This is another in a Travel Weekly series of reports by
editor-at-large Nadine Godwin on customer relationship management
(CRM). The reports focus on ways travel firms build lasting, more
profitable relationships with their customers. CRM generally relies
heavily on customer databases that enable managers to customize
programs for clients. Travel Weekly's technology conference, in
Chicago May 20 to 22, carries a companion theme: "Using Technology
to Strengthen Client Relationships."
CLIFTON, N.J. -- Just Travel, a mostly leisure agency with up to
$1.7 million in annual sales, is trying some new things this year,
utilizing a database manager already in place (ClientBase Plus) and
testing opportunities presented by highly focused Web sites.
Owner Kathy Lazor said she has been advertising at TheKnot.com,
a wedding- and honeymoon-planning Web site, for several years but
did not really take advantage of that enterprise until now. Her
advertising dollars give her the rights to leads generated at the
site.
She started downloading names and contact information a few
months ago and sent postcards to prospects in January promoting
Tahiti. That project did not work too well.
Lazor tried again in March, this time promoting a Sandals
honeymoon to 1,400 prospects, all of whom lived within a reasonable
geographic range of her New Jersey agency and with wedding dates of
July 1 or later.
The prospects were incentivized to book within three weeks, by
April 12.
This effort yielded 10 bookings and about $5,000 in added
revenue for the agency.
Costs included the mailing, at less than $500, and the Web
advertising, now about $100 a month. There also was a one-time
expense for setting up the basic design of all honeymoon mailings
-- which Lazor said she will use repeatedly -- with appropriate
adjustments for future missives to prospects from TheKnot.com.
She said the agency downloads the newest leads each week and
updates its TheKnot.com database, adding prospects and deleting
those whose weddings are probably too close to make them likely
buyers.
The result is that prospects with wedding dates well into the
future will hear from Just Travel several times, and Lazor said she
is betting the firm will benefit from the cumulative effect of
successive promotions.
Another honeymoon-selling effort -- which is more of an
"experiment," Lazor said -- utilizes WedAlert.com, a site that
functions as a referral service for travel agencies.
Participating agencies buy the right to be the exclusive
recipients of queries from prospects interested in specific
destinations and product lines. Lazor said early this year, she
paid $1,000 each for rights to all queries about Mexico and
SuperClubs (Sandals was taken).
She has received scores of inquiries but is not yet sure how
best to convert these to sales in significant numbers. But starting
this month, the agency will call all prospects, who are scattered
across the country.
Do you have a high percentage of repeat business? How do you
do it? Write to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].
CRM road map
Objective
To grow the customer base efficiently by focusing on a narrowly
defined market.
Action
Utilize advertising and other options for getting leads from Web
sites designed for engaged couples.
Results
$5,000 in additional commission revenue in three weeks.