Company: Travelocity
Agency: Vollmer Public Relations
Time frame: 2005, ongoing
Historically, travel agent surveys show most agents went into that field for the pleasure of making people's vacation dreams come true. But when airlines began to cut agent commissions in 1994,
economic need drove business in directions that produced more immediate revenue gains for travel retailers.
Similarly, when the Internet began its meteoric rise in the '90s and such online travel sellers as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz launched business models based on low price alone, many travel
agents abandoned high service ideals and turned to selling travel components as commodities. For years, the business of selling travel teetered on an uneasy edge.
But when consumers learned that many deals really were too good to be true, service re-entered the picture. And at least one online agency recognized the value proposition of providing
personal service.
Travelocity vice president of public relations Dan Toporek says promoting Travelocity as the Champion of the Consumer was a way to differentiate the organization from its competitors. "We realized
it wasn't possible to differentiate [on price alone], so we looked at what was most important to consumers," he says.
The answer was a throwback to older business models. "We did the research, and what also mattered was ensuring that someone 'be with them on the trip.' Travelers need...someone looking out for
them," he says.
Thus were born the Travelocity Guarantee and Customer Bill of Rights, which provide an extended warranty, as it were, of the travel experience. Michelle Peluso, president and CEO of Travelocity,
noted that the Guarantee and Bill of Rights were not "slick marketing copy weighed down in fine print. Rather, together, they cast in stone our renewed focus on delivering the best travel experiences
one trip at a time." Key elements of the Guarantee included new technology that routes travelers to the best online agent to resolve issues in a single call; adjusting policies to build in the
ability to change flights within 24 hours of booking and make calls to hotels to maintain bookings; and training Travelocity staff to transform them from order takers to empowered problem
solvers.
Travelocity wasn't the first to tout the importance of providing consumers with support in their travel decisions, however.
In 1999, William A. Maloney, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Society of Travel Agents, made a speech to ASTA members about the growth of online travel
purchases and their potential impact on traditional travel agents. While acknowledging the power of the Internet as a resource for consumers and travel agents alike, he predicted it would "never
eradicate the need for personalized, professional service."
To compete with online agencies, ASTA launched its own consumer championship campaign. At an ASTA conference in May 1999, ASTA president Joe Galloway announced, "ASTA is launching a new consumer
awareness campaign with a hard-hitting message, spelling out, in no uncertain terms, the value of an ASTA member travel agent. We will soon be unveiling a new television and print ad campaign on the
Travel Channel and in select publications. We will also be launching an exciting public relations effort assuring the world that the Internet is not going to put travel agents out of business." The
tag line of that campaign, which can still be seen on many travel agencies' letterheads, was: "Without a travel agent, you're on your own."
Noting the shift in consumer allegiance back in the direction of customer service, Travelocity did its homework and then launched its Guarantee in 2005. But it had to do more than pay lip service
to the concept to achieve the desired results. The campaign's objectives were: to build employee and public awareness of and confidence in Travelocity's Championship efforts; garner more than 30
media placements; and increase site revenue by 25 to 30%.
"We spent time retraining all our agents," says Toporek. "The president visited every office talking to employees about what it meant to be the champion. We talked to the tech and service teams,
because championship is not just about calling Customer Service." The site began to feature more details about flights and accommodations and invested in connections to hotels so reservations would
be electronically delivered to each property, minimizing the risk of lost reservations. The goal, says Toporek, was to make sure "people don't show up and have a bad experience."
Travelocity agents were empowered to resolve issues on the spot and provide follow-up service after trips were done, even offering free placement of travel photos on another site. "We take care of
the whole life cycle of the trip," says Toporek.
Being the consumers' champion became Travelocity's mantra. "It is what employees use to measure themselves, and it is how they are measured," Toporek notes. The program has given the company
internal consistency and provides employees with a key strategy and focus. "It gets employees aligned and marching to the same drum," he adds. "It has become a strong differentiator in an
undifferentiated marketplace."
Key to the program is an incident management system that lets Travelocity track a customer issue and alert others who might be impacted by it in the future and help them re-book or address it.
Knowing a problem might exist before the trip has even begun gives consumers an extra measure of control, and it gives Travelocity's agents a chance to re-accommodate them. This, says Toporek,
improves the experience and controls costs.
Broad marketing efforts were launched simultaneously to target audiences, reaching out to travel, business and consumer media and holding industry analyst briefings. A news release outlined the
new commitment, and key news outlets were alerted. Over a five-month period, Travelocity fought to convert skeptics through education and facing such real-life challenges as the London bombings,
Hurricane Katrina and other disasters that affected travelers.
Travelocity's consumer surveys found that customers were 50% more satisfied with their experience and more likely to book. The campaign earned the company more than 90 media placements, 43,337,000
impressions and publicity value of $750,000. Perhaps most importantly, site revenues jumped 65% from 2005 to 2006, from $503 to $830 million.
Says Toporek, "Stories used to talk about how the Big Three [Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz] were always doing the same thing. The coverage we got from Customer Championship and the Guarantee
started to cut us out from the herd and talk about what Travelocity was doing differently."
For any PR professionals attempting to launch a similar program, Toporek has a few recommendations. First, he says, you have to look at the program as a way of life for the company. Next, "Make
sure you have a strong understanding among employee of what the campaign is about. Get them behind it to keep it living."
He adds, "When you sit down to plan a launch, don't think of it as a launch -- think in terms of what to say in one month, two months, six months...think ahead in terms of how to keep it alive."
Contacts:
Dan Toporek, [email protected] 415.932.1163; Amanda Borichevsky, Vollmer Public Relations, [email protected]; ASTA, 703.739.2782, http://www.astanet.com
Creating A Championship Image
In 1999, the American Society of Travel Agents inducted a new president who would take office in 2000: Kathryn W. Sudeikis, a veteran travel agent and vice president of corporate relations for All
About Travel in Mission, Kansas. Sudeikis inherited the society's new PR campaign, designed to raise consumer awareness of its position as the champion of travelers. In her speeches before the ASTA
membership in 2000, Sudeikis hit the points of the campaign repeatedly. Here's how ASTA got the word out:
- A national television advertising campaign ran on the Travel Channel, along with advertisements in several national magazines. ASTA sent its members camera-ready ad slicks to personalize with
their agency information. It also launched a chapter level program with the support of Thrifty Car Rental and Choice Hotels allowing 10 of its chapters to launch local efforts.
- ASTA mailed a public relations kit to every travel agent member containing speeches on a variety of topics, press releases agents could customize with their agency information and ticket stuffers
for clients. The society updated this information on the newly redesigned ASTAnet Web site. Ad packets with new consumer ads were sent to ASTA members to let them customize and use the ads in their
local markets.
- A relationship with Modern Bride magazine reached 1 million readers every other month. Another deal with McCall's magazine and Family Circle reached 5 million readers.
- ASTA launched its first Internet advertising campaign and worked to establish itself as the primary source for the media on the subject of travel. The society netted nearly 2 billion media
impressions in 1999 for ASTA's consumer awareness efforts, including an Air Travelers' Bill of Rights initiative in Congress.
While Sudeikis' term of office as ASTA president has since expired, the society is still active in helping travel agents promote their role as champions of travel consumers. Says current ASTA vice
president of communications Kristina Rundquist, "One of the best things agents can do is become known in their community. They need to get out there, become known as the expert on whatever they
specialize in -- cruises, the Caribbean, mature travel." She advises agents to read articles in local papers and contact the reporters to promote themselves as experts journalists can contact when
they need information on travel for future stories. She tells travel agents to "prove your value to the media as well as to consumers."
Taking a new tack, ASTA has designated February of 2007 "Travel Agents Care" month. The society is encouraging its members to participate in a new trend toward volunteer or service vacations
(e.g., after Hurricane Katrina to rebuild New Orleans), as well as getting involved in their own communities to show that travel agents care about the people in travel destinations, not just about
making the travel sale. "Send agents on a volunteer vacation, volunteer at a homeless shelter -- whatever it is a chapter or agency can do," Rundquist recommends. She adds that Kathy Sudeikis has
developed a new tag line for this year's effort: "Travel is not between places -- it's between people."
Contact: Kristina Rundquist, [email protected]
Massaging The Social Media
Before Travelocity launched its Guarantee, "We did a lot of strategic thinking about our contacts in the media and how they would perceive a 'guarantee,' particularly of an experience," says Dan
Toporek, Travelocity vice president, public relations. "We dug into the nuts and bolts of customer championship and what the company had done. We put the focus on that, with the Guarantee as a
product of that."
But before the launch, the PR team encountered a situation that forced it to think differently about social media and truly embrace that concept. A mistake on the site for a flight to Fiji listed
the airfare as zero dollars. The news spread like wildfire through travel chat rooms and blogs. "One person told everyone else," Toporek muses ruefully. "There were rapid-fire bookings after that,
and lots of chatter on the sites. We finally said 'That's what we displayed, and there was nothing to make it clear it was wrong -- being the customers' champion, we will honor it.'
"We sucked it up," adds Toporek. "Our president posted a fun, cheeky message wondering whether consumers would get the fare or not. The good news is we believe in what we offer, and we wanted
people to have a great time in Fiji. That got a tremendous amount of good will, and it generated a lot of stories. The word spread virally through social sites. This whole grey area in PR was
something we embraced."
Since then, the company has continued to find look for success stories for the media, to keep the momentum going. These include examples where Travelocity agents have helped customers, as well as
outstanding things the company has done. Eighteen months after the launch, Travelocity continues to generate proactive customer care, and keeps looking for opportunities to get the message out.
"We build it into everything we say," notes Toporek. "When our executives speak, we get this across every time we talk to the media. We get the key messages out there without getting lazy about
it.
"We have to keep bringing it out there, because it's a differentiator. We will continue to invest to make the experience better for the customers."