Travel agents are a direct influence on your customers
Nowadays there are many customers who choose to book their vacations on their own, as new technologies are making the process of booking hotel rooms even easier. However, there is still a large number of travelers who choose to go to their trusted travel agents, and that percentage of customers is making its presence felt in the travel market.
Agents who know their customers well know what to offer them and how. Therefore, there is a degree of influence agents have over clients. Agents are constantly working on updating themselves on the products and services offered by hotels, being basically the major source of information of everything that hotels offer for customers. Basically they act as intermediaries between your hotel and potential customers.
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And it’s no wonder that many hotel chains nationally and internationally are opting to create loyalty programs for agents: if you build agent loyalty, there is the possibility of attracting a greater number of customers, those who continue to trust the judgment of their travel agent to book their next vacation.
The more they know about your services, the better they will sell your hotel
One of the pillars of a loyalty club are the benefits you get from joining: discounts, gifts, the possibility of staying in superior rooms… and from these advantages is born the special link between your customers and your hotel.
This is precisely why it is essential that travel agents know first-hand the advantages that your hotel offers. By creating a loyalty club for them, you can develop different advantages that are just as beneficial for their customers as they are for themselves. It can be through discounts, points to get gifts, advantages when booking future stays, among other ideas that are usually developed in loyalty programs.
The goal of all this is that the travel agent experiences what a customer will experience when visiting your hotel, be direct witness of your services. The way they influence potential customers, you can influence them to reach out to those customerss. After they start to learn more about what your hotel offers, they will not only be happy to talk about you, they will also better sell your hotel’s services, and gradually new prospects will come to you.
An online loyalty platform, ideal for agents
The truth is that travel agents have very busy schedules, which is why, in early attempts to create a loyalty club for agents, many hotels developed programs that many of the agents barely followed. Agents took little time to check the number of points they had, and some were not even aware of the rewards they were getting over time.
That’s why today hotels that already have an agent club prepare their loyalty program in an online service, which allows them to access all club information through their electronic devices. In order to fit into the agents’ busy routine, these platforms are often simple and seek to keep the agents’ attention constantly. To achieve this, alerts and notifications are prepared so that agents are aware of their loyalty club points and the rewards they earn or can redeem.
Obviously, to establish agile contact with agents, it is advisable to work with a separate CRM for travel agent data management. Apart from the essential agreement on the part of the agents to hand over their data, they will also pass on to the hotels the sales data on future customers who will be staying at the establishment. In this way, an individual follow-up of the actions of each agent will be carried out, and thus verify that the agent is able to provide the hotel with the necessary information.
