Cruise franchise GoCruise held its annual conference last week. Hollie-Rae Merrick reports from Ipswich
Sell the experience, not the price
The industry needs to be prepared for increased demand for combined land and cruise holidays, according to Celebrity Cruises head of sales Michael English.
“The trend we are seeing is that cruise might not be the entire holiday, it might make up a small part of a bigger trip,” he explained.
“The cruise might only be a third of that holiday and we need to be prepared to provide different things to meet those needs.
The only way you can convey that is by knowing what it is all about.”English told delegates at the GoCruise conference that they should focus on selling the experience rather than the price.
“If we start to sell on price we will lose that business on price,” he said. “In particular, in the premium market we need to be able to push those premium revenues a little bit higher.”
English said GoCruise franchisees had the benefit of having a specialism to focus on, with some members focusing on niche markets such as river cruise.
And he urged all agents to ensure they exploit the level of investment cruise lines put into online training.
“The cruise lines will support you to understand the brands,” he said. “I don’t think there is another sector of the travel industry that invests such a big amount of money in training and conferences.”
GoCruise’s top seller says ‘make it personal’
GoCruise top seller Martin Spence said his business really took off when he stopped competing on price and really got to know his customers.
Spence said when he started with GoCruise seven years ago – after 20 years with BA – he sold solely on price, something he now realises was unsustainable.
He told delegates it took him 20 days to make his first sale, but he soon began to get a lot of business from Teletext and eventually about half of his business came from fielding calls.
Over time he built up regular clients and created a customer database.
“I logged every detail about the customer that I could, as that would help me create a relationship further down the road,” he said. “The database helps a lot because when someone calls I have everything about that person in front of me on one screen – I know where they have been and what they like.”
Now nearly three-quarters of his business is from existing customers and a further 15% is through recommendations.
He puts his success down to self-belief, having conviction and confidence, and paying attention to detail.
“My attitude hasn’t changed since starting,” he said. “I have values that I hold dear. Self-belief and attitude are important, but I have to have the confidence to think I do deliver something people want and offer something worth paying for.”
Spence said his customers appreciate it when he goes the extra mile and every year he sends his top customers a Christmas card and takes locals out for dinner.
Spence helped the GoCruise team raise more than £800 for local charity, the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher, by shaving off his moustache.
‘Bookings to be quicker and easier’
GoCruise franchisees will benefit from a new booking system in the coming weeks.
Geoff Ridgeon, head of cruise at Fred Olsen Travel, said the new system would reduce duplication and would help agents to make bookings quicker.
He said: “The new system will make bookings easier and will really help franchisees with the booking process.
“It will remove duplication and it will give the franchisee more confidence when they make a booking. They will be more self-reliant than relying on our support staff.”
The cruise firm is continually looking for new franchisees. It currently has 60 franchisees up and down the country, but Ridgeon said that figure could grow by the end of the year, but only if he could find “the right people”.
“It’s definitely a case of steady growth for us,” Ridgeon explained. “We are continually looking for the right people. We work on the basis that we tend to take on between five and seven new franchisees a year. We don’t recruit for the sake of recruiting.”