Classic Vacations has launched a new business program, Classic Assist, which puts new and improved marketing and business-management tools online for agents to use to build their businesses.
The Classic Assist online service center automates a variety of functions for agents, including customized electronic and print marketing pieces, account management, season holiday inventory lists, how-to marketing guides and live chat.
Classic will continue to support agents with its 23 business-development managers and its reservation agents and customer-service reps.
Besides putting marketing online, Classic has added a new marketing piece, an online travel brochure that readers can flip through or zoom into. Agents can customize these brochures with their logos and contact information.
Agents also can set up a vanity URL and share these brochures with clients. They can send information about one property, a region subset or the whole customized brochure.
From there, clients can book directly from the customized brochure. It takes them into a booking engine, which is also customized with the agent’s logo and information. All bookings are tracked through Classic’s back-end technology, so travel agents automatically get commissions.
Agents can also customize print collateral. Classic has introduced a new feature for customizing its lifestyle brochures.
Agents can go into the Classic Assist service center and create a brochure that uses Classic’s content but is branded by the agent. They can choose from a library of images to use for the brochure cover, and on the inside cover they can use Classic’s suggested copy or write their own.
Classic will ship printed marketing materials for agents, using a third party for that shipping so that it never sees the agents’ client information.
Classic has also upgraded its forwarding emails, improving the designs, layouts and types of offers that are available. On April 15, it will launch a series of weekly exclusive offers called the “Real Deal.”
Agents will receive 100 Royalty Reward points for signing up for Classic Assist.
“Our company thrives on the success of our dedicated travel partners so we are committed to investing in them,” said Greg Bernd, co-president of Classic. “We want to offer them more support to gain repeat customers and drive sales, and make their lives easier in the process.”
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.