How to add a New Agency?
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Clicking on the Agency menu takes the operator to the Agency Search screen as is shown in Fig 1.1 below. Information about an Agency is entered in the system using the New Agency link that is available on the Agency Search screen.
Figure 1.1 Agency Creation Page
Mandatory Information:
The mandatory fields that are required to be filled in before an Agency can be saved by the system is:
1.Agency Name
2. Contact Name
What are the other fields on this screen?
The operator can now fill in the details of the fields. Some of these fields are described below as others are self explanatory.
1. Client Category:- Can be FIT or Packaged Tour Reservation Agency(PAR).
2. Original Source : The operator can select the available sources under which the new agency can be placed as sourced from.
The address fields and other optional information and preferences about the Agency are picked up using different tabs that are arranged below the main tab. These can be expanded and collapsed after entering the required information.
The additional tabs that can be expanded to view each of them carry additional information and are explained below.
Address Details
The Agency address is captured under 3 sections. The first one is the primary address followed additional two alternate addresses. All of these addresses have a validity date range for which they are valid.
Contact Details
Under Contact Details, 2 contact phone numbers can be entered with one of these marked as a primary contact. A primary contact is one who would be contacted first while getting in touch with the traveler. Also a fax number and 3 email addresses can be provided.
Mailing List
The agency can be added to preset mailing groups here.
Commission
Agency commission can be earmarked upfront based on which calculations in billing are carried out.
Restrictions
The Agency may require to place some restrictions as to how the system interacts with him with regards to mails, placing phone calls etc. Select the restrictions checking on the available restrictions.
Association and Territory
Relevant association details can be supplied if any.
Record Details
The record details help us to record the status and type of the agency. Additionally it also provides when the agency information was modified in the system.
Who is an Agent?
For functionality purposes, an Agency Information is deemed to be complete only when an Agent information is also added. We can add more than one agent to an Agency, as all reservations or bookings are handled by a particular agent. For example, all south american tours may be handled by one agent, where europe could be handled by another. This way we have accounting reports and agent in turn being accounted for all transactions carried out under his name and thereby billed to the Agency to which he belongs.
How do we add an Agent to an Agency?
Figure 1.2 The Agent Tab on the New Agency Page
As is evident in Figure 1.2 above, the moment an Agency is created, a new tab named Agent is visible and once the operator clicks on this tab, the New Agent button is available on the right. Once you click this, you can then start entering the following information and also shown below in Figure 1.3.
Figure 1.3 Adding an Agent to an Agency
The Agent page as it appears after adding the profile details is akin to the traveler page. It has the same tabs which we will look at presently. Please have a look at Figure 1.4 before we look at what constitutes what.
Figure 1.4 The Agent Page as it looks after adding one to an Agency
The Agent details page is shown as a tabbed interface. Following are the tabs with explanation on what they contain. If you see the Edit option for the various sections, this means you have permission rights to change some or all of the information on these sections. Notes on Client, Operations and Marketing can also be added if the user has edit permission on this page.
Summary: A snapshot of details that was entered while filling in the agent details.
Communications: Shows all the online and manual communication requests for example, a brochure request and follow up calls are listed here.
Profile: Same as Agent profile.
Reservations:Lists all the reservation, FIT or PAR carried out by or for this agent.
Interests: Any interests saved for this agent are listed here. Interests for an agent are added using the Action menu on the right rail of the Agent page.
Opportunities:Any sales opportunity that may exist from this agent or any potential opportunities in the future may be recorded using the opportunity tab for an agent. Under this tab, there is a Add Opportunity button to enter the relevant details.
Search Agency Section
The Agency Search Screen is used to find the details of an Agency during an inbound call. The Search screen also has the option to enter a New Agency once the operator was unsucessful while searching for the same and now wishes to enter the agency details newly into the system.
There are 4 ways of carrying out a search as per operator needs. These are the Free Form, General, the Advanced and the search by Agent. Let us look at the General Search which is most popular among these 3 searches carried out.
General Search
The Agency Search screen is shown below in Figure 1.5.
Figure 1.5 The Agency Search Screen
Any existing Agency can be searched giving one or more of the fields in Fig 1.5 shown above and clicking on the Search button. The search results will be displayed in the Agency Search Results screen as shown in Fig 1.6 below with the Agency No, Agency Name,Type, City, State, IATA No., Phone and Postal Code fields.
Figure 1.6 Agency Search Results
To view the remaining records, the operator can click on the –> button provided on the bottom right corner.
There is also an export icon provided at the top right corner in case you need the search results to be exported into a file of CSV format which can be later imported into Excel or any other third party system that you might be using.
If you look at the Search results page, and you need to zero in on any specific agency on that page, you need to click on the Agency No. upon which the agency details are shown to you as seen in Figure 1.7 below.
Figure 1.7 Agency Profile on clicking Search Result
The Agency details page is shown as a tabbed interface. Following are the tabs with explanation on what they contain. If you see the Edit option for the various sections, this means you can have permission rights to change some or all of the information on these sections. Notes on Client, Operations and Marketing can also be added if the operator has edit permission on this page.
Agent Profile: Same as Agent Primary Information.
Agent: Contains Agent Information.
The additional tabs that can be expanded to view each of them carry additional information and are explained below.
Address Details
The Agency address is captured under 3 sections. The first one is the primary address followed additional two alternate addresses. All of these addresses have a validity date range for which they are valid.
Contact Details
Under Contact Details, 2 contact phone numbers can be entered with one of these marked as a primary contact. A primary contact is one who would be contacted first while getting in touch with the traveler. Also a fax number and 3 email addresses can be provided.
Mailing List
The agency can be added to preset mailing groups here.
Commission
Agency commission can be earmarked upfront based on which calculations in billing are carried out.
Restrictions
The Agency may require to place some restrictions as to how the system interacts with him with regards to mails, placing phone calls etc. Select the restrictions checking on the available restrictions.
Association and Territory
Relevant association details can be supplied if any.
Record Details
The record details help us to record the status and type of the agency. Additionally it also provides when the agency information was modified in the system.
