By Mary Brutscher

Some of you may be too young to remember the movie “Cool Hand Luke,” but for some reason the above phrase from the movie caught on and has been used in television parodies, such as “Saturday Night Live,” jokes and articles.
I too am going to borrow these words as I share some insight into the reality of small agencies and Home Based agents according to input I have received from some agents who have signed up on our Web site, TravelMarketConnection.com. I am sure there will be a few people who will read my words and become angry, but the agents described need someone to speak up for them, so here I go.
First, let me tell you a little bit about the agents who have signed up with Travel Market Connection. I was quite surprised by the answers I received in response to a small demographic survey we did. The respondents make up approximately 20% to 25% of all agents who have registered with us. These agents are dedicated and very serious about the business of travel. The majority are well seasoned, with an average of 15 years’ travel agent experience, and many others having even more. We have almost as many brick and mortar agents registered as we do Home Based, with many of the former being owners. Some of these agencies are very large while others are quite small. Yet, many share the same concerns.
One of the biggest problems facing the smaller agency and agent is communication. I know many of you will find this hard to believe because great strides have been made in trying to meet this need, but the efforts aren’t completely successful. The trickle down effect has not been complete. This was one of the reasons we decided to create Travel Market Connection, but unfortunately we are not, as of yet, completely successful in meeting this need either.
It is not for lack of trying, but here comes that “failure to communicate” quote again. Some suppliers just don’t believe what we are telling them, even though we have it straight from the agent community. We have also met with a failed communication of another type with some suppliers. I call it “pass the buck,” since no one seems to know exactly who we need to speak to regarding some of these issues and questions. That doesn’t mean they are deliberately being difficult. They just aren’t receiving the message we are attempting to convey, and in other cases, they just are not listening. Others have been fantastic to work with and are providing us with the tools we need to reach out to and assist our agents.
We all know that there are seminars taking place across the country. There are ship inspections, luncheons, mini trade shows, dinner presentations and so forth. Some of these events appear on supplier Web sites. They are supposed to be communicated to agents by Business Development Managers (BDMs) and District Sales Managers (DSMs), but here is where part of the problem lies. These agents do not have time to hop from supplier site to supplier site every day to find out this information.
They AREN’T receiving the information from the BDMs and DSMs! Why? Because in many cases, the BDMs don’t know about these agents, or they are so small they are dropped off of the list. Don’t get me wrong. I am not beating up on BDMs. I feel very lucky to call several BDMs good and cherished friends and they are extremely good at what they do, but there are some who just will not give the smaller agent/agency the time of day. Their focus is on the larger and higher producing agent/agency. Keep in mind that when and if these smaller agencies grow and become high producers, they may actually refuse to sell those products that gave them no support!
We also still have the problem of agents who are with a Host agency that is located in another state not being kept in the loop. Who is to blame? No one. The Host can’t communicate information that he or she does not have. The BDM cannot be expected to search the entire U.S. to find agents who are with an out-of-state Host just to get this information to them.
Let’s be real. We also know that sales are a numbers game. Higher numbers usually mean greater earnings. As travel agents, would we want someone else to reap the rewards of our efforts? No. But, there are still some BDMs who may do all of the nurturing, keep you on the list, but because your Host is located in another state, another BDM will profit from your sales! This wrinkle needs to be ironed out so that all involved in the sale of travel can equally and fairly benefit.
Other concerns agents have been trying to communicate to suppliers include going directly to their customers. Support them when there are issues. Train reservation agents on product and customer service.

Here are just a few travel agent remarks to suppliers:
“The upscale suppliers I use do not contact us.”
“I wish more suppliers would have seminars for Home Based agents in the Charleston, SC area. I would travel to Columbia for a seminar, as well. Most seminars never get closer than Charlotte or Atlanta. It’s like we live in fly-over country.”
“Encourage booking with travel agents.”
“Come visit me! Let me know how I’m doing with sales (I don’t have time to keep checking those stats!)”
“Please have your seminars closer to my location. The closest ones are 100 miles away. Princess used to have them in Chico, CA, which is only 25 miles away.”
“Remember when we need you, it’s for a good reason; neglect or no response is a signal for us NOT to offer your services. Also remember, it’s to everyone’s advantage not to open your booking capabilities to the public but to recommend they book exclusively through a Travel Agency.”
“In order to grow our business, and in turn theirs, we need information and help from them. They have the knowledge, incentives, promotional materials that could be used to generate business.”
“I contact my reps when I need assistance. I have difficulty discovering when there will be local training opportunities due to the fact that I am not in the same state as my Host agency. Some suppliers will give me the information when I ask, but I do have some that will not include me in local training.”
“As far as growing the business, wouldn’t it be great if suppliers referred the public to us! What a near perfect world it would be if on every supplier site, there were a spot for agencies in the Zip code of the consumer!”
In all fairness, I would like to thank all of the suppliers who have worked so hard in these past few years in developing new products and programs in an attempt to better support the agent community. There are now more seminars being held all across the country, more user friendly and informative Web sites and agent portals than ever before. Many BDMs are striving to address the needs of all agents in their communities and it can be hard to find the new and/or smaller agency and Home Based agent.

Below is some of the more positive feedback I received regarding supplier support.
“The suppliers I use are doing a good job of communicating with me/my Host agency at this time.”
“We are a Virtuoso agency, so our Virtuoso BDMs and those that are our preferred suppliers are generally very good about keeping us informed.”
“I am glad to see there are more seminars offered online by the suppliers. It gives me the opportunity of learning more about the product I am selling.”
“I have an inside BDM with one cruise line that is fantastic. I get wonderful support in growing my business. Because of this BDM, my sales with his specific line is growing.”
Let’s all continue to work together and strive to change the failure to communicate into a successful and open line of communication between all involved in the travel industry and in turn, celebrate the success of us all!