Go behind the scenes of Avoya Travel with Co-CEO Jeff Anderson! Learn more about our latest initiatives, how we're committed to continuous innovation and helping independent travel professionals find even greater success.
Q: Why should an agency consider joining your consortium or host agency?
A: Simple – to live a lifestyle of success. As the most-awarded travel network with more than 50 years of travel industry experience, we've set our sights on building the future of travel agency success, and we're not stopping now. At Avoya, we don't settle for the status quo. Instead, our experienced industry leaders are continuously innovating and pioneering behind the scenes to ensure you have everything you need to succeed.
In 2022, we focused on investing heavily not only in the Avoya Network™ of Independent Agencies, but in the Avoya Travel® platform and brand as well. We've ramped up our support staff, hiring the best talent that's out there at a rapid pace to continue building and revolutionizing our technology, marketing, data intelligence, support resources and so much more.
Welcoming Certares as a partner to Avoya Travel in late 2021, we continue to scale up our brand reach, travel leisure platform and your opportunities to affiliate with us. Investing in people and technology remains a top priority, which despite the pandemic, has driven record high customer satisfaction ratings, with our Certares partnership pushing us further down our path to creating the industry's most powerful model combining technology with human expertise to help create amazing vacation experiences.
Plus, there’s the factors of yes, you may be affiliated with a travel network, but are they helping you make your phone ring with a new client from day one of your affiliation? Can they pay your commissions weekly? Are they focused on marketing on your behalf to send you leads? These are the things that we worry about, so you don't have to. We're proud to say that we continue to pay out weekly commissions to the Avoya Network – even advancing commissions through our Instant Commission™ program.
Our Shared Success™ model is a testament to our dedication to providing Independent Agencies in the Avoya Travel Network with the unmatched resources and services like marketing, technology, commission sharing, professional education, new customer leads and support to save you both time and money, while increasing your sales and efficiency.
Q: What are some ways you're helping Independent Agencies in the Avoya Network™ to win/retain clients?
A: We know that the golden age of travel is upon us, so we're going full force to ensure that the Independent Agencies in the Avoya Network have access to resources necessary to not only reach new clients but stay top of mind and hold on to returning ones. We know that independent travel professionals who operate their own business end up being a jack-of-all-trades, which is why we want our efforts to alleviate the time spent on marketing and sourcing new clients, so that Network members can focus their attention on nurturing their business and growing to even greater success levels.
One way we're doing this is ramping up our marketing to historic heights – even past pandemic levels for generating new travel leads for the Avoya Network. You could spend hundreds of hours and countless dollars searching for customers, which is why we spend millions finding them for you, so you don’t have to. With the Avoya Live Leads™ program, we find and send new clients directly to you, matched to your selling specialties. Plus, you can access these new leads 24/7 via phone, web or mobile app.
At Avoya, we love our data, so we've put our heads together in the last few years to find new data-driven ways to help Independent Agencies retain clients. The latest addition to our Avoya Live Leads program, Smart Leads™, uses predictive technology each day to identify the best past clients to contact based on their recent website activity, along with many other criteria, essentially letting you know which of your past clients is the most likely to book a vacation next. Since launching this new option during the pandemic, we've seen a significant boost in new sales for the Independent Agencies using it to supplement and refine their marketing efforts.
Another valuable resource launched during the pandemic that has proven successful to participating Independent Agencies is our Marketing Resource Center™. This library of diverse marketing resources and assets offers customizable and turnkey materials to help you keep past clients engaged without spending too much of your own time on marketing. Choose from a continuously-growing selection of email templates, digital flyers, ready-to-use social media assets, direct mail pieces and more – the possibilities are endless.
Q: What kind of assistance do you offer to new agencies to the Avoya Network?
A: Supporting the Independent Agencies in the Avoya Network is what we do – from day 1 to day 365 and beyond. Not only do we offer the right resources your business needs to hit the ground running and gain the foundational knowledge needed to feel confident getting started, but we also offer professional development opportunities designed for long-term success after you get started. Our talented team of innovative thinkers, many of them former agency owners, have used their industry knowledge and experience to design two departments dedicated to helping new agencies get their business up and running successfully.
When you affiliate your independent travel business, your first stop on the road to success is Avoya University™, our online, on-demand learning program created to get you acquainted with our company culture, as well as familiarized with our resources and technology platform, Agent Power™, completed at your own pace as you get started.
Next stop – the Foundations for Early Success Program. As the name suggests, our latest program launched earlier this year is designed to coach newly affiliated Independent Agencies to achieve early success with Avoya Live Leads. This 90-day program of individual sessions was created to help build successful business practices through proven methods and a realistic process, helping new Independent Agencies gain the knowledge and confidence they need to succeed.
Once you're ready to take on the fundamentals of being a successful Independent Agency in the Avoya Network, you can also participate in the Avoya Mastermind Boot Camps, where Avoya support staff share suggested best practices for building a thriving independent travel business. Topics include everything from personal and professional development opportunities to suggested social media best practices and sales techniques.
Along with access to award-winning professional development opportunities, we're dedicated to helping solve the historic new agency cash flow problem. No matter your experience level, we continue to pay commissions weekly, and with our Instant Commission program, you can get paid even sooner. Plus, we continue to advocate for agency commission payouts within the industry, lobbying for getting agents paid commissions that are non-recallable at time of booking.
If you're ready to get started with a Network dedicated to your success, fill out the form below. We'd love to chat and help you get started on your path to success!