I often hear from people who have lost their travel agent to retirement, and now they’re trying to figure out what they’ll do without them.
In most cases, these people have resorted to booking their cruises directly with the cruise lines, unknowingly forfeiting valuable perks that are only available when you book through a travel agent.
However, their biggest sadness is that they miss the ‘personal touch’ of working with a travel agent.
In the past, a long standing relationship with a travel professional would have been the natural result of having a bricks and mortar travel agency located close to their home.
In the past couple of decades, much of the travel industry has shifted to the web.
As a result, the role of the travel agent has changed dramatically.
In the 1980s and 90s, your travel agent was the only one who could access detailed travel information and booking engines. They were the gate keeper. You had to use a travel agent to get any information about dates and pricing; there was no other choice.
The internet changed all of this.
Now, consumers have all the same tools that travel agents have. There is complete transparency with prices, itineraries, and dates.
So why use a travel agent now?
With a virtually unlimited amount of information out there, it can be extremely difficult, frustrating, and time consuming to sift through it all.
Most people who contact me are completely overwhelmed!
Unfortunately, many travel agents have not made the shift, and still view their role as someone who provides ‘quotes’. I disagree.
Here’s my view of the value your new travel agent should be offering instead.
If twenty-five years ago, you had to go to a travel agent to GET information, then now the focus is much more de-coding or translating information.
Your travel agent should help you narrow down your choices, and guide you to focus on information about each of those choices that is personally relevant to you.
This is sometimes difficult to do. Many times I have already been to the destinations that clients are considering, or done the cruise they want to do. I have to resist the urge to tell them what I consider to be the “right choice”, because my personal preferences may be different than theirs.
So, your next travel agent should ask you lots of questions before making a recommendation.
She should also be comfortable telling you when she doesn’t know something.
I feel I know the cruise market very well, and yet with some regularity one of my clients will ask me a question I don’t know the answer to.
It is certainly my job to find out, and I usually know where to find the answers, but I don’t always have them off the top of my head.
It used to make me very uncomfortable to admit that I didn’t know the answer to a question. But over time I came to realize that with the vast amount of information available to me, and the speed with which things change within the travel industry, it is literally impossible for me to know everything.
I also came to realize that it builds credibility with a client when I tell them that I need to get back to them with the answer to their question, in order to be sure I am giving them accurate information.
So you don’t want your next travel agent to be a know-it-all. Instead, you need someone who will get you good information when you ask a thoughtful question – not someone who will fake their way through it.
Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up. There is some truth to this. If your new travel agent goes days without returning your phone call or email, then that person is not “showing up”. Travel agents often have several open files demanding their attention on any given day, but it is critical to be responsive, and that means getting back to people in a timely manner.
Finally, the travel agent of the 21st century is a person who views the relationship with the client as collaborative.
Ubiquitous information means that you’ll find plenty of opinions on any given topic.
It should be a shared responsibility between agent and client to evaluate opinions and information to ensure that your trip is the best it can be.
Planning a Cruise? I’d love to help! Click here to get in touch today.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley
