AUSTIN, Texas -- Signature Travel Network is embarking on a
three-year project to create its own database of information on members'
clients to modernize its offerings and give agencies the ability to use other
customer relationship management (CRM) platforms outside Sabre's ClientBase,
which is where the network's current database is stored.
Executives discussed the capital project at Signature's
recent 2019 Owners' Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel Austin here.
While the network is moving to become CRM-agnostic, it is
not severing its relationship with ClientBase, and member agencies will still
be able to use that CRM once the new database is complete. The move is designed
to give more options to agencies in the future, Signature president and CEO
Alex Sharpe said.
"ClientBase has been a great tool for many of you for
some time," he said. "But as we look at the future, we think about
recruiting new agencies, we think about the handfuls of you who still haven't
fully embraced ClientBase, and then we think about the future in terms of risk
[of] being so tied to one thing. We needed to create some alternatives."
Signature is not alone in being tied to ClientBase, nor is
it on its own in its desire to be CRM-agnostic.
MAST Travel Network also houses its information in
ClientBase, said Amber Zakem, manager of social media and public relations.
Similarly, Ensemble Travel Group houses its database on
ClientBase and Wincruise, another CRM.
On the other hand, Travel Leaders Group's chief marketing
officer, Stephen McGillivray, said the company has its own database to
accommodate whatever kind of CRM or list-compilation software members want to
use, including Travel Leaders' own CRM, AgentMate.
The database is "in a purpose-built, high-security data
warehouse custom designed to integrate with our promotion ordering system,"
McGillivray said.
Virtuoso, too, has its own in-house database, which it uses
for everything from selecting new products to marketing to powering advisor
profiles and reviews. Because Virtuoso is CRM-agnostic, new members don't have
to switch systems when joining, and there are no restrictions on which systems
they can use.
Travelsavers takes a hybrid approach, according to chief
marketing officer Nicole Mazza. The consortium maintains both its own internal
CRM program, as well as one that integrates with ClientBase.
Sharpe said bringing the network's database in-house will
better prepare Signature for the future.
"It's really important stuff," he said. "Not
the sexiest stuff but really important for our collective future."
Karen Yeates, Signature's executive vice president of
information technology, said client data is "the strongest asset that we
have at Signature."
The data powers all of the consortium's marketing and
automated programs like Cruise Track, which tracks members' cruise bookings and
sends advisors alerts if there is a change in price, itinerary or promotions.
This year, there have been more than 500,000 alerts sent to members. Of those,
410,000 were for price changes.
In addition to attracting members who might not want to use
ClientBase as their CRM, creating a CRM-agnostic database also protects
Signature if ClientBase were to make any decisions about its program that would
negatively affect functionality for members.
"We need to make sure that we have all the capabilities
to turn on a dime and pivot if we need to," Yeates said.
She did emphasize that Signature's database is just that, a
database, not a CRM, and the consortium is not moving away from ClientBase,
just preparing to enable agencies to use alternative CRMs.
Work on the database is expected to begin in early 2020 and
should continue through mid-2021. Then Signature will start enabling its existing
programs to work with the database, which will take until around mid-2022.
Sharpe said Signature's strength in marketing lies in the
4.5 million households on which members have collected data, whether a
household had booked with them or was just a prospect.
"Your databases are so rich, we just want to dig
deeper," he said. "We want to mail more, we want to email more, [go]
deeper into the list because there are great opportunities there. We all think
about getting the new customer, but with 4.5 million households, we don't need
all of them to book every year to be wildly successful."