I recently overheard a group of my friends saying that they have noticed the number of surveys arriving in their inbox have become overwhelming. They found these surveys to be a nuisance and they resented the intrusion.
They felt that if the service they were receiving was not up to par the supplier would hear about it without the need of filling out a survey. This of course is one side of the story.
The other side clearly depicts a company who is interested in improving their service or, at the very minimum, confirming that they are doing things right. Personally, I cannot find fault with this practice. The receiver, as with all emails, has the option to simply delete the communication and get on with their life.
On a personal note, I am currently investigating the possibility of conducting a travel industry related mastermind retreat in the coming months along with my good friend and business “competitor” Stuart Cohen. The easy way for us to proceed would be to assume we know exactly what potential participants expect and want to receive from a program like this. The word naïve comes to mind and best describes this assumption. A more intelligent way of moving forward would be to contact potential participants and ask them directly about their most pressing needs. In other words, ask them what needs scratching. And that is exactly what we did.
I could’ve used the more graphically correct, and free, software like Survey Monkey.com; but, we decided to send a simple text email asking a single question: ”What keeps you awake at night?” Of course, we did not expect to receive a zillion responses but, in fact, we did receive 125 which was more than enough to point us down the right path.
As expected, the replies addressed various areas of personal concern. After taking a few moments to categorize the responses, we identified six specific areas of major interest. These included:
- Hiring and training
- Luxury travel
- Social media
- Maintaining loyalty
- New business development
- Group strategies.
Say and think what you will about surveys, but I am now better prepared to create a more meaningful agenda should the first ever travel related mastermind retreat become a reality.
With no intention of insulting your intelligence, I will simply remind you there is no substitute for doing your homework. You need a one-word mantra? ASK.
Note: if you would like to receive more information about the first ever travel related mastermind retreat to be held in the year 2020 please send me an email at mike@mikemarchev.com
Mike Marchev is a down-to-earth motivating sales trainer, author and business coach who specializes in the travel industry. Mike’s column is made possible by AmaWaterways.
