BE it a $20 Coles voucher, a place on a New York famil or tickets to the cinema, inducements have long been standard practice for suppliers looking to cosy up to front line consultants.
It’s a simple strategy: overlook our competitors, send a few extra punters our way and we’ll look after you. You scratch our backs, we’ll scratch yours.
It has rarely – if ever – been called into question. Yet it’s a practice I’ve long regarded as being on the cusp of unethical.
Are you, as a supplier, winning sales based on the quality of the product, or on the promise of rewards? And as an agent, are you genuinely recommending and selling a holiday you believe is right for the customer or are you being swayed with gifts?
In fairness, the dangling carrot is usually of relatively low value. Consultants, it is fair to assume, will hardly be motivated to switch sell from one company to another when a $20 Coles voucher is up for grabs. And that’s meant as no offence to Coles.
But what of higher value items designed to encourage, attract or reward support?
For the past six months, The Travel Corporation has been running an incentive which has dished out $1 million. It concluded last month with the award of an extraordinary $50,000 to its top selling agent.
It goes without saying that it has been a very generous reward scheme, albeit from a family – the Tollmans – who aren’t short of a bob or two. They are likely to repeat the initiative. But it just doesn’t sit well. Not with me at any rate. Travel agents are duty bound to provide impartial guidance, to give their expert advice and recommendations to a customer. Will the allure of thousands of dollars risk that impartiality?
It’s a question worth posing. Some professions must disclose any gifts they receive to ensure transparency. I can’t imagine many travel agents have told their customers of the lucrative Travel Corp incentive.
Many brands, those owned by The Travel Corporation among them, put significant resources into product development, training and brochure production and there is enormous frustration when that investment leads to an insufficient return.
But seducing agents with cash, and large amounts of it? The Travel Corporation has the means to reward support with sizeable amounts of money in a way its smaller competitors are simply unable to do.
Larger firms in any industry have the power and resources to dominate. We all know that. Opening a very large cheque book, however, to encourage, incentivise or reward – to increase sales in other words – just seems a little grubby.
