A travel marketing software company has released a travel agent guide designed to help agents “survive and thrive” in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
The document, produced by Net Effect and adapted from a business action plan from McKinsey and Company, is free to download on the company’s website.
There are four main actions travel agents and businesses can take, according to the report:
- Protect employees
- Set up a response team
- Ensure liquidity to weather the storm
- Stay close to your customers
On the point of staying close to customers, the guide states that it is imperative for businesses to embrace the digital age and become comfortable with an online service.
On the necessity of an online presence, the report states: “You absolutely need your website. Customers, when they are ready to start planning, will refer to your website.
“In the wake of lots of poor publicity about the travel industry closing down, you must have content on your site that demonstrates that you can still sell them future holidays.
“The winners will be those businesses that keep talking to their customers. The only way to do this is via email (social media channels all require an advertising budget to reach customers effectively).”
The report also warns against the closing down of websites, stating: “Closing your website / stopping communicating with your customers is only going to make the recovery period harder if not almost impossible. You don’t want to lose the momentum that you have built up to date.”
Net Effect works with more than 200 clients and specialises in cruise search and marketing tools.
Our view:
The cruise industry is facing an unprecedented and ever-changing situation, and we are committed to keeping you informed with the most up-to-date news. However, we firmly believe that the cruise industry will bounce back. When it does, we’ll be on hand to help you get back to selling the cruises that people love.  Â