Smart agents will regularly review their retail group arrangements to ensure they’re getting all the support they need. But it pays to do your research, because as one Travellers Choice member discovered, sometimes ‘you don’t know what you’ve got (until it’s gone)’!
Changing things up often works well, but it can sometimes take a loss to appreciate what you had. In early 2022, when COVID lockdowns were slowly lifting, travel agencies were seizing the rare opportunity of a quiet patch to review every aspect of their business, including their consortia arrangements. Queensland’s Discover Travel & Cruise was no exception.
The Brisbane-based company had been with Travellers Choice since 2009, and as team leader Debbie Grace recalls, they were more than happy with their membership.
“While no one knew what the post-COVID landscape would look like, it was clear we would be dealing with added complexity. Every country had different pandemic-related rules and restrictions,” recalls Grace.
“We also knew that when business returned, it would do so quickly, and we had to get prepared. So, we opted for change and decided we needed to align with a group that had a technology platform to put those complex rules and restrictions at our fingertips.”
“At the time, Travellers Choice was still developing its solution, so when we discovered another group already had the technology available, we made the move.”
“Never on your own”
While becoming accustomed to new systems and processes took a little time, Grace says the switch was fairly smooth. Partly this was because business was relatively slow as customers remained cautious. But it wasn’t long before the agency experienced serious culture shock.
“Our new group was part of a much larger global operation, and I think we made certain assumptions about what that meant regarding support levels. What became clear, however, was that as an independent agency, we were now very much on our own.
“The thing is, at Travellers Choice, you are never on your own.”
From a practical perspective, Grace says Discover Travel & Cruise was now entirely responsible for managing its own marketing. And that included loading product on the website, generating social media posts, and managing email promotions.
“By that stage, business was really picking up,” she says. “So much so that, ironically, we had to close one of our stores because we didn’t have the staff to process the bookings.
“More than ever, we needed to be communicating and engaging with our database, but suddenly we were relying on our staff to do that. And they simply didn’t have the time. Two years after we switched, our website was still just a landing page because we didn’t have anyone available to load deals.
“If we had still been with Travellers Choice, the head office marketing gurus would have been managing our website, creating social media posts, and sending out our newsletters.”
“You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone”
Grace says the team had simply forgotten how much Travellers Choice did for its members.
We just assumed that every other group worked the same way and offered the same level of support we had become accustomed to. It was very much a situation of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’.
Grace says the agency has no ill feelings towards the group the business temporarily joined. “For us, it just wasn’t the right fit nor the right time.”
“We are part of something special”
Finally, in late 2023, Discover Travel & Cruise contacted Travellers Choice and expressed a desire to return.
“We were welcomed back into the Travellers Choice family with such warmth,” says Grace. “Within a week we had our website back up and EDMs being prepared.
“It brought me back to when we first joined the group and how impressed we were at the team’s responsiveness and how quickly they acted. Over time, we just took it for granted.
“It took leaving to remind us of how lucky we are to be part of something special. Sometimes the grass is not always greener.”
Discover more
Find out more about Travellers Choice here or contact the award-winning Travellers Choice team at admin@travellerschoice.com.au.
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