HAL'S Reservations Sales Dept. is on the Ball!

[serendipity1499]

Yesterday I was reading a thread about a Grand Cruise & just for the fun of it pulled up the Med Grand Cruise for 2016 on the HAL WEB site.. Keeping it in my file for DH & our Friends for future consideration..:):)

 

Received a phone call from a very nice lady in HAL’s Sales (or Reservation) Dept. today.. She mentioned that HAL noticed I had pulled up info about this cruise & wondered if she could help me with any questions I might have about it..

 

Now that’s what I call a good Sales Dept.! This HAL Agent seemed to be very efficient.. Unfortunately I never wrote down her name.. Wish I could have told her that we were going to book it, but it’s not in the cards at this moment..:( It's a great itinerary & I know that we would really enjoy this cruise..

 

When I worked for the airlines & our Agents had Salesmanship classes, one of their classes was about making cold Sales calls.. That was one of the most difficult assignments & most of the Agents did poorly at first.. You have to be an excellent Salesman/Lady to make cold calls..:D

 

As a stockholder I'm really happy to see that HAL is on the Ball!

Edited June 2, 2015 by serendipity1499

[Sirdar]

Glad you were happy with the call. Good customer service is increasingly a thing of the past. On the other hand some people are concerned with privacy issues when companies know a great deal about your browsing on the internet.

I guess it's a trade off these days.

[InTheWASide]

Glad you were happy with the call. Good customer service is increasingly a thing of the past. On the other hand some people are concerned with privacy issues when companies know a great deal about your browsing on the internet.

I guess it's a trade off these days.

 

No doubt it was because the OP was logged into their profile when they browsed... so a good way around that for anyone concerned is to not log in unless doing pre-cruise registration. If not logged in and "shopping anonymously" HAL would have no way to call.

 

Also you can set preferences about how you want to be contacted (or not) in HAL's privacy opt out area and/or you can say you are working with a TA (even if not the case) and that will disable the HAL PCC's from being able to do call outs to you as HAL does not wish to have PCC's competing with TA's

[Krazy Kruizers]

Well HAL is really on the ball.

Were you signed in at the time you were looking at that itinerary?

I have often looked at several itineraries but have not never gotten a call.

[deerhuntingal]

No calls but received an email yesterday from my cruise consultant. I emailed back and he replied quickly saying he can always get me the lowest advertised price (I can too on the web site). Good to know they are out there!

[marym933]

This happens every time I'm logged into the Carnival site.

[VioletHorse]

This happens every time I'm logged into the Carnival site.

 

Same here! We've only cruised Carnival 1 time, and they assigned a PVP who calls me each time that I look at cruises on the Carnival web site. I'm 3* with HAL and have never received a call from them - they rarely send us emails either.

[dockman]

Yesterday I was reading a thread about a Grand Cruise & just for the fun of it pulled up the Med Grand Cruise for 2016 on the HAL WEB site.. Keeping it in my file for DH & our Friends for future consideration..:):)

 

Received a phone call from a very nice lady in HAL’s Sales (or Reservation) Dept. today.. She mentioned that HAL noticed I had pulled up info about this cruise & wondered if she could help me with any questions I might have about it..

 

Now that’s what I call a good Sales Dept.! This HAL Agent seemed to be very efficient.. Unfortunately I never wrote down her name.. Wish I could have told her that we were going to book it, but it’s not in the cards at this moment..:( It's a great itinerary & I know that we would really enjoy this cruise..

 

When I worked for the airlines & our Agents had Salesmanship classes, one of their classes was about making cold Sales calls.. That was one of the most difficult assignments & most of the Agents did poorly at first.. You have to be an excellent Salesman/Lady to make cold calls..:D

 

As a stockholder I'm really happy to see that HAL is on the Ball!

 

 

And did the Holland Agent asked if you had a travel agent or wanted to book via a travel agent or were you solicited to book direct? Very very sore point with a lot of agents is the cruise lines trying to cut them out of the picture....which incidentally in spite of cruise line execs "promises" to the contrary is happening more and more. The cruise line bean counters would love to see that huge "agent commission" expense go way way down.

 

Agents also remember when the airlines were their "partners in travel"...until they cut the agent commission to zero and said tough luck. Overtime the airlines have "taught" consumers to do their own research, own payments, own seat assignments etc, all online.

This resulted in a lot fewer travel agents as well as a lot fewer airline sales and reservation agents and saved the airlines some serious bucks.

 

Cruise lines have the email address of most every passenger who has ever sailed along with ability to track anyone who visits their website.....and of course the cruise line can offer a customer all kinds of bonuses for booking direct to include OBC, free dinners, upgrades, transfers etc.

 

While a few diehards will stick with travel agents I suspect it is just a matter of time until the percentage of direct bookings will exceed the travel agent bookings.

 

Cruise lines are running out of nickle and dime ways to increase revenues and reduce expenses and that big agent commission expense is no doubt going to be a bigger target in the future.

 

In the end it's the stockholders share price that will win out as is so very often the case in today's business world.

[serendipity1499]

Well HAL is really on the ball.

Were you signed in at the time you were looking at that itinerary?

I have often looked at several itineraries but have not never gotten a call.

 

Yes I actually put our Names & Mariner No.'s into the dummy reservation in order to come up with cabin price quotes..

 

But never completed the reservation.. I've done that many times before this, & have never received a phone call.. I always do it this way before calling our Travel Agent for a cabin price..

 

BTW to the Cruiser who asked if I was pushed into making a reservation the answer was NO.. The HAL Rep. just asked if she could answer any questions we may have.. Hal has our records there & know we use a Travel Agent..

Edited June 2, 2015 by serendipity1499

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you

I never put in our names or Mariner numbers when checking on cruises.

[cruz chic]

And did the Holland Agent asked if you had a travel agent or wanted to book via a travel agent or were you solicited to book direct? Very very sore point with a lot of agents is the cruise lines trying to cut them out of the picture....which incidentally in spite of cruise line execs "promises" to the contrary is happening more and more. The cruise line bean counters would love to see that huge "agent commission" expense go way way down.

 

Agents also remember when the airlines were their "partners in travel"...until they cut the agent commission to zero and said tough luck. Overtime the airlines have "taught" consumers to do their own research, own payments, own seat assignments etc, all online.

This resulted in a lot fewer travel agents as well as a lot fewer airline sales and reservation agents and saved the airlines some serious bucks.

 

Cruise lines have the email address of most every passenger who has ever sailed along with ability to track anyone who visits their website.....and of course the cruise line can offer a customer all kinds of bonuses for booking direct to include OBC, free dinners, upgrades, transfers etc.

 

While a few diehards will stick with travel agents I suspect it is just a matter of time until the percentage of direct bookings will exceed the travel agent bookings.

 

Cruise lines are running out of nickle and dime ways to increase revenues and reduce expenses and that big agent commission expense is no doubt going to be a bigger target in the future.

 

In the end it's the stockholders share price that will win out as is so very often the case in today's business world.

 

Have you actually booked direct with a PCC before? People on cruise critic basically call those of us do idiots because we aren't getting the perks and discounts that TAs give. I don't get obcs, transfers etc from the PCC unless they are offered to everyone. She does usually send a bottle of wine. Please let me know which PCC does this so I can inform mine so I can get these freebies I'm missing out on. Thx.

[cruz chic]

Thank you

I never put in our names or Mariner numbers when checking on cruises.

 

I do it all the time. Have never rec'd an email or call.

[dockman]

Have you actually booked direct with a PCC before? People on cruise critic basically call those of us do idiots because we aren't getting the perks and discounts that TAs give. I don't get obcs, transfers etc from the PCC unless they are offered to everyone. She does usually send a bottle of wine. Please let me know which PCC does this so I can inform mine so I can get these freebies I'm missing out on. Thx.

 

 

Didn't say it is happening now but do predict that it will eventually begin to happen in the future as cruise lines decide to go for more and more direct biz. Lot cheaper for the line to give you a $100 OBC than to pay a travel agent a commission....especially if you do it all online yourself without needing to talk to a real person....the future of cruise bookings just like airlines, hotels, and rental cars is to get the customer to do it all yourself dealing only with a computer program.

[cruz chic]

Didn't say it is happening now but do predict that it will eventually begin to happen in the future as cruise lines decide to go for more and more direct biz. Lot cheaper for the line to give you a $100 OBC than to pay a travel agent a commission....especially if you do it all online yourself without needing to talk to a real person....the future of cruise bookings just like airlines, hotels, and rental cars is to get the customer to do it all yourself dealing only with a computer program.

 

Ok, it sounded like it was happening now to me from your post. Sorry about that. If that's true I can't wait for it to happen so I can hear the end of how stupid I am for booking directly. A ta brings zero to the table for me. I'm happy to cut out the middle man.

[take us away]

Thank you

I never put in our names or Mariner numbers when checking on cruises.

 

Neither do I - 'Me Us' and 'He Us" are frequently looking at cruise pricing on the HAL site.

 

Not overly comfortable about the 'big brother' aspect of the cold call..... but the 'net is not private.

[pms4104]

Is HAL on the ball ... or is HAL struggling to sell long and/or expenseive itineraries without deep discounts?

 

If that's the case, it would make sense that HAL would contact any who may have shown interest in such sailings.

 

Just my take on it.

[cruz chic]

Is HAL on the ball ... or is HAL struggling to sell long and/or expenseive itineraries without deep discounts?

 

If that's the case, it would make sense that HAL would contact any who may have shown interest in such sailings.

 

Just my take on it.

 

I agree with you 100%.