Asta Agency Management - October 2002 Use The Internet To Compete Bob Curley If you're like most travel agents, you're probably sick of hearing about the Internet. Tired of airlines undercutting your business by offering Web-only fares. Fed up with customers who call you up to comparison shop with a cruise deal they found online, or take advantage of your knowledge before sneaking off to book a trip on Orbitz. And maybe even a little worried when pundits tell you the Internet will steal your customers and ruin your business. Fear not, experts say: Not only is the Internet not out to get you, it actually can be an invaluable tool for making reservations, researching destinations and providing value added service to clients. Travel agents have to stop thinking of the Internet as the boogeyman, says consultant Robert W. Joselyn, CTC, president and CEO of Joselyn, Tepper & Associates based in Scottsdale, Ariz. "The Internet is not an entity itself," he says. "We tend to personify it, but it's just a communications vehicle. Competing with the Internet is like competing against the telephone." The trick is not to try and compete with Web sites offering flight reservations or vacation packages, but to use these very resources to help build client loyalty and retain good customers. "The Internet is optimally built to sell price-driven commodities," says Joselyn. "Any place that the consumer can use the Internet as a vehicle to find the best value quickly is an area where competing with a more expensive sales and service delivery system (such as a travel agency) becomes impossible. "But if you can't compete on price, you can compete if you get the information faster or if people trust you more, or if you augment (reservations) with service," Joselyn continues. "If you can't, then you should get out of the game." Mary Jean Tully, CTC, chairman and CEO of Toronto-based The Cruise Professionals - a firm that has had great success using the Internet to drive customer inquiries and booking - agrees. "People think the Internet is based on price, but it's not if you can blow them away with service and promptness," says Tully. Some agents even say that the Internet has done them a favour by weeding out customers who were only marginally profitable even in the best of times. "We're trying to build relationships with customers, and not everyone who is looking for a vacation is looking for a relationship," says Julie Lemish, co-owner of Rex Travel, based in Chicago, which specializes in luxury leisure and group travel. The Internet Is Your Friend It's true that the Internet has narrowed the customer's base for travel agents considerably. Combine the ease of use of sites like Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity with the evaporation of airline commissions, and it's easy to see why many travel agencies are simply washing their hands of customers who view air travel as a commodity and are buying strictly based on price. In some cases, saying goodbye to those customers may indeed be the best approach. "It's not so much turning people away as realizing you can't do business with people unless they are willing to pay you what is required to make your effort worthwhile," says Joselyn. Do-it-yourselfers who love to surf the Web, corporate control freaks, people who inherently distrust travel agents - all may be the kind of customers you can do without. The ideal customer? "Someone who will respect your guidance," says Tully. One piece of advice you might want to pass along to clients is this: The jury is still out on whether clients actually do get best fares online. For example, Topaz International, an airfare auditing company based in Portland, Ore., recently compared 19,000 agency-booked itineraries with various Internet travel sites including Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity and carrier-based sites, and found that itineraries booked through a corporate-travel agency averaged $166 less than the same itineraries booked on the travel sites. On the leisure side, consortia often have air departments that "can offer members fares even better than what's on the Internet because of our preferred relationships," says Lisa Bertini, director of Internet marketing at Virtuoso, an international consortium based in Fort Worth, Texas. Norman Cotton, president of Austin Associates, a consortium based in Framingham, Mass., adds that GDS systems still perform well, and that travel agents have access to better hotel prices and information on cruise specials that customers do not. "The travel agent, in most cases, will get the lower fare," he says. "I believe the public thinks that technology will get them better information than the agency - just the opposite of what might be true," says Joselyn. Even when the Internet is the better way to buy, it shouldn't shut travel agencies out of the deal. Nothing is stopping agents from browsing for Web fares on behalf of clients, especially in a fee-based marketplace. "The idea that agents don't have access to Web fares is just not defensible," says Joselyn. "Every travel agent needs to check for Internet deals - whether on every purchase or as a paid option - with the understanding that if you buy online, you have to call the airline if there's a problem." AgentWare produces a software program available to ASTA members through ASTA Marketing Services Inc. that enables travel agencies to have a single tool to search for air, hotel and car rates on the Internet, and compare them to GDS and negotiated rates. "That includes net rates and full-bundled rates offered by suppliers that travel agents can then mark up," says Les Ottolenghi, president and CEO of AgentWare, based in Atlanta. "It offers the capability for agents to create their own dynamic packaging." Time's True Value Corporate clients and upscale customers - or anyone whose time is valuable - may also prefer to let the travel agent do the surfing for them, even if a fee is involved. "As travel agencies, we have to ask what value can we give," says Joselyn. "No. 1 is time - going online takes more time. Some people's time is valuable enough to pay someone else to do it." "Most travel is still purchased by businesspeople, and for them, time is money," adds Ottolenghi. "Do you want your employees surfing or working?" For some customers, moreover, the service associated with booking through a travel agent may well be worth more than saving a few bucks. "If I get to the counter in Atlanta and I'm not in the reservation system, I call my travel agent and have them talk to the gate agent," says Joselyn. "Who are you going to call from Orbitz?" "Many customers will do research online," adds Cotton, "but they're afraid to do bookings" because they worry about ending up in Hanover, N.H., instead of Germany, for example.   Back         Top of Page

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