Cruise Planners agents get chat option

BOCA RATON, Fla.  — One
of the biggest rounds of applause at the opening session of Cruise Planners’
2015 conference came after CEO Michelle Fee said that a live chat function will
be added to agents’ company-branded websites.

The announcement followed a research finding that a large
cohort of millennial customers (ages 22-35) prefer doing a chat over picking up
a phone.

When someone wants to chat, agents will hear the sound of an
old-fashioned telephone ring on their computer. They will be able to initiate
outbound chats from a dropdown box listing everyone who is on the agent’s
website in real time.

It was just one of a raft of new technological improvements
unveiled at the annual conference, which drew about 600 franchisees to the Boca
Raton Resort Club.

Also making its debut at the conference was Cruise Planners’
eREZ Mobile app for agents, which became available in Apple’s App Store just
prior to the conference. Several agents downloaded it and held it aloft on
their phones even as Fee described it to the audience.

Cruise Planners has also added ARC MarketPlace, whose
website features 10,000 destination activities, tours, shore excursions and car
rentals that Cruise Planners agents can add as they’re booking a cruise or land
vacation.

Another hit was a trade show kit with table skirts, a banner,
branded pens, balloons and other items prepackaged so agents don’t have to go
to a third-party vendor.

In all, Cruise Planners said it has or will introduce 73
major improvements to its system in 2015.

The opening session was a fast-paced, entertaining look at
four generations of cruise customers, their cultural reference points and media
and buying preferences.

One presentation showed that cruisers in their 70s and 80s
were 25% of Cruise Planners’ clientele five years ago but 13% today, while the baby
boomers account for 40% of customers down from 42% five years ago. Gen-X
customers are 33% of the mix, up from 23% five years ago, and millennialsare
16% of the business, up from 10%.

The presentation also gave some demographic data that agents
could use for marketing. For example, January is the month clients in their 70s
and 80s tend to book the most cabins. For boomers, the month is October, for
Gen-X cruisers it is June and for millennials it is March.