July 2010

Tips

Summer Camp is Getting Closer...Are You Coming? August 25 – 27 are the dates. Scottsdale Hyatt is the place. This is your chance to do a fam trip and learn something about Trams products at the same time. Plenty of options for learning. Use this link for more details.

CBO Users. We added a CBO track to Summer Camp providing a full list of classes which focus on ClientBase Online. We have never had this kind of coverage for CBO at a conference before so if you use CBO regularly, you should be attending. Use this link for more details.

It is Here Now! Last week we started offering the option of sending birthday cards only to a specific person through TouchBase. Be sure you’ve associated an email with a family member in a leisure profile so they receive their birthday greeting.

Have You Got Your Suppliers (Vendors) Organized? There is a field in your vendor profiles where you can identify your vendors by travel category. If you query all your cruise invoices by travel category and check vendor profiles, you can use global modify to add the cruise category. While suppliers have revenue in multiple travel categories, it can be useful to generate reports using Crystal Reports to breakdown total business by supplier within tour or cruise.

What About Preferred Suppliers? There is another field in the vendor profiles - "Preferred". Have you got it checked for your preferred suppliers? You can get some interesting reports in ClientBase and/or Trams Back Office for preferred vs non-preferred in each travel category. A shift to a preferred may increase you bottom line by mega-bucks. Take a look at this Crystal report:
http://static.trams.com/tramslibrary/reports/samples/Preferred_Suppliers_by_Travel_Category.pdf
It's Preferred Suppliers by Travel Category and can be found on our TCR library webpage.

Are You Gathering Key Cruise Data? Make sure that you're asking for cruise line past passenger numbers when working with clients - even if they are not booking a cruise. Enter at the Family Member or Employee level. (yes, don't overlook the value of storing this data in Corporate profiles) Then when you receive a cruise promo - especially a past passenger one - you can quickly and easily do a Level 2 or Level 3 query (use Cards) and find the "right" customers to send the promotion.

Read It

Whose Cruise Rates Am I Using? - The Same Rates When I Book by Phone. When I use a cruise booking engine, I am registering as an agent of an agency. I automatically get the rates that agency gets as a member of a consortium they are associated with as well as any rates they may have within the agency. When using one of the multi-cruise line booking engines, like Sabre Cruises, you are instructed to contact every cruise line you can book through that booking engine and register as booking through that booking engine (i.e. Sabre Cruises). By doing that you are going to get the rates that you are entitled to as part of that agency and any consortium the agency is a member thereof. Net - you are getting the same rates no matter how you book it. Granted - if you have someone entitled to a repeat passenger discount and you don't select that pricing option - you aren't going to get it. But the call center person might make the same mistake.

Question and Answer Sessions (Q & A) One of our best kept secrets is our WebEx hour sessions every day which you can join and ask your "How To" questions. We are adding yet another hour to the mix. Today there are 7 hourly sessions each week for ClientBase. This is where you get the application answers from experienced former travel agents. One each day for the Windows version (CBW) and two each week for the Browser version (CBO or CBB). In September we are adding a 3rd every other week for CBO users. So here is the schedule, all times are Pacific:

TSA Is there anyone who uses ClientBase who does not understand that Merge to PNR will take your birthdates, etc. from ClientBase and populate them in a PNR? Use this link for the instructions:http://www.trams.com/home/support/notice/tsa_secure_flight_program_-_gds_format_samples.

Regent Seven Seas. Follow the documentation on our website to setup your Live Connect to Regent. So easy and saves so much time. As I said earlier – you get your pricing. Remember – online booking is open 7/24.