Become a Travel Agent

Home Based Travel Agents
Making the On-Line Cruise World
Work For You
Tom Ogg

A few days ago in CAD (NACTA’s Cruise Agent Digest) there was a thread about the on-line cruise world. They were concerned about the cruise review sites, discussion groups and other on-line resources that consumers have to access information and garner expertise from other cruisers. One agent was upset because one of her clients read some bad reviews about a ship she was trying to sell to them and they  ended up purchasing another cruise on-line. Another agent was upset because her clients shopped her price and got a better deal on-line. The agents generally didn’t think the reviews were accurate because travel professionals didn’t write them. Finally, the message in the thread that almost knocked me off my chair was that one agent really “discouraged her clients from going on the Internet”. I almost choked.

Look, the Internet is here to stay and there are a lot of sophisticated clients out there that are using it to their full advantage. They connect with communities of cruisers to get the intricate details they want to know about for their cruise. They have specific questions about the ship they are cruising on, the ports they are visiting and all of the pre and post cruise details, as well.  While no one member of the community may have all the answers, these communities tend to have thousands of members all sharing information. How can you make these communities work for you?

Write Cruise Reviews:

The typical review posted to CruiseReviews.com may be read as many as 20,000 times during the first year it appears. There are four types of reviews, mini, regular, feature and MEGA. Write a feature or a MEGA review of the ship you are reviewing and it will command top positioning on the ship’s page and be read heavily. A cruise review speaks of your expertise on the specific ship you are reviewing. As an example, if you specialize in luxury cruising and have sailed on your preferred cruise line’s complete fleet, write MEGA reviews about each ship. This will quickly establish you as an expert on that particular cruise line.

Here are some tips on writing reviews.

…Be very precise about the ship’s features and leave nothing to the imagination.

…Be honest, to a fault, but be positive.

…Include several “hooks” to motivate the reader to contact you for more information. As an example presenting “I found a great way to gain an upgrade when booking this ship. If you are interested, e-mail me” will motivate the reader to contact you before booking the cruise. Remember that the reason they are reading the review is for information to make a decision whether they should sail the ship or not.

…Always include an e-mail address in your review.

…A great way to drive traffic to your website is to write the review with a link back to your site for pictures. Most of the review sites will publish the review with the embedded link.

…Always proof and spell-check the review before submitting it.

…Write reviews of the ports you know well using the same strategy and submit them to www.PortReviews.com.

Join On-Line Cruise Chat Groups:

It never ceases to amaze me that many travel agents are not active on the various cruise chat boards on the Internet. Everyday thousands of cruisers planning their next cruise are scouring the Internet cruise chat groups looking for information. You should be there to answer their questions and help them with the booking details.

Here is how to cash in on the cruise discussion boards.

…Join the discussion groups that reflect your expertise and market. Each group has its own personality and by lurking (reading, but not posting) you can easily determine if the group is for you or not.

…Initially, only contribute when you have something very meaningful to add to the thread. In this way, your posts will become known as credible and establish your proficiency.

…Never get into a conflict on-line. It will only hurt your desired outcome.

…Never make a soliciting post.  Asking for business is the kiss of death in on-line cruise communities.

…Always include a .sig (signature) file. While it is considered improper to advertise to chat groups, including a signature file containing you name, e-mail address and website url is considered proper. The rule of thumb is that passive advertising such as this is fair game.

…Establish yourself as the resident expert for your niche. While it might take a while, once members of the group accept your expertise, you will be rewarded with many inquiries from knowledgeable cruisers.

…Become a moderator for the chat group. Chat groups are dependent upon moderators to maintain and continue the conversation in the various forums. If you have an expertise, offer to moderate a forum. It only takes a few minutes a few times a day to become the leader of the forum. As the moderator, you can expect to gain “resident expert” status quickly and be rewarded with your own chat domain that you control.

…Get involved in Cruise-Chat.com, a travel agent friendly cruise chat group. Cruise-Chat.com is currently looking for moderators for its Carnival Corporation forum and its Princess Cruises forum. Interested?

Finally, embrace the on-line cruise world and it will reward you in ways you can’t imagine. Ignore it and it will eventually win your clients away from you.