Helping the First-Time Client Understand their Vacation Ownership Purchase
One of the perks of being a timeshare industry news junky is seeing innovative products and services becoming available and meeting new entrants into the sector. Following are some highlights of a conversation with Jonathan Stoker, CEO of Vacation Ownership Advisors (VOA), on the Resort Trades Learning Center YouTube channel as he explains how to educate and retain new (or even existing) clients.
RESORT TRADES:
Educating and continuing to build a relationship with your client requires a lot of staff time. Not only does it take a lot of staff training but also an understanding of associated products such as exchange and other travel components. Today, we’re pleased to introduce Jonathan Stoker who is CEO of Vacation Ownership Advisors to discuss VOA’s solutions for helping customers get the most from their ownership. Welcome, Jonathan. Tell us a little more about yourself and about what VOA offers.
STOKER:
Thank you, Sharon. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here with you today and to be able to speak to Resort Trades magazine readers and share our vision of what we offer to developers and owners of travel clubs and timeshare or vacation ownership organizations.
I’ve worked in the timeshare industry now for 26 years beginning in the Cancun area with Vidant, later for Hilton in New York City at West 57th, and then with Marriott Vacation Club as a director of sales in Miami opening up their property there on South Beach and again in Las Vegas at the Grand Chateau property.
RESORT TRADES:
That’s certainly an elite list of resort companies. How would you describe VOA’s ideal client and what do you offer them?
STOKER:
Our ideal client is the travel club or the developer that’s selling a membership product, whether it’s single-site or multi-site product. We offer a unique one-of-a-kind service called Vacation Ownership Portfolio Management. We reach out on behalf of the club or developer to create relationships with their clients on a proactive level teaching them how to better use and understand their purchase and how to get the best value from their ownership…not only their accommodations, but also their travel rewards program, whether it’s Marriott’s Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, or any of the other ones that are out there.
RESORT TRADES:
It sounds to me like your service is a value-added benefit that adds a lot of credibility to the product they’re buying .
STOKER:
It does. We’ve received a lot of feedback from developers that we work with who say that it actually becomes a sales tool. They say they’ve never had the opportunity to have this type of help. There’s always been a disconnect and void post-sale in the timeshare industry. In our business we’re great at marketing; we’re great at sales. We contact a member to do owner events but we’re never really reaching out to to say, ‘Hey, are you okay with the product? Are you understanding how the benefits can be used?’
As sellers, are you really taking the time to make sure that these owners understand the product that they have? They’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars into this product. It’s important that instead of waiting for them to call us and say, hey, I have an issue, or I’d like to make a reservation — whatever it might be — I think it’s important that we also should be reaching out to them to let them know that we care; that we’re here to help them and give them the opportunity to be able to use their portfolio.
This is one of the key things that that we do here at VOA. No matter what timeshare product someone buys, it doesn’t handle 100 percent of their travel. They’re still going to have to go outside of that platform, whether it’s to book airfare, car rental, or maybe a couple of hotel nights, We can manage their entire portfolio for them, giving them a seamless experience and that experience is directly related back to the owner’s purchase. We’re working as an extension of the brand that we’re working with to enhance the owner’s experience.
RESORT TRADES
That sounds great. But, why should a sales organization use you instead of hiring their own inhouse staff?
STOKER:
It’s a great question. First of all, it adds credibility to the seller. Over the last few years, as we’ve been developing our company, we focused very hard on creating online credibility and positivity. Google reviews and social media become a reality for a lot of these clients.
Someone who starts a travel club or from a developer standpoint, there could be reviews out there that may be true they may not be true and I think having VOA helps people to see the positivity.
Right now, we’re sitting currently at 420 reviews on Google and holding a a 4.9 percent rating. Members that are engaged with and that feel cared about are going to be happier. That’s really the bottom line that they are going to be happier when they use their products more. They’re not going to be searching on the internet to find answers in chat rooms or on Facebook, Reddit, or Tick Tock.
RESORT TRADES:
What do you see in the future for your business?
STOKER:
As the industry evolves, obviously things change and change quickly. I think that as an industry, our number one concern is obviously the client. We want to make sure they have a great experience and I think that having a company out there that is going to fill that gap. We’re not here to replace customer service; we’re here to increase value, to increase owner engagement, to allow customers to really understand that product.
Naturally, by doing this, it reduces cancellations, post-sale revisions, or any chargebacks that come in. It increases owner retention and increases the positivity of comments that are left on social media.
The more service, the more handholding, the more the client understands what they have and how to use it, the better experience they’re going to have. We have seen the results over the last three years of working with different companies that when all those things that we just talked about happen, the more cancellations go down and members are more engaged.
RESORT TRADES:
That sounds like a totally win-win-win!
Well, thanks so much, Jonathan, for your time today and thank you for your support of Resort Trades in our Membership Directory. Speaking of our directory, I hope readers interested in learning more about your product, Vacation Ownership Portfolio Management, will visit your site:
https://members.resorttrades.com/products/vacation-ownership-porfolio-management
Sharon Scott Wilson is Publisher of Resort Trades magazine. Connect on linkedin.com/in/sharonscottwilson. Subscribe to Resort Trades Weekly — https://resorttrades.com/emagazine/.
