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Plain English Version: reading time 3 minutes
We know that when it comes to Visa services you have choices. Let
us state categorically we want to make sure you continue to let us earn our
reputation as Canada's best and largest Visa service provider with fully
staffed locations where they count most, Embassies and Consulates throughout
North America and major metropolitan areas.
We recognize that travel agents send us clients. You get paid by commission
for everything else you do in travel so why should it be any different for
Visas? In some cases our commissions are more than the commission on
ticketing or insurance.
Simply stated, you send us business and we need to pay you.
Commission Structure
- *5% of our fees for 3 to 10 visas per calendar month.
- *10% plus endorsement in the 'Travel Safe' program for anything over 10 visas per calendar month
- Anything over 20 per month and you're in the big leagues with us. We
clearly need to engage you in a contract that assures we address your
specific needs in a very profitable way.
*Commission is base on our fee and not that of government fee.
These percentages are subject to change.
Historically visas were something that a Travel Agent did as part of their
service, or for a nominal cost. The amount of work and the risk today makes
this impossible for a Travel Agent. Our commissioned based system of Visa
processing literally turns a "cost centre" into a "profit centre" for you
and your agency.
How do we track your commissions?
We use a promotional code. This code is a feature that will entice clients to book through
travel agencies in order to receive this code and the free promotional gift.
Obviously when a client walks, talks or emails their way to our services we need to know
who sent them our way in order to track and pay a commission to you.
In the past we relied on them to tell us. This quite frankly was less than satisfactory.
We know from experience that about 86% of our clients respond favourably to some sort of a promotional incentive
so that's how we've set up our commission program. You, as a registered Travel Agent, simply provide your email address
to the client which presumably they already have anyway. When they submit any Visa form with that "promotional code",
which is actually your email identifier we know who you are and they get perks such as a personal gift, discount,
free lunch or whatever. The catch is that the only way they can get these "perks" is through you, their Travel Agent.
You do nothing except make sure they know to use us, our system will automatically send you a cheque on the first week
of the next month.
In order to make this system work for everyone we've had to establish a few simple rules:
The commission cheque must be payable to an "Agency" not the individual, or
the "Agency" owners would have our heads. We assume you have the ability to
arrange individual payment from your agency.
Minimum 3 visas per calendar month per agent for base level commission.
You may set up a separate email per agent (so that we may track individual sales by agent and
offer these agents specials and gifts) or you may set up an email for the entire agency.
"Officially" we only count Visas per agent not aggregate through agencies.
So for example two agents do two visas each on one particular calendar
month. No commission would be paid because it is less than the 3 per moth
minimum required for each Travel Agent. Using a little "Chutzpah" you
realize hey why not put them all under one Travel Agent email, who's going
to know. Not us and frankly take this as our official go ahead, just don't
tell us. It looks like four to us and that's good enough for us to pay the
agency/you.
Promotion Codes can only be used by clients that have purchased a ticket
from you. For example if a client knows your email address and then
purchases their ticket "on line". That would be considered not eligible
since they did not get buy their ticket through you. There are two ways for
us to handle this. One is to change your email address periodically using
one of the common web based systems or we may spot an anomaly such as an
itinerary that is not from a registered Travel Agent. We're not going to be
jerks about it but you need to remember that the purpose of this program is
not so much to give a perk to the traveler as it is to make sure they have
an incentive to use you for their travel needs.
Another possible area of abuse is distributing your email address via email
or website to all your clients with the expectation that some or many of
them would use the service to generate a perk and you sit back and collect
the commissions. This is certainly not in the spirit of our intent to drive
sales of travel your way and we hope you would respect our desire to keep it
that way.
Payments cannot be retroactive. In other words you can't sign up for the
program one month and then attempt to claim for Visas you thought you may
have had come through several months ago. For that reason the sooner you
sign up the better off you are. There's no "expiry" date.
There are other Visa companies so why recommend us?
Well that's another easy one. Let's start with the fact that we're the only
company with a commission program. We've been doing this for about 20 years
so we know what we're doing. With offices in all major centres and next to
Embassies and Consulates we are where your clients Passports are and getting
them what they need when they need it.
Can we handle Emergencies?
You bet we can and we do every day. We've even
had cases where our staff have personally picked up a passport in Ottawa and
boarded a flight in order to meet a client in another city so they can have
their Visa and be good to go. No other Visa company can do that. Visas
aren't a sideline or a part time business for us. It's all we do and we do
it better than anybody else, period.
What about security of your data?
First and foremost we are never going to sell your information to anyone
without your prior approval. At some point we are going to be emailing your
commission statements so you know what you're getting paid.
We already have a contract signed with Visa Connection what do we do?
This new program runs along with but does not replace any existing
commission contracts that have previously been signed. They remain valid for
as long as the term agreed upon unless your agency wishes to come on board
with the new program. As stated earlier if your agency is doing
substantially large volume then we will work with your agency to ensure
maximum commission. Either way is fine by us.
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