Become a Home Based Travel Agent

CLIENTS FOR LIFE

MANAGING TRAVEL OVER TIME
                      By: Mitchell J. Schlesinger

The nicest car in the world will not run without four (4) fully operating tires.  Mastering the practice of

“clients for life” requires mastering the four elements covered in this series:

A database with a complete profile (demographics and psychographics) of each client, their travel history and  referrals.

Understanding consumer behavior and managing the customer relationship.

Implementing a customer service plan including the 3 Rs (recognition, referrals and rewards).

Managing travel over time.

In truth, you cannot manage travel over time, without fulfilling the necessities of the first three (3) elements above.   For the purposes of completing the series, I will approach this final article with the notion that this is the case.   At this stage, because presumably you have a robust database filled with personal and travel information for each client and have implemented an aggressive customer service plan, you are in a position to focus on literally directing where and how your clients travel.

In this role you are part financial advisor and golf caddy.  Why? 

* Personal finances are critical to consumers (especially now!!) and with the right relationship, fully entrust the placement of these funds to financial advisors.   Travel is the most frequent high ticket expenditure consumers make, meaning they put their trust in you.  The trust factor is what enables clients to rationalize a sizable travel purchase, similar to a financial investment.

* Golf caddies are very much like travel sellers.  Those with strong, long term relationships make recommendations based on their players historical ability to hit specific shots with a club the player is most comfortable.  Their job is to ultimately makes suggestions the player can select from.  Sound at all familiar?

Your opportunity is to guide your loyal clients through the maze of travel alternatives because you:

• Have created a personal relationship with them over a lengthy period of time as their demographics and psychographics have changed.

• Have learned to be a good listener.

• Understand their travel goals and aspirations, at each “life stage”.

• Know exactly where they have been, how much they have spent and…what’s next?

• Know their travel “hot buttons” and how they process them when making travel purchases.

• Put yourself in a position whereby they seek your advice and counsel for travel alternatives before making a final decision.

The critical aspect is to use all of what you have learned above to literally manage what they buy over the length of your relationship with them.   And it is a combination of what you can and should recommend to them and what they tell you they are interested in and ask for your opinion.  In those cases, it is clearly up to you (as the golf caddy) to present the right assessments of the travel alternatives compared to previous purchases so that they can make a choice that they are comfortable with and can logically rationalize after the purchase is made.  And recommendations should reflect their life stages:

• For couples traveling with their children, interactive travel experiences that the kids will talk about for weeks after they return and only want to know when they can go again.

• If they have a few extra days, an Alaska cruise-tour is a more complete way to fully experience the wildlife along with scenic beauty.

• Based on spending 10-14 days in Alaska, a 10-14 day cruise in the Med, Europe or Baltic.  The length and cost are comparable to the Alaska trip and allow them to rationalize the purchase.

• As their psychographics change, specific destinations will draw interest.  For some destinations, travel can be done in a sequence based on whether desired sights are inland or along the shore.  Italy, for example, is a destination best experienced by both a land tour and a cruise.

• In their senior years, trips are longer as they have more time.  Recommending suppliers they will feel comfortable with is very important.  Whether it is a national park tour or cruise to an exotic destination, some suppliers simply cater better to older guests than others. 

The most important motivation for you to master managing travel over time is the “Annuity Factor”.

It is a fact that as clients age, (especially over the age of 55),  the majority will have more time to travel, more disposable income, all of which results in higher priced transactions yielding substantially greater  commissions.  And a stronger the base of longtime loyal clientele enables you to more efficiently generate new clients from referrals.

There is a significant opportunity for professional sellers of travel who come to fully understand how financially valuable their clients are in terms of repeat travel and referrals.   And it almost impossible to underscore just how important how the service provided by all the agency’s team members impacts client loyalty.   Those aggressively embracing this philosophy will be rewarded with a dramatically stronger business and Clients for Life.