It’s become apparent that travel advisors will have to allot plenty of their general time in the future to deal with the ever-changing global travel restrictions and entry requirements. That’s challenging, considering many of you are already working 24/7 to get through your typical day-to-day activities of planning travel. So what can you do in 2022 to free up some of your time to keep your life sane?
Here’s one thing. Establish a red flag system when working with prospective clients. Now that your time is more precious, you need strict rules for those you do not want to do business with (don’t forget, you get to decide who your customers are). What should you watch for?
Meetings Group
Those who do not respect your time or your boundaries. They are sending you DMs at all hours and trying to pick your brain for itinerary ideas without committing. They display a general flakiness when it comes to keeping scheduled appointments with you.
Those who display a clear avoidance of filling out any questionnaire you give to them to learn more about their travel preferences, even though they have come to you to inquire about the services you can provide.
Those with a clearly negative attitude when communicating with you, showing disrespect or questioning your expertise.
Those constantly asking you about pricing as they keep hitting you up for more information about a trip.
Those who book a trip on their own, then return to you with COVID restriction questions, fully assuming that you are to provide a free public service even though they don’t give their expertise away in their line of business.
Most luxury travel advisors are now charging consultation or service fees these days and so a lot of this nonsense goes away once the client has committed to paying for that initial consult; however, you may still have these issues after they pay. If your fee is $250, is it still worth going through the motions with people who do all or some of the above? That $250 shouldn’t be the most painful $250 you’ve ever earned; it doesn’t give them access to walk all over you.
On a lighter note, how about if in 2022, you build out your strategy to disrupt the travel advisor business model. Fischer Travel has formed an alliance with Fortis Global that provides clients with services that go well beyond the scope of a traditional travel advisor (although, admittedly, Fischer Travel had already broken that mold many years ago).
Is there something you do especially well? Do your passions make you especially excellent in what you can provide to clients? Brainstorm on how you can form a non-traditional alliance with another company to amp up your services to clients.
How can you do this? The Fischer Travel-Fortis Global relationship came about through a good client recommendation. Luxury travel clients are a remarkable subset of humanity; they’re not only affluent, they’re likely to be super intelligent, entrepreneurial in spirit and they know lots and lots of people similar to them. How can they help you disrupt the luxury travel advisor in 2022 and beyond? Try to tap into this elite clientele for input on how to move your business forward.
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