Cruise Holidays International introduced enhancements to its proprietary AgentMate technology including the formal roll-out of the Lead Management System for Cruise Holidays agents.
The goal? Cruise Holidays said in a press release that it wanted to make its franchise agencies more efficient, productive and agile in handling leads. AgentMate is Cruise Holidays’ fully-integrated customer relationship management system, agent-facing booking tool and back-office system.
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“AgentMate’s new Lead Management System is meant for agencies of all sizes. Our franchise owners with larger staffs and independent contractors can use the tool to easily assign leads to agents based on experience for a particular destination, cruise line or current workload and also monitor follow-up,” said Kevin Weisner, senior vice president, Cruise Holidays International. “Our more modest Cruise Holidays franchisees can also make great use of the system by setting reminders for follow-up calls and even automating final payment reminders, as just a couple of examples.”
Weisner said that perhaps more importantly, the new features can help owners and agents change the way they think about client management. "AgentMate is more than a booking and accounting tool – now instead of entering client information when a sale is made, they can place leads directly into the system and immediately begin marketing to those prospects,” added Weisner.
When clients or prospects are entered into AgentMate, agents also may select vendor or destination preferences, items typically notated only when booking. Because of this, agents may have more opportunities to convert inquiries into bookings.
Muffett Grubb, a Cruise Holidays home-based franchise owner in Knoxville, TN, says the new lead management system is helping keep her organized and on top of leads. "Plus, I can easily convert leads into reservations in the AgentMate system,” said Grubb. “It has eliminated a duplication of work and I can easily access leads, see how I’m progressing with them and follow up with clients as necessary. It is a great tool that has helped me develop leads more efficiently.”
Another major enhancement involves updates to AgentMate’s Groups Module, already heavily in use by most Cruise Holidays franchise owners. New features include these:
- New group analysis reporting, which provides improved visibility of potential Tour Conductor (TC) credit earnings on group sailings, as well as assists in making sure all bookings are associated to a group if they are permissible by the supplier.
- A new pricing advantage query provides an at-a-glance comparison of the lowest available fare to contracted group pricing.
- Online group registration – this enhancement allows the publishing of a group registration page directly on the franchisee’s Cruise Holidays Web site, whereby clients can sign up to be part of a group, and the reservation auto-creates in AgentMate.
- Enhancements to help agents with inventory management.
“The new improvements to the Group Module will make us so much more profitable,” said Mimi Comfort, president and owner, Cruise Holidays of Kansas City. “Being able to see exactly what the best use of GAP points is and easily knowing how many cabins we need to earn a TC will greatly improve our bottom line. Plus, having the group registration module will free up our agents to handle other aspects of the group and allow the clients to register for a group when it is convenient. This will be such an advantage.”
Through AgentMate and ongoing enhancements, Weisner said Cruise Holidays can automate many routine tasks, allowing cruise experts time to counsel and advise clients.
Cruise Holidays is a cruise specialty retail franchise, with franchisees in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. It also provides land tour vacation packages. Founded in 1984, Cruise Holidays is part of Travel Leaders Group with approximately $20 billion in annual sales volume through over 6,000 locations.
Visit www.joincruiseholidays.com.