The results of a recent Travel News poll show that more than half of respondents gave non-customers information about travelling during COVID-19, free of charge.
More than 200 agents responded, 57% of whom said they gave information to non-customers free. However, 25% said they refused unless they were doing the booking and charging a service fee; 18% said they charged call-ins a service fee before giving out any info.
XL Travel CEO, Marco Ciocchetti, is firmly of the opinion that call-ins are a source of new business. “The answer is very simple. A new client asking for information is an opportunity. Use it to your advantage, and the next booking from that client may be yours.”
Otto de Vries, CEO of Asata said opinions might be different if it was a regular customer calling for advice. But, he said: “If it’s a cold call (call-in), and they are just asking for free information, I really think travel agents need to be working on their sales skills to be able to leverage those calls and, at least, entertaining the opportunity for a sale.”
De Vries encouraged consultants to ask more questions of the caller. “Ask: ‘Where do you want to go? What is your budget?’ Try to draw the client in and build rapport. Try to bring the client in through the conversation.”
Mary Shilleto, a Director of Thompsons Travel with many years of experience, oversees the retail arm of the group’s corporate, leisure and groups business at executive level.
She acknowledged that there was a “feeding frenzy”, where consumers are hunting for “great deals” on the Net and suppliers are offering “bargains” for online deals. But she said: “I cannot really speak for the customer who is merely shopping around, who does not have a relationship with the consultant or TMC.”
She said Thompsons Travel’s corporate customers were just as happy to trust the brand with their leisure travel arrangements as they were with their corporate needs. “We know them so well and they are prepared to pay for the expertise we offer them as well as our buying power.”
We are presently mid-pandemic (possible even at the end of the pandemic). High levels of uncertainty frighten consumers, even millennials start to doubt themselves booking online and airlines suddenly stop flying to whole region, as happened in December with Omicron. Consumers see only half the picture, but it’s frightening enough to send them phoning an agent for reassurance or advice.
Some consultants might see fit to give out their professional advice (the same advice that their own clients pay them for) free of charge, over the phone, to consumers who then book online (the agent doesn’t benefit at all), but others will use the opportunity to gather more information and use their sales skills to convert the conversation to a sales engagement, either for a sale there and then or for one in the future. Specialised skills are needed, and this should be an area of focus for agent training sessions – all the signs are that this could bring more clients and more business to the agency.
