or after-hour type seminars are being replaced by the Webinars. “I’m not saying that everybody wants to go running to seminars after hours, but there are only so many hours in the work day.”

Flexibility of time would help. “Tuesday is the worst day of the week for our agency — and, indeed, for many full-service travel agents, because that’s ARC day,” she said.

“Other days of the week might be bad for other agents. We’d like them staggered instead of regularly scheduled at the same time each week. It’s very difficult for us to have them the same time as not everybody works Monday through Friday. Our leisure agents in particular work on weekends, too.”

And she echoed the point that Webinars need to be shorter: “So often, they open up for questions; 90% of the time the questions are redundant to the presentation itself. Sometimes these questions are pertaining to a certain situation particular to the agent asking, and that’s not helpful for everybody else listening in. Anytime you have a Webinar you run into, ‘I had this problem with Mrs. Jones.’ Well, we don’t care about the situation with Mrs. Jones.”

One segment of retailers — home-based agents — seem to value Webinars the most. For one thing, they usually don’t have potential shoppers walking in unexpectedly. Also, most of their business is conducted by phone or Internet, so they can schedule around Webinars. And those in smaller municipalities said they weren’t being visited by reps anyway, so Webinars from headquarters represent a big improvement.

“I’ve learned a lot from Webinars,” said Lauralie Staley, Cruise One, Saint Anthony, Idaho. But like others, she said the small talk needs to be replaced by more hard training. “The problem is, too often, it feels like it takes an hour to say what could be said in 15 minutes,” she said. “The quicker it goes, the better they are.”

And just because Staley is home-based doesn’t mean that she, too, doesn’t have interruptions. “It really helps if they let you come back and listen later in the day or in the week,” noted Staley. “Say there’ll be one set at Thursday at 2 p.m., but if you can’t make it, it is good to have the option of coming back at 5 p.m. and listening to a replay.