HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- When agents need to find just the right
supplier -- say, to provide transfers in Rome -- where do they turn?
At Cruise Planners, until recently, the answer was an Excel
spreadsheet of suppliers compiled by the home office.
"There were so many vendors, so many destinations," said
Vicky Garcia, COO of the Coral Springs, Fla.-based franchiser. "It was
horrendous, because it had become so big."
So this year, Cruise Planners scrapped the spreadsheet and
created a true database with a much more refined search capability.
The Vacation Wizard recommendation engine was just one of
the technology upgrades highlighted by Cruise Planners executives at their
annual conference for franchisees here last week.
Garcia and Cruise Planners CEO Michelle Fee detailed the
most significant of 753 tech updates made to the franchise system in 2019.
To sharpen their focus on sources of revenue, agents got a
module called Top 20 Client List, which enables them to quickly home in on
their top clients, based either on total sales or on total number of trips.
Agents also got Cruise Planner's version of the Uplift
vacation financing program, and in early 2020 they will see a new loyalty
program called Cruise Planners Rewards through which clients can earn points
redeemable for luxury merchandise based on how much they spend with a Cruise
Planners agent.
Other agent networks also have loyalty programs, but with
different structures. CruiseOne/Dream Vacations, for example, rolled out a
loyalty plan in 2017 that enables clients who book a cruise through CruiseOne
within 30 days of returning from a cruise to earn credit toward a shore
excursion, a resort-for-a-day experience, an onboard credit or a free hotel
stay.
CruiseOne also offers Uplift financing. Several cruise
lines, including Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Line, have their own
deals with Uplift, and Garcia said it is important for agents to have their own
version, so that clients interested in an installment plan don't take their
business directly to suppliers.
Cruise Planners also created more tools for its agents to
gain favor with suppliers, such as a marketing plan creator that enables
advisors to send proposals for co-op funding to suppliers.
"If a travel advisor meets with their [business development
manager] and has a solid plan, they're likely to get what they need," Garcia
said.
An enhanced Franchise Snapshot tool captures key metrics
that enable Cruise Planners coaches to quickly develop advice for franchisees.
Fee touted the time and labor savings of a new tool called
Client Lead Forms, which enables advisors to digitally capture prospect
information at travel shows rather than spend time uploading contact data.
Live Planner, another tool that is set to debut next year,
enables an advisor and a client to plan together using a collaborative platform
similar to Google Docs. Garcia suggested it as a tool for prospective clients
who might not use an agent because they don’t want to feel out of the loop.
"There are those people who really want to be part of the
planning," she said.
Cruise Planners also rolled out some tools and features for
booking groups, including group proposal forms and the ability to send an email
to everyone in a group or prospective group with a single click.
The franchise's mobile app also received improved
functionality, including integration with Yelp.
Finally, franchisees will soon get access to Where2Next,
which offers the means to collect a list of affordable destinations that
clients want to visit in the next one to three years. The list can be used in
marketing campaigns or as a starting point for sales discussions.
“We think the agents are really going to love it,” Fee said.