What’s one thing all Travel Agents want from their clients but are having some difficulty maintaining in this digital world of price beating? Loyalty. All Travel Agents want their clients to be and remain loyal.
But yet most Travel Agents aren’t doing the one thing that airlines, grocery giants and even local cafes are doing to keep customers coming back again-and-again – start a loyalty rewards program.
Speaking at the CAPA Australia Pacific Summit in Sydney this week, American Express’ Robert Tedesco described loyalty as “vital” for companies and brands wanting to maintain and grow business.
“[Brands just need to] find out what it is about their client’s behaviour that they want to reward and recognise.”
Robert Tedesco, American Express Vice President Loyalty & Partnership
In the case of Travel Agents, it’d be rewarding their clients for repeat bookings or even rewarding them for referrals.
For example, a Travel Agent could give their client a loyalty card with a certain number of squares (lets say five) that can be punctured, ticked off or marked in some creative way whenever the client books a holiday over a certain amount (let’s say $5,000) with the consultant. Once all boxes are ticked off, the Agent can then reward their client with a free domestic flight, an overnight hotel stay, a free day tour on their fifth booking or anything they think their clients deserve.
BUT, keep the reward consistent – you don’t want to risk clients finding out you spent more on one than the other.
Another example could be setting up a loyalty program that’s similar to an airline’s frequent flyer program, whereby clients earn points per dollar they spend. Once they’ve collected enough points, they can use them to retrieve different tiers of prizes such as: 100 points = a bottle of wine; or 5,000 points = a free night’s accommodation. You could even introduce a points system for their interaction on social media because the more active they are with you online, the more relevant your page becomes and the more relevant your page becomes the more business you attract.
They’re just a couple of suggestions.
A loyalty program wouldn’t just create loyal clients, it’d also help Agents compete with online booking sites such as Hotels.com, which have existing programs rewarding frequent users with free accommodation after 10 bookings.
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