Clockwise from top right: Diana Fletcher, Ryan McElroy, Tim Morgan, Huguette Masse
In an exclusive interview with Open Jaw, the founders of a new financial technology product explained how A Tru Moment gives travel sellers of all sizes the ability to offer a VISA debit card client loyalty program - a type of loyalty program they likely haven’t had access to before.
A VISA debit card gives customers instant gratification and the freedom to spend their balance at home or while on the vacation they’ve booked. That sets A Tru Moment loyalty program apart from others that involve point levels for redemption or that can only be used for future bookings.
The program also runs on a smart-phone enabled app.
"Our platform levels the loyalty playing field and allows travel retailers, regardless of size, to drive loyalty by allowing travelers to earn and redeem points to cash in real-time using a VISA debit card," Diana Fletcher, President and Co-Founder of Tru Cash, described A Tru Moment.
Tru Cash has been providing loyalty, marketing, and payment solutions for travel and tourism-related companies for 20 years. The company’s clients include Transat’s agent rewards program, Westgate Resorts, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, and the Los Angeles Metro. Through its longstanding relationship with VISA and leading banking institutions, Tru Cash has developed proprietary solutions that allow it to offer exclusive financial technology products that it is now tailoring to travel retailers and their customers.
“With decades of experience running successful travel programs already under our belt, we’re doubling down on this focus as tourism enters a post-pandemic boom,” said Fletcher. “By combining Tru Cash’s experience with the larger travel experience of our A Tru Moment investors, we’re investing heavily in a technology-driven future for this sector.”
Fletcher and Huguette Masse, Co-Founder of Tru Cash, are joined in A Tru Moment by well-known travel industry veterans Ryan McElroy and Tim Morgan.
“A Tru Moment is a technology-driven product that gives all travel sellers access to a loyalty program that allows them to compete with the biggest travel loyalty programs out there,” McElroy told Open Jaw.
Regulatory hurdles hinder most travel sellers from gaining access to VISA debit card loyalty programs like A Tru Moment. But McElroy said with A Tru Moment, “we can get VISA debit cards in the hands of travel agents' clients and incentivize them to buy from their travel advisors continuously.”
He described the birth of A Tru Moment. “When Tim and I were looking for a partner to service the technology-forward solutions that we’re invested in, Tru Cash was the sole company providing anything close to what we were looking for.” The company now exclusively powers the loyalty and payments solution for Morgan and McElroy’s Jerne, a marketplace that connects the followers of travel influencers with travel experiences.
And in the process, he said, “We realized there was an opportunity to help the wider industry with the challenge of loyalty solutions,” and so the new partnership was born.
A Tru Moment is also working with suppliers on loyalty programs for travel advisors.
"Just like we can help facilitate loyalty at the consumer level, we also do it at the supplier level by rewarding travel advisors for their loyalty and support of a given supplier," Fletcher explained.
As a dedicated subsidiary of Tru Cash, A Tru Moment will see an expansion of the company’s current 200-person, Toronto-based team by 50 additional staff members by early 2023.
For more information, please visit A Tru Moment’s web site http://www.atrumoment.com
