Signature Travel Expert Certification Course

Transcription

1 Signature Travel Expert Certification Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions Introduction Revised September 22, 2017 When you hear the term offer you might think of a deal, promotion, discount or bargain. Expand this definition to include regular pricing, special Signature pricing, and exclusive Signature amenities and you ll understand what we mean by Offers and Promotions in SigNet! Signature s Offers on SigNet are individual listings of cruises, land tours and hotel packages available through Signature s preferred suppliers. Each offer provides consultants with detailed itineraries, pricing, exclusive amenity details (where included), amenity redemption instructions and any applicable timesensitive Promotions. This module will explain the different types of offers including cruise, land and hotel. We will also review the time-sensitive promotions and how they tie back to the individual offers. In short, SigNet offers and promotions can save you a tremendous amount of time by providing you with a single source for most of the information you need for selling travel today. This module covers the following: What an Offer is and how the Offer ID ties into marketing, Emarketing, microsites and website content for Signature members Review the different types of Offers How to customize and Offers How to a Cruise Offer Comparison Different ways to Offers to your Clients Where to view Drafts and Sent s What are Promotions How Offers and Promotions are tied together

2 Lesson 1: Types of Offers There are several types of offers found on SigNet. These include cruise, land, hotel, agency offers, multioffers and hot offers. Signature creates Cruise Offers for all of our preferred cruise suppliers, ships, and sailings, regardless of whether there is an exclusive amenity or just a general cruise offer. Land Offers are created for our preferred land and tour suppliers and hotel offers feature preferred hotel product to coincide with our current marketing. Each offer is automatically assigned a number by our system called the Offer ID number. This number is used in our print and marketing, on SigNet and in the content on your agency website that pulls over from Signature. Clients can use it to search for the offers when visiting your website. Consultants can use the number to locate details about the offer on SigNet. These same offers are what appear on our various Microsites as well. In addition to our cruise, land and hotel offers, SigNet can also house your own agency s specific offers! Located under the Offers menu is the link to Cruises: Agency. This directs you to the page displaying all of the offers created by your agency. Important SigNet Administrative Access is required to enter your own agency s offers, but anyone in your agency can view them once entered. Questions? Contact training@signaturetravelnetwork.com Multi-Offers Signature also creates Multi-Offers, which are groupings of similar cruise and land vacations into one offer. This is a fantastic way to send your clients quick comparisons and choices. These offers also have an offer ID number that will always start with M and then the number. This is an example of a Land Vacation Multi-Offer, which shows the same tour from price and travel dates, but one itinerary is eastbound and the other is westbound. The two individual offers have been grouped into one offer but each offer is still accessible individually and has its own Offer ID number. At the bottom you ll see the Offer ID number for the Multi-Offer M Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 2

3 In this Cruise Multi-Offer example, the offers are for the same itinerary but using different departure dates and from prices. As with the Land Vacation Multi-Offer, each cruise is still its own offer, but has been combined to create one easy to access offer that you can share with your clients for comparison purposes. The Multi-Offers also include details regarding marketing and in which publication it has been featured. Tip: New to the Industry Multi-Offers are a very helpful tool when clients have a general idea of where they want to go but not the specific date or other details. You can send them a Multi-Offer to show several options at once! Hot Offers Under the Offers menu in SigNet, you ll also see Hot Offers. As the name implies, these are some of the best deals and most popular promotions going on at the time. While these offers also appear elsewhere in SigNet, you can think of this section as a quick place to look for hot specials at a glance in three areas: Our Hottest Offers: deals and specials from within all categories Best Cruise Value: special savings and promotions exclusively for cruises Best Vacation Values: special savings and promotions exclusively for land vacations Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 3

4 Lesson 2: Sharing Offers - Customize, , Post and Tweet! There are many uses for offers, but the primary uses include: 1. A simple, single source for you to shop on behalf of your clients 2. A way to quickly find the details when a client calls about one of our ads or promotions 3. A fast and easy way to share a quote with a client or prospect Signature makes it easy to share offers with your clients via or on a larger scale in Social Media. Once you have located the cruise, tour or hotel offer you want to share you will see a box on the overview of the offer containing links to Customize and the Offer. Send Offer By Links to the offer are under the section: Send Info to Clients. Choose the option to Customize, Print and . Customize and Cruise Offers Once you click the link to Customize and the cruise offer, a fill in form will display. This is where your ability to customize comes into the picture. The top area of the form is where you add in your client s information, Name (either by looking them up if an existing client or adding new), address, subject and personal message. Next are the fields where you can decide to INCLUDE or EXCLUDE information. In most cases the default is to INCLUDE and you must choose NO if you want to EXLUDE the information. With several of the fields (like Amenities or Theme Info), you can choose to EXCLUDE the information from the offer by clicking NO when prompted, or REPLACE the standard text with your own version! If you plan to include your own version, click YES and enter your own text (see example above). Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 4

5 Below are the customizable fields, a description of each, and details about changing the field: Field Name Send as Agency Personal Message Description Amenities Supplier Amenities Theme Info Available Add-ons Promotions Cruise Inclusions Show Stateroom Pricing Block Pricing Options Ship Reviews Avid Traveler Display "Tell a Friend" Button Display Request Information Button Hide Agent Biography Customization Details This provides a dropdown menu of your agency s branch locations in case you want the to come from a different location. Be sure to include a personal note to your clients so they know the message is coming from you. SigNet automatically includes the Cruise Line description of the cruise unless you enter your own. Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the offer. Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the offer. (Example: If you have your own group, your amenities could be different or better). Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the offer. (See example above) Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the offer. (Perfect for pre/post hotels) Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the Offer. Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text to replace the automatically included text in the Offer. If you choose NO here, you should NOT say YES to Pricing Options. Use this when you want to ONLY show pricing for a specific category. The screen for entering price options will appear AFTER you click the CONTINUE button. We suggest changing all other categories to read call for pricing. Choose YES or NO to include or exclude all reviews for this ship. Choose YES or NO to include or exclude Avid Traveler content (articles and videos provided by Travel writer, Ralph Grizzle). Choose YES or NO to include or exclude the Tell a Friend Button at the bottom of the offer. YES or NO to display or not display (defaults to NO). Choosing YES will remove your agent Bio from the bottom of the . Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 5

6 Shore Excursions Group Link Show Banner Above Personal Message Show Classic Booking Links Cruise Offer View Include your agency logo/graphic in this document? Choosing NO will remove the link to the Shore Excursions Group landing page. Choosing NO will display the banner BELOW the personal message. Only applicable if the Agency Logo/Graphic is selected, below. Choosing No will remove the Classic Pre/Post Hotel booking links. Choose Single (default) or Multiple tabbed view. To show or not show your agency s logo/graphic in the ed offer. To ALWAYS include your logo, the Agency Spot Logo or Agency Banner from the drop down, and then check Make Default. After completing your customization, just click the Continue button at the bottom to preview and your offer. Easy! If you selected YES to change the Pricing options, clicking continue will take you to the page where you can enter your desired pricing changes. On this page you also have some additional customization fields. Field Name Customization Details Fees Statement Select Use Fees Statement for the following option: The following Fees Statement will display under the stateroom pricing for this offer: Port, security and handling fees, government fees and taxes are included in the fare. Price does not include airfare, transfers and airline government fees and taxes. Select Use Optional Fees Statement for the following option: (Optional) Intranet/Agent Statement Port, security and handling fees, government fees and taxes are included in the cruise only fare. "Air Included" prices include transfers and all air-related government taxes, surcharges and fees. Please note that air inclusive price is not viewable to customers. OR, enter your own text to replace either of these options. Signature Remarks Choose YES or NO to include or exclude the Signature Remarks OR enter your own. Note: Entering your own Remarks will override the current Signature Remarks. Please make sure any important information about airfare, additional fees or taxes is communicated to your client if applicable. Now you re ready to click continue to preview and send your . Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 6

7 Customize and Cruise Comparison The above option is great if you know what your clients are looking for, and you can send them a perfect offer to match their cruise desires. But, what do you do if your clients only know that they want a cruise to Alaska in July but don t know which cruise line they want? We have the perfect solution! Our Cruise Comparison Tool! The Cruise Comparison Tool enables you to create a side-by-side comparison of up to 6 cruise offers and that comparison to your clients! Located in the Offers menu, the link to Cruise Offer Comparison is the fastest way to create the comparison but requires that you know the Offer ID numbers for the offers you want to compare. SigNet How To 1) Click Cruise Offer Comparison. 2) Enter up to 6 Cruise Offer ID Numbers. 3) Click Submit. Once created, the side-by-side comparison includes an overview of each of the cruise offers. The Description field is a link to the cruise offer page. When you are ready to the comparison, click the Customize, Print & this Comparison at the top. This will display the fill in form seen in all offers. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 7

8 There are only 2 options for customizing a Cruise Comparison and they include: Field Name Customization Details Pricing Options Custom Content Choose YES if you want to change all of the offer pricing. When you click continue at the bottom of the form it will take you to Step 2 where you can change the pricing for each individual offer. Choose YES to change any of the cruise content on the offers. If you don t have the Offer ID numbers, use the Cruise Finder search tool to search cruises matching your criteria. From the list of sailings, click the button to the far right labeled Compare Now. Once you have selected up to six cruises click the link to Create Comparison Report in the box to the right displaying your cruise offers. Tip: New to the Industry Save yourself time and energy by copying and pasting the details of multiple cruises. Use Signature s Cruise Comparison Tool - it does all the work for you! Tip: Experienced Consultants The Custom Content field is perfect for adding any additional information, advice, or other details that can make the Offer truly personal to your client. Customize and Land Offers Customizing and ing Land Offers works the same as the process above for Cruise Offers, with a few minor differences in options. The general approach is still the same in that you can choose to INCLUDE, EXCLUDE or replace certain key pieces of information One example shown below is the Vacation Inclusion field. You can choose YES to include the automatic text, NO to exclude it, or fill in the box with your own text. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 8

9 Below are the fields for customizing and ing a Land Offer: Field Name Customization Details Remarks Description Promotions Vacation Inclusions Number of Nights Pricing Options Offer is Land Only Show Social Media Box Include your agency logo/graphic in this document? SigNet automatically includes tour operator remarks unless you choose NO or enter your own. SigNet automatically includes the tour operator s description of the offer unless you enter your own. Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text replace the automatically included text in the offer. Choose YES to keep, NO to remove, or enter your own text replace the automatically included text in the offer. Enter the number of nights you want to show or leave empty to use the default number of nights. Use this when you want to ONLY show pricing for a specific category. The screen for entering price options will appear AFTER you click the CONTINUE button. We suggest changing all other categories to read call for pricing. The default text for this field is "Featured offer is land only. Call us for low airfares from your city!" Choose NO to remove it. Choose YES to keep, or NO to remove. To show or not show your agency s logo/graphic in the ed offer. To ALWAYS include your logo, the Agency Spot Logo or Agency Banner from the drop down, and then check Make Default. After completing your customization, just click the Continue button at the bottom to preview and your Offer. Easy! If you selected YES to change the Pricing options, clicking continue will take you to the page where you can enter your desired pricing changes. Customize and Hotel Offers With so many hotels in our collection, it s not surprising that not all have actual offers in SigNet. As is the case with Land Offers, Hotel Offers are created to coincide with our marketing efforts. Still, you can customize and these offers using the same process as with Cruise and Land Vacation Offers. The customizable fields are as follows: Field Name Customization Details Description Choose to keep the hotel description as posted by Signature or remove it. You can also replace with your own description. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 9

10 Remarks Number of Nights Pricing Options Offer is Land Only Show Social Media Box Include your agency logo/graphic in this document? Signature includes remarks. Choose to keep these remarks or write your own. Add in the number of nights you want to show or leave empty to use the number of nights shown in the offer. Choose YES to change the pricing on the offer. Defaults to YES to include the following verbiage in the to your client: "Featured offer is land only. Call us for low airfares from your city!" Clicking NO removes this statement. Choose NO if you want to remove the social media boxes at the top of the offer. Here you can choose to include your agency logo/graphic in the ed offer document. If you always want to include the logo you can change this to either the Agency Spot Logo or Agency Banner and then check the box to make this your default. After completing your customization Click the Continue button at the bottom to preview and your offer. If you selected YES to change the Pricing options, clicking continue will take you to the page where you can now make those pricing changes. Customize and Using the Offer ID Another way to any land, cruise or hotel offer is by using the Offer ID numbers. Under the Offers menu and then the Home/Admin tab is a link to Offers to Your Clients. From here you have the option to one offer or multiple offers by adding in the offer ID number. This uses the same form for ing from the individual offer. ing Hot Offers Once you access the Hot Offers page, simply click the link to the right to customize and to send these great deals to your clients. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 10

11 The form that appears is the same that you see for ing cruise, land and hotel offers but it s important to point out one of the customization fields when sending Hot Offers and that is the area where you can select which offers to include in your . Here you can uncheck any offers you don t want to appear in your customized . Note: if you uncheck all the boxes, Signature will default back to using ALL of the Hot Offers in your . After completing your customization Click the Continue button at the bottom to preview and the Hot Offers. Sharing Offers on Facebook and Twitter Within the Consultant Admin Box, in addition to the customize and link, you will see the icons that allow you to share an Offer via Facebook and Twitter. Of course, you ll need a Facebook or Twitter account to able to share the Offer. Follow these easy steps: SigNet How To 1) Click Promote (for Facebook) or Tweet this (for Twitter). 2) A preview window will appear. 3) Click SUBMIT and copy the URL displayed. 4) Paste the URL into a Facebook or Twitter post. When you click Promote on Facebook, a form will appear that allows you to add a title, descriptions, and thumbnail size image to your Facebook post. It s an easy way to create a post that looks professional and gets attention. After you click SUBMIT you ll be given a URL to copy and past into a Facebook post. All the details will then magically appear! Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 11

12 The Tweet this feature automatically accommodates Twitter s 140-charater-post limitation. Your options are to include your Agency s Branding, or ALSO include your own contact information. (Be sure you are already signed into Twitter). After you click SUBMIT, Twitter will appear with a Tweet ready to share! Lesson 3: Tracking Offers Signature makes it easy for you to view all of the land, cruise and hotel offers you have ed to your clients. This tool is located under the Offers menu and the link to s: Sent. Once the page displays you will see a complete list of all s you have sent in the last 90 days. For each sent, you can view the date it was sent, the clients name, the address, the type of offer sent and then the ability to view the offer or copy and resend. Signature also keeps any drafts you had started but didn t send. These are also under the Offers menu and then the link for s: Drafts. These drafts are saved for only 7 days and then they are deleted. Tip: New to The Industry You might think that this SigNet feature is redundant since apps like Outlook already keep track of your messages. However, SigNet gives you a place to ONLY view Offers, without the clutter of other communications. It also allows you to sort by date and type of offer. That means less time spent sifting through Outlook folders when a client calls. Tip: Experienced Consultants Before speaking to a client on the phone, or via , it s a good idea to take a quick look at the Offers you may have sent them in advance. This can put you far ahead in knowing what you MIGHT be talking about, and give the impression that you are on top of things. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 12

13 Lesson 4: Time-Sensitive Promotions One of the most common uses of marketing is to promote deals, discounts or other specials. In addition to the exclusive Signature Collection cruise amenities and the amenities offered by our hotel partners, Signature also provides consultants with access to a plethora of Time-Sensitive Promotions. Promotions are offered by all Signature supplier partners and include specials created by the supplier exclusively for Signature members, to be included in our print and marketing. These promotions will be identified as exclusive with the icon in the Signature Exclusive column. Promotions also include public specials not exclusive to Signature that are available for anyone to book. The Promotions section is located under the Marketing menu. It provides a summary listing of all current Time-Sensitive Promotions. On the SigNet Promotions page you will see the suppliers with current promotions listed by date updated by default but you can easily change the order to Signature Exclusive, The promotion name or the promotion end date. Use the arrow in the header to sort by ascending or descending order. There are also several ways to filter the promotions. These include: By Supplier Type(s), By Supplier(s), Signature Exclusive, New (added within the last 7 days), Ends Soon (expires within 7 days). Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 13

14 Note: The Promotion Type and Supplier filters are independent of each other. A selection made in one menu will not affect the selections made in the other menu. However, the check boxes for Signature Exclusive, Ends Soon and New will filter immediately and automatically and apply to whatever is currently displaying in the list of results. To view complete details regarding the promotion, simply click on the name of the promotion. For promotions associated with specific offers, you may click on the link to view the list of matching offers. All Promotion postings follow a standard format making it easy to find the necessary information: Field Details Booking Window Dates the promotion is valid. Example: for new bookings made January 1 31, 2015 Applicable Offers Booking & Redemption Instructions Confirmation Combinability Terms and conditions List of cruise, land or hotel offers to which the promotion applies. Redemption code or process required to secure the promotion. How the promotion will be confirmed to clients. Whether or not the promotion is combinable with other specials or amenities. Important: Many cruise promotions will apply to sailings that also feature Signature Exclusive amenities. Look here to determine if it is combinable with Signature s amenities. Any other important terms or conditions provided by the supplier. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 14

15 Within the individual offers, these promotions appear in what we call a Special Promotion Box. Each cruise, land and hotel offer will have two boxes, one which is a consumer view and one that is agent view. The Consumer View Promo Box appears at the bottom of the cruise offer or the top of a land offer with details of the offer. These details can be expanded by clicking on the + sign to the right. This directs the consumer to contact their travel consultant for more details about the promotion. In many cases offers will have more than one promotion. Each will be listed on the as a separate promo. The Agent View Promo Box appears in the Booking Instructions of the offer and again is only viewable by you, the consultant. This is where you would go to get additional information regarding the promotion. Each has a link to Click Here for redemption instructions. This link opens the promotion posting housed in the Signature Promotions section of SigNet, which includes all of the details necessary to ensure the promotion is applied. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 15

16 These Time-sensitive promotions are also featured in Signature marketing. This is especially true with our land supplier partners. Unlike with the cruise suppliers, our land suppliers don t have an exclusive amenity program so these promotions can be a great tool to help you close the sale! They appear in the marketing piece as Our Exclusive which is YOUR exclusive. Be sure to take credit for these amenities as coming from you, their valued travel consultant. Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 16

17 Summary RESTATE OBJECTIVES: After completing this module you will have an understanding of the following key items: What an Offer is and how the Offer ID ties into marketing, Emarketing, microsites and website content for SIG agencies. Review the different types of Offers How to customize and Offers How to a Cruise Offer Comparison Different ways to Offers to your Clients Where to view Drafts and Sent s What are Promotions How Offers and Promotions are tied together Resources The following links direct you to additional training resources available on SigNet: CruiseFinder Cruise Offer Search CruiseFinder Cruise Comparison Land Offer Search Signature Promotions Learning Instructions This handout provides a general overview of the key objectives of this module and is designed to support the learning process of participants taking the online course. It is highly recommended that all learners complete the online version of this module as it provides more in-depth details and practical applications related to these topics. All quizzes must be completed online to fulfill certificate requirements. Questions If you have questions, please contact the Signature training team: training@signaturetravelnetwork.com Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 17

18 Signature Travel Expert Course Module 11: Offers and Promotions 18