We can get pretty up-close and personal with our clients. Indeed, a lot of intimate details are shared across the desk when booking holidays – and why not? We want to book your perfect escape.
Sometimes we’ll spend more time with them in the time leading up to departure than they would with their own friends or family.
The Travel Agent – client relationship can also get pretty dramatic at times, just like with normal friendships.
While the client is allowed to show their emotions freely, the Travel Agent cannot. We need to stay calm, cool and collected whether we’ve been given the wrong spelling for Grandma’s name or our favorite customer is taking the piss showing up two-hours late for his appointment on Saturday.
A lot of fantastic customers know how hard we work and like to let us know – which we absolutely love. If you’re one of the clients who don’t, then have a read below and spare a thought for your travel spirit guide.
1. Just say something
If you appreciated our service, simply say so. A complement goes a long way and can be the shining beacon of hope at the end of a rough day. We’ll go home and mention to our roommate, partner or cat that someone valued us today.
2. Don’t fob us off for the internet
After we’ve done hours of research, asked our colleagues and scrolled Tripadvisor reviews to find you that perfect boutique hotel that’s pet friendly and has free Wi-Fi, please don’t go and book it online because they had a “limited time offer” (read about cookies and how travel websites coincidentally have a sale on for the hotel you’ve been Googling a lot lately) that saved you $6. We worked hard for that commission. If the savings were significant – give us a call. We’ll probably match it.
3. Pop in for a chat after your trip
We’d love to hear about it. The good, the bad and the ugly – all of this info will help us when you’re ready to plan the next trip and all of our other clients’ as well – you’re basically crowdsourcing our recommendations.
4. Bring us a pressie
A bottle of surprise booze – how wonderful! Colleagues will post photos of flowers, chocolates or a bottle of wine gifted by clients to Facebook and it will actually push other Travel Agents to work harder to garner appreciation from their own clients – and don’t worry, we all drink – unless we’re pregnant; and if we are, that bottle will just go on standby for a few months.
5. Do your homework
Please don’t make us plan a fully inclusive, handmade tour of India for you and then come in and say you don’t want to go anymore because you heard it’s a bit of a culture shock. Do a bit of research yourself or ask us some preliminary questions before we put hours of work into it.
6. Recommend us to your friends
If you think we did a great job then please mention us to your mates. Travel is definitely one of the most talked about subjects at BBQs, dinner parties and awkward family reunions. Grab a few of our business cards next time you’re in the shop and pass them out to anyone in the planning stage. We really appreciate it and will make sure your recommendation is warranted.
7. Don’t yell at us when things go pear-shaped
Natural disasters are the worst – trust us, we know. But we can’t call the volcano gods and stop the eruption or build you a new plane when there aren’t any seats left. We’ll do our very best to make the best of the situation and try and keep you informed during the process. Remember that we don’t get paid commission to wait on hold all day either and you’re not likely going to be our only customer affected. So a little bit of love and a “thank you” are well appreciated when we’re in damage control mode.
8. Don’t lie to us about the prices you’ve found already
Guess what? Travel Agents have the Internet too. Every now and then we’ll have somebody pull a random fare price out of the air and ask if we can match it. Sure – just after we check the website you found it on. It will save us both a lot of time if you’re truthful about what you’ve seen, what you’re after and what stage of the booking process you’re at.
9. Do something different
Bali, Thailand, Fiji and London are fantastic to plan – I love them all to bits – but it can get a bit repetitive. So when you bring us a little brainstorm about some gorilla tracking, polar expedition or volunteering trip we end up weeing our pants a little bit. We all got into the industry because we’re passionate about travel – so when a customer comes to us with a glint in their eye and some money to burn, we see a bit of ourselves sitting across the desk.
Like what you’ve read?
Check out some of Matt Castell’s other articles, such as annoying questions Travel Agents are sick of hearing at parties and what really happens on an agent famil.