Consistency builds trust...

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There’s a link on the front page of the Kuoni website which customers can click on to find their nearest Kuoni Specialist Agent.  A few weeks ago Liz Warner was talking to an independent agent who told her that as a direct result of this feature he had made eight Kuoni bookings with a combined commission value of over £4,000.
 

I’m guessing that most travel agents reading this will immediately think two things. Firstly, ‘Why is Kuoni sending web customers to independent agents?’ closely followed by ‘Crikey!  Is Liz Warner still at Kuoni?’
 

To answer the second question first: yes she is!  Between them, Liz and her colleagues in Trade Relations have over 75 years experience so they know a thing or two about looking after travel agents!  Kuoni Specialist Agents benefit from a huge range of activities.  As well as being featured on the Kuoni website, they receive priority educational places and invitations to overseas seminars (over 700 this year alone), access to marketing support and promotional materials, invitations to regular Specialist Dinners, and access to dedicated telephone and face to face account management.


Last week at the ITT Conference, Peter Rothwell once again stressed that ‘good, knowledgeable travel agents are an essential part of Kuoni’s distribution’ and anyone who has met with me and my team over the last few months will know that we are working harder than ever before to maintain and grow our relationships with the trade.
 

So how does this fit with our plans to open our own shops on the high street?   We now have three shops and we will open a few more but we’re not planning on having much more than ten or twelve.  They’re not targeting independent agents, if anything they will help to support sales through the trade.  Since it opened last year the Kuoni store in Manchester has built up a loyal following of local travel agents who call the shop directly to request quotes and to make bookings.
 

The same is true of our Personal Travel Experts who work from home taking calls from direct customers and travel agents.  Kuoni is unique in offering its Specialist Agents the option of a dedicated expert to assist with their bookings.
 

Henry Ford once said that you can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do and I’m sure that many in the trade will remain suspicious of our plans.  But consistency builds trust and it’s my intention to continue the long tradition of Kuoni supporting good independent agents who add value to our customers’ bookings.


That’s why the Kuoni website refers customers to Kuoni Specialist Agents.  We know that these agents understand our products; we know that they won’t try to switch the customer to their ‘preferred’ or ‘in-house’ supplier; and we know that they value the support of a top quality, premium tour operator… just as we value them.

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