Travel Knowledge is King

I hope 2017 is off to a great start for you. Tell me, has anyone yet asked you for a holiday discount or a price match? I suspect the chances are your answer is ‘yes’.

Now you will of course have your own, or a company policy, on how to deal with such questions and there is probably no absolute right way to deal with them but I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject. And it would be great if you could share yours in the Comments section.

If a customer can find a straightforward package holiday, on the internet say, at a reduced price it is perhaps reasonable for them to ask if you, a travel agent, can match it. (Although I wonder how many of us would do the same in a shop if buying a pair of shoes, but that’s another discussion.)

On the face of it, the options are either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. However you, the travel professional, are not a programmable response on a tablet or mobile: you have a wealth of knowledge and experience that cannot be easily replicated by a computer.

Instead of giving a yes/no response you could ask a question based on the holiday requirement. For example, if someone asks for a price on a holiday to Koh Samui, Thailand travelling in November, you might ask “Have you been there before?”. If the answer is in the negative you could then continue “Koh Samui is great for a beach holiday. Of course, as you might know, during November the island does experience a high level of rainfall but temperatures are generally quite stable throughout the year”. I appreciate that a computer can be programmed to do that but there are subtleties of human interaction which cannot be replicated (yet): we still have the edge and long may that continue!

By asking a question you can open up a conversation during which you can demonstrate your travel knowledge and experience. Even if you have not yet visited a destination, thanks to the wealth of knowledge you will find in the online training available here at TravelUni, you can get ahead of the game.

I cannot claim that this will help every time because every client, as you know, is different. For some they only want a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response and have no time for conversation. That is fair enough: it saves you both time. Others though will appreciate your advice and, if you can create rapport with those customers, you increase your chances of making a sale.

As you build rapport you can also build the customer’s confidence in you and, at a time when the internet can hold a whole lot of nasty surprises, this is very important. It is about trust and trust is central to whether or not a customer will buy.

In my opinion when asked for a holiday discount or a price match it is natural to think in terms of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but if you are not doing this already I would urge you to remember your value: you have knowledge and experience that is not easy (and probably impossible) to find in one place on the internet. By instigating a conversation you can help the customer have confidence in you.

A final thought: remember to have confidence in yourself. You are adding value to a customer: not all of them want it but by asking questions you will find those that do.

Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts on discounts and price matching?

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