Meet Sandy from G Adventures, and take note of what he has to say about Expedition cruising, selling a destination you’ve never been to, and why exceptional customer service skills are the future.
Sandy Erskine is the Marine Manager for Aus/NZ at G Adventures, and he’s been working for the company for seven and half years.
He’s the dude in charge of managing G Adventures’ Marine specialist agency accounts, and he’s also the point of contact for group bookings and allocations for their very own ship, the G Expedition.
Pictured: Sandy Erskine, Marine Manager for Aus/NZ, G Adventures.
Originally from good old Scotland – the land of whiskey and haggis – Sandy decided to set up home in Australia after travelling through our great land back in 2000.
Recently he sat down with KarryOn and was kind enough to offer some practical advice for busy travel agents keen on selling G Adventures’ Expedition, Galapagos, Sailing and Riverboat products.
How to sell a destination you’ve never been to
It sometimes comes as a surprise to anyone outside the industry to find out that no, Travel Agents haven’t been to every country around the world (as much as they’d like to).
And although it’s so much easier to sell a destination you’ve already been to, doing some solid research on the place you’re keen on selling is the next best thing to helping you close the sale – so says Sandy:
You don’t have to visit a place to be great at selling it! Confidence in sales can come from personal experience but it can also come from solid destination research. Knowing your product can be the difference between securing that 50k Antarctica booking or watching a passenger walk out the door to a competitor.
Sandy has worked in retail travel himself, so he understands that Travel Agents need to stay on top of about a million and one products.
So to make things easier, G Adventures wants Travel Agents to give them a call to help take them make the sale.
At G Adventures, we’re here to give agents everything they need to get that booking over the line. Galapagos, Sailing, Expedition, River Cruising? Let us know!
FYI: G Adventures has a specialist Marine department which looks after all of their Expedition, Galapagos, Sailing and Riverboat product.
Agents can make bookings 24/7 on 100 percent guaranteed departures, and if a client can’t travel for whatever reason, they can use their Lifetime Deposit whenever they’re ready to go.
Why booking early is so important on the G Expedition
According to Sandy, one of the biggest challenges he’s currently facing is satisfying the demand for bookings on G Adventures’ own Polar vessel, the G Expedition.
Antarctica is more popular than ever and I have a lot of agency partners making requests for small and large groups across the sailing season from October to March. Globally, it’s a very successful product and when you only have 134 spaces per trip, you may be disappointed if you don’t book in early.
Satisfying group requests is especially challenging, due to the limited spaces on the ship.
But sometimes these requests fall through, in which case Sandy has to fill unsold spaces. Thankfully, G Adventures has a pretty good system in place for this situation, and they can often easily sell these spots due to the high demands for the product.
Indeed, according to Sandy, in most cases, agents deliver fantastic groups and often oversell their allocated space – again, reason why you should communicate the urgency in securing a space on the G Expedition as early as realistically possible.
Customer complaint? Pick up the phone
Unfortunately, dealing with customer complaints is all part and parcel of the Travel Agent gig. For every couple of dozen satisfied clients you send off on a trip of a lifetime, odds are there’ll be one or two that felt things didn’t really live up to expectations.
Sandy thinks that the best way to address these unhappy customers is through the old-fashioned phone.
If you are dealing with complaints, people respond far better to a phone call than an email. You can rely far too much on email during your working day but talking with people can overcome barriers and leads to a much quicker resolution.
It’s all about providing an exceptional level of customer service, which is currently the pivotal advantage Travel Agents have over online booking websites.
Picking up the phone and actually talking to people is what separates you from the pack, and according to Sandy, providing higher and higher levels of customer service is the way the industry is heading:
The entire customer experience is something that continues to evolve – from how you connect with the customer in the first instance, through the consultation and booking process, to post trip feedback. Customers are demanding exceptional levels of service and good is no longer good enough. You need to lead with great service in order to stand out.
Word.
If you’d like to contact Sandy, you can reach him on 1300 654 986.
