Tier One Travel – Taking some time to organize and prepare for the fall | Travel Research Online

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Tier One Travel – Taking some time to organize and prepare for the fall

This past month I’ve been continuing my pursuit of training and education. Most of it was a refresher, but in every case I did learn something that I either didn’t know or had forgotten; and for some of the programs, there was a bonus commission for the next booking, so nothing was a waste of time. I also found some other venues of learning outside of the travel industry. It really is amazing what you can find on the Internet these days. There are so many webinars, live and recorded, about many aspects of running a business—any business. One I’ve found useful is Constant Contact. It takes a bit of creative thinking sometimes to translate these ideas into ways that I can put into my travel business. Some are quick and easy to do right now, and others I’ve bookmarked for future reference.

I recently attended a sales call with our travel insurance rep for an update. Afterwards, a group of us were chatting about how business is these days – not great here in Alberta. We’re hoping that the economy will improve soon and more of our clients will start traveling again. The six of us have been in this industry for 20 to 46 years! A question we came up with is how to let the world know how wonderful travel agents (advisers, consultants, or whatever you like to be called) are? There are so many aspects of a vacation that our years of experience can benefit the traveller. I guess that’s one of the things that we, as an industry, will always struggle with.

I decided that my office needed a big re-organization. The desk location is fine, but when setting up my office a couple of years ago, I was starting with a blank space. This sounds great, but now I’m finding that it became easy to just put things away in an empty draw or cabinet. Now all my highlighter and post it notes are in one drawer instead of 2 or 3. Another thing I battle with is brochures—how many are enough? I try to stick with my rule of 2 brochures (one for a client and an office copy) and when I give one to a client I replace it; but how many suppliers do I need?

I’m looking forward to a busy season all prepared!

Melanie Hersom is an independent consultant with Tier One Travel in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She believes in providing Personalized Vacations and Exotic Adventures. Melanie loves spending time with her granddaughters. “I don’t want to go anywhere twice until I’ve been everywhere once.”

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