Cruise Holidays reports briefing its franchise owners on a number of completed technology enhancements to make running their businesses more efficient and profitable. The enhancements primarily involve CruiseWeb, Cruise Holidays’ front office to back office proprietary system, which is also fully-integrated with Sabre Cruises and Tandem, a new consumer-facing booking engine.
Most of the CruiseWeb enhancements are geared toward making owners’ or agents’ daily tasks and client marketing more efficient and include upgrades in the following areas, Cruise Holidays says:
• Advanced Client Invoicing Variations
• Continued focus toward gathering the most important client information into the Client Profiles
• Gift Module (for managing gifts or shipboard credits within a group)
• Group Leader Management (including better management of departure reports, Tour Conductor status, and vendor-related expenses or profits)
• Group Reconciliation (involving disbursement of group level funds, details of vendor pricing and activity, and detail of client balances)
• Overall Accounting Workflow and Visibility (including the introduction of a Quick Books-style bank register, making reconciliation of the bank statement a very simple task, as well as having full visibility of the current account balance)
Cruise Holidays also reports its website, www.cruiseholidays.com, has undergone several enhancements, including an upgraded consumer-facing booking engine. There was no downtime on the website as the transition to the new booking engine took place, and franchise owners maintained complete editing capabilities on their sites the entire time, Cruise Holidays says.
The website upgrades further enhance Cruise Holidays’ layered marketing approach. Email marketing is sent to targeted customers on the franchisee’s behalf. If consumers click on the offer within the email, they are taken directly to the franchisee’s own landing page and can complete the booking online. Similarly, all direct mail pieces include an offer code, which, when typed in on the website, directs the user to the franchisee’s landing page for that offer.
“‘Efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ are the key words that are resonating most with our franchise owners,” said Mark Schiffner, vice president and chief operating officer, Cruise Holidays.
“We don’t need more technology, we need less technology that does more, and we are proud that after a major financial investment and countless hours here at headquarters, we have created what we are confident is the industry’s best front office to back office system. We wanted to take the time at this week’s convention to thoroughly review the upgrades so that owners and agents can maximize the efficiencies,” said Schiffner.
Visit www.joincruiseholidays.com