Are all clients created equal? It would appear not. David Kolner, senior vice president, consumer, Virtuoso, provided his Insights Into the Luxury Consumer: Segmentation and Servicing during the 2013 Luxury Travel Exchange International (LTX).
Understanding consumer shopping, buying trends and building startegies to attract and convert clients is critical to a successful sales strategy. But understanding how to segment your client base and provide best in class service is ultimately important in retaining clients and obtaining referrals, says Kolner. When dealing with Virtuoso agents and clients, Kolner found that 10 percent of the customers drive 54 percent of sales, so while it is important to always find and drive new business, it is equally, if not more important, to remember who your loyal repeat customers are.
"The top 10 percent [of your clients] are spending 10 times more on air annually. They are spending 20 times more on hotels," he says. "They are more likely to use specialty service providers, more likely to take luxury cruises, more likely to travel internationally and more likely to explore new hotels."
This 10 percent is also twice as loyal to their Virtuoso advisor. "Give yourself permission to work with the top 10 percent of your customers. We saw that the loyalty over seven years with these clients does not even have a fall-off curve. There is no end in sight to they will bring you," he says.
Keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for the latest updates from this year's LTX.