Guest Comment: Brochures reach next chapter

By Jill Cox, NTL Business (Travel Division) marketing director

Agents using the internet to its full potential now have the means to equip themselves with a sales tool which offers streaming video, sound, 3D virtual reality tours and e-brochures – in short, functionality and solutions which allow them to sell to customers more effectively.

Consumers who access the internet at home or work as part of their lifestyle expect agents to provide a value added and effective service tailored to their specific needs and expectations. Broadband technologies are enabling agents to use the internet as a key part of an efficient and professional selling procedure – improving the presentation of holidays and related information, speeding up the sales process, reducing costs and generating revenue.

In particular e-brochures, much debated in the industry this year, should become central to the selling environment for agents.

Accessing brochure content and ancillary information on specifically related topics online will give agents the ability to present high impact holiday information to customers and tailor the details to suit their specific requirements.

E-brochures will provide continual access to operators’ latest holiday information and prices. Additionally agents will be able to send e-brochure and collated, targeted web based information pages to customers by email, ensuring all sales opportunities are exploited and reducing the dependency on face to face interaction during the normal working day.

High-speed connectivity to the internet and e-brochures is vital. Broadband allows the quick transfer of large amounts of information, now a real necessity at the point of sale, and always on, guaranteed high bandwidth is essential to optimise sales opportunities and sales conversion rates.

E-brochures reduce operator production costs and can utilise advanced technology available to enhance the sales process – they will form a central role in the agency selling process in the future

Now is really the time for agents to embrace broadband, low investment, high bandwidth, reliable, fully managed services are now available, providing agents with a business quality service which ensures they will continue to add real value in the travel distribution chain. Failure to embrace this new technology could result in agents being bypassed by a more technically sophisticated consumer.

Virtually every agent now has the opportunity to adopt the technology to achieve high-speed, high performance connectivity to the internet and benefit from the potential of adding value and service to the customer through e-brochures and other internet based information sources – agents should grasp the opportunity to enrich their sales environment and improve bottom line results.