Getting into groups: Advice for travel advisors, Part 2: Travel Weekly

Another consideration is how big a group the advisor, and the ship, can manage. For instance, Freed is taking a group of her neighbors on a cruise with Royal’s sister brand Silversea. Booked through a travel advisor, Freed capped the group at 41 people. 

“I couldn’t handle more,” she said. “Even though I could have easily sold 100. They want to dine together every night. On a small luxury ship, it’s doable up to a certain point.”

Freed said the advantage of booking groups is obvious: a new set of clients, some that the advisor wouldn’t have otherwise met if not for the idea or community the group was built around.

And if someone associated with that group can’t make it, the trip may trigger FOMO and motivate them to book the next group or a similar trip with that travel advisor.

Once they have gotten comfortable forming groups, Freed suggests that advisors try to upsize to more complex business. If the advisor knows people who run big or midsize companies, she suggests approaching them about organizing groups for corporate meetings, incentives or ongoing education.

Once a trip is over, an advisor’s goal should shift to maintaining that new and larger stable of clients.

Key to that, she said, is to be proactive to make sure their customers don’t cheat on them. Royal Caribbean found that three and a half out of every five clients cheat on their travel advisors. When asked why, the cheaters said that they didn’t feel connected to their agent. 

“It wasn’t really bad service. It’s just indifference,” Freed said. “They just didn’t feel a connection. I think it’s important that travel advisors connect with their clients.”

To do that, clients need to communicate regularly with clients, she said, especially since some may only book one vacation a year. Keeping up with clients via email and social media is important, she said, but alone are not enough to maintain a strong bond. 

One of Freed’s strategies is to send handwritten cards. And she is an avid letter writer; she keeps a variety of cards on hand, including ones for birthdays, weddings, thank-you’s and holidays. Sometimes she’ll even have cards custom-made with pictures of people she has spent time with.

Cards keep advisors top of mind when clients are ready to plan their next cruise, Freed said, and agents already have the data they need to send birthday and anniversary notes. Knowing their kids’ names and ages is helpful for when they graduate high school or college. 

“You don’t want to lose people that you booked a vacation for to somebody else,” she said. “Once you have them, you want to keep them.”

—Andrea Zelinski