Posts Tagged With: travel agency marketing
There are 14 articles tagged with “travel agency marketing” published on this site.
“For any man of good will, there is work to be done here, effective, virtuous, satisfying work which can give rich meaning to one’s own life and to others” ~ Abraham Maslow
What do you want? It is amazing how difficult the answer to this simple question can often be. Perhaps it really isn’t such a simple question, and it’s even a little bit dangerous. Most of the decisions we make daily revolve around our desires, yet it can be hard to decide what we really want to have, what we want to do, and what we want to be.
The question of desire is not insignificant to building your travel practice. We engage in what we do, regardless of our profession, because of our desires. We want to be a travel professional, we want to travel and help others to travel, we want to provide material and psychological stability for ourselves and our families.
Getting a bit of clarity on our desires can help us achieve them. Read the rest of this entry »
The single most important thing that you can do for your client relationships is to make your clients feel special. Most of the service suppliers that your clients come into contact with every day do nothing to make them seem special – it is business as usual. That is why the exceptional service provider gets noticed. Think of the way in which certain exclusive hotel chains have built stories around themselves by doing no more than communicating the name of its guest to all of its personnel and then making sure the bellmen, the maids, and the service staff all address the client by name. Read the rest of this entry »
As business people, it behooves us to think cautiously about any business strategy focusing on price as a way of attracting attention to our services. We are a “deal” obsessed culture, and the “lowest price” mentality seems to be predominant everywhere. Not only are we training our clients to hone in on exactly the wrong issues, we also deeply damage the integrity of our own brands in the process.
Consumer advocates often lodge the complaint that advertising is coercive and monopolistic, dictating public perceptions and buying habits. According to this theory, the public buys what they are told to buy, the product most advertised, rather than the product that is the best for their needs. Certainly, companies with the resources to put into advertising have a distinct advantage. Regardless of the actual merits of the argument, the perception it creates makes it more difficult to form a relationship with clients based on trust. Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone in business has to learn to blow their own horn. Of course, it helps to practice first. We have all heard the advice to develop a short answer to explain to others what we do as travel consultants, but how many of us have actually done so? Jay Conrad Levinson calls it a “sound bite.” You may have heard it called an “elevator pitch.” Whatever you call it, it’s pretty important to be able to intelligently answer THE QUESTION: “What do you do?” Read the rest of this entry »
Running an agency is tough no matter the size. Owners must wear all the hats to make it run efficiently and profitably. It is a delicate balance because your time and expertise are valuable. Does it make sense to spend time doing the vital busywork? Maybe it’s time to consider hiring a virtual assistant. Read the rest of this entry »
“Guerrilla Marketing”, is all about achieving the maximum marketing bang for the buck. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but it needs to be creative. Today we are going to seek out three new tactics to tap into groups of consumers and to spend our money in as leveraged a way possible: Read the rest of this entry »
Many years ago, Jay Conrad Levinson coined the phrase “Guerrilla Marketing” to reference marketing tactics that business people could execute with a minimal expenditure of capital. Since that time, more than 1,000,000 copies of his book have been sold. The success of Guerrilla Marketing is in its mandate to develop a marketing mindset, to continually look for the marketing opportunity at every turn and to keep the necessity of marketing top of mind. Read the rest of this entry »
In the past, I’ve written articles about how travel professionals can learn from really good companies and industries. An incident over the past week, however, reminds me of how much we have to learn from companies whose sense of customer satisfaction was apparently developed in a vacuum. On a positive note, because most consumers have to deal frequently with these bungled attempts at customer service, the cosmic bar has been lowered and good customer service is a very welcomed change you can deliver on with surprising ease. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to briefly study some good examples of bad examples: Read the rest of this entry »
To ensure that your clients come to you each and every time they want to travel, for you to develop the kind of customer loyalty that ensures repeat business, you have to WOW them. Surprise your clients. The WOW factor is often best generated by something unanticipated. WOW happens when the client does not expect the special favor. Think beyond the standard fare. Read the rest of this entry »
Client retention is a big part of marketing, certainly as important as client acquisition. By retaining your existing clients, you stabilize your travel practice and provide a base onto which you can layer client acquisition and growth. WOW customer service is the way to retain clients, and a big part of great client service is accomplished by educating your clients. Read the rest of this entry »
Clients want to feel important. By being prompt in all of your dealings with clients, by always entertaining them in your presence with a warm and welcome manner, you make them feel special and you stake your claim to their attention. Far too often, though, we allow our perspective to wander off course and clients become intrusions on our day. If you catch yourself thinking of clients as annoyances rather than the primary reason you are in business, it’s time for an attitude adjustment. Read the rest of this entry »
Clients enter into a professional relationship with you not fully understanding what you do. It is your job, as the professional, to teach them, to train them in their responsibilities and in your own role in the travel planning exercise. Assume responsibility for the course of the relationship. Take charge. But respect your clients. Your attitude is written all over your face. Clients will inevitably sense the way you approach them, the way you feel about your responsibilities. Read the rest of this entry »
Customer service. Everybody talks about it, but the fact of the matter is, good customer service can be pretty difficult to find. Think about your day-to-day transactions and how often the companies and businesses with which you deal let you down by failing to deliver even a base-line degree of good customer consideration. Watch this TRO 2 Minute Marketing Video for your daily dose of customer service advice!
