TravelJoy, Cruise Advisors, & What Happens When a Tool Actually Listens
I want to share what I’ve been up to lately. As usual, it’s centered around making a cruise business easy and fun to operate (and scale).
TravelJoy has been one of the most meaningful tools in my business for 10 years. But this year, my relationship with it changed. It stopped being something I just used and started being something I was part of building. I met with the team at TravelJoy for weeks, offering my insight into what advisors who sell cruises really need in order to take the pain out of cruise proposals. It was an honor to be a part of it.
The thing about cruise proposals is that we are typically offering more than one option, and the industry has been very light on tools to make it easy for us to build proposals that give our clients what they truly need to compare the options. Most of the newest tech makes custom FIT proposals sing, but leaves us sending a huge info dump to cruise clients. I’ve been screaming about it for years, and TravelJoy decided to accept my challenge.
The rollout of the new features started with a podcast episode. I had Dayo Esho, co-founder and CEO of TravelJoy, on 7 Figure Cruise Business to walk through what was new. We talked about the Magic Importer, the side-by-side cruise comparison view, advisor notes, and a few other features that had quietly made my proposal process dramatically faster. (You can listen to that conversation here.)
But the conversation didn't stop when we hit stop on the recording.
Dayo came and did a live demo during Cruise Biz Coaching Week, in front of our community, in real time, showing advisors how to use these features in their own businesses. I took over the screen and demonstrated just how quickly a cruise proposal with multiple options can be created with the new side-by-side presentation I helped to create. If you know me, you know I have a need for speed. The questions that came up in that room were the kind you only get when people are excited about using a tool, not just learning about it. It was one of those sessions where you could feel people's proposals getting better in the moment.
And then TravelJoy invited me to present at their town hall. I got to stand in front of their community and share why these features are so important to growing a cruise business, what's working, what we wish existed, what would make our jobs even easier.
I don't take that kind of thing lightly. When a company asks you into that room, they're listening. And TravelJoy is listening.
Here's what I want you to know about the features that have made the biggest difference for me and for the advisors in my community:
Side-by-Side Cruise Comparison
This is the one that changed how fast I can get my clients to a YES. I can crank out a clean, professional comparison of multiple options quickly with the total cost front and center, easy to scan, easy to compare, easy to decide from. This was my number one goal. I actually built a tool like this for my members in Cruise Business Blueprint, but it lacks the database. It looks great, but you still have to get the info from somewhere else. TravelJoy brought it all together into my dream system.
The Magic Importer
Pull in a PDF, and TravelJoy builds the proposal or invoice for you. I have a preferred cruise invoice template, and it allows me to apply the imported info to that template in seconds. It takes something that used to eat time and makes it almost instant.
Advisor Notes
I like to put a quick note on why I curated each option (sometimes it’s a good/better/best framing) before the client gets into the details. It sounds small. It is not small. It's the difference between a client who knows what they're looking at and one who emails you five questions before they've read anything. TravelJoy gave me a dedicated spot to put that note near the top of each option, so my expertise is highlighted.
What's coming
TravelJoy isn’t stopping there. They are in the process of slowly rolling out an integrated booking platform. Wait! I know what you’re thinking. But this time it’s different. When you book the cruise inside TravelJoy, it will be booked through your host agency, and TravelJoy isn’t involved in the commission flow at all. Your host agency & consortium group space will be available to you so that you can retain your competitive edge.
Imagine how much time it will save if your client is able to see the options, compare them efficiently, make the selection, and then you can go right into booking without ever leaving the TravelJoy platform (they are even doing some amazing things with deck plans so that you have a clear idea of the best location)! I’m honestly buzzing about this reality. It gets my blood pumping, just thinking about it.
If you're not using TravelJoy yet, I can say with confidence that it is now the easiest place to sell cruises. Not because it's pretty (though it is), but because it is growing with cruise advisors in mind, and it keeps getting better because people like us keep telling them what we need.
That's the part that matters to me. They're building with us, not just for us.
