This week we are featuring an interview with Terri Burke, Senior Vice President of Relationship Marketing at Cruise Planners. 

Welcome Terri, thank you so much for joining us today for MAC Chat. I am really excited about the new Cruise Planners University (CPU) and was hoping you would share a little bit more about it with us. 
Thank you so much Jessica, it’s a pleasure to be with you, especially to talk about such an exciting new program as CPU. 

Cruise Planners is celebrating our 15th anniversary this year and has had a banner year in bringing new agents into the industry in 2009. This is something I am passionate about, as we need more agents and better trained agents for today’s consumer. And, that’s what Cruise Planner’s does, infuses new blood into the industry AND has a stellar training program.

Cruise Planners Executive Team:
(from left to right) Terri Burke, Michelle Fee, Vicky Garcia

What is the goal of this new program?
Although we have had a very successful in-person training program throughout the 15 years and had a Cruise Planners University – it was not meeting the growing needs of our agent network due to the complexity of the business and our “anytime, anywhere and any format” information goal. Therefore, we took a totally different route and created an LMS (Learning Management System) which would interact with the agent in a fun learning environment, as well as be a one-stop career path. Our goal is in our tag line: “Higher Learning = Higher Earning”. According to CLIA, certified agents increase their sales by 261%! So, it was a ‘no brainer’ that investing in higher education would lead to higher sales for our agents. Plus, our goal is always to bring in new agents into this industry – especially now, as consumers that book cruises prefer (by 76%) to book through a certified agent. And that number goes to 85% with luxury cruise lines!

What are some of the exciting highlights of CPU?
How long do I have?? Seriously, there are so many cool things about this new technology and content, that it is hard to pick out the highlights. So, I’d like to give you a list – but more importantly, what those highlights do!

Of course, it had to be web based, but it is on an individual level, so that each agent has their own ‘mycpu’ page. On this page, a complete history of certifications, both Cruise Planners as well as our valued partners will be shown. Imagine, your entire career path in one place – no more wondering where you are in the education process.

It is set up as a virtual university campus, all with a student union, library, academics building, orientation, etc. This allows us to have specific areas for virtual learning courses as well as our CEO’s ‘Book of Month’ club in the library, a FlowRider game to give your brain a quick break, OnDemand Webinars, videos from our headquarter’s office to help navigate the site, an integrated calendar with information of Cruise Planner’s learning events…..and so much more.

This is the first travel LMS that incorporates both CLIA and preferred supplier programs. And, anything that the agents has done prior to CPU (i.e., MCC with CLIA) has been confirmed and is grandfathered – we knew we had to get this information and give them the credit that was due.

The learning content is set up in 6 phases: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, MBA, Phd. Within these phases, there are core courses which include Cruise Planner information, industry information and subject expert’s information. These are required as core learning modules, but we also have electives with extra credit. This is where we marry in the preferred partner’s learning platforms, so that they must accomplish both the supplier’s program as well as ours – but all in one place, as we link directly to each of these platforms.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the accreditation of the program?
We’ve also partnered with CLIA and use their courses within our modules as well as require CLIA certification to progress through CPU. 

A consumer campaign in planned for awareness and recognition of what a Certified Cruise Planner Expert (CCPE) designation means. It will take approximately 18 months to be able to complete the program – so it’s not an easy or quick path.

There are also great benefits that the agents can earn within Cruise Planners as a result of getting their accreditation.

Who are some of the Business Experts currently featured in CPU's educational seminars?
We have a direct marketing company president that has provided training modules for us, a president of a networking organization and even our own CEO who has put together her personal modules on how to be successful. In addition, we offer online tutorials for software products that all of use everyday, as this was a frequent request.

Thank you Terri for telling us more about this new program. It sounds great and I wish you much success!

Please feel free to submit your comments below. Have an excellent day!