Dear Tammy: I have a client who always contacts me after they go on to one of those online travel sites. They do this on purpose.
See, they say that they want to do their research first to see how much the hotel and airfare is going to be, so they can compare it to what I say. Now I understand, and even appreciate, that a client does his/her due diligence when it comes to budgeting, but I always feel like I'm walking on eggshells and that all I have to do is say one dollar off from their number and they'll go buy their tickets elsewhere.
What can I tell them to assure them that they should be doing all of this through me?
Tammy: First, it's understandable that you're frustrated and feel as if you're walking on eggshells. It's hard to keep clients today with the advent of these online travel sites, so we have to make sure that we're on top of our game.
What that means is first teaching your clients about the advantages of booking with us and not with the online travel sites.
Let your clients know that obtaining their rates on these travel sites can change almost minute to minute. If they go in and out of the same site to see a hotel rate before deciding-just to see if the rate goes down-their cookies tells the computer that they've been here before and actually may make the rate go up. Not always, but sometimes.
Do they want to risk that?
Airline sites are notorious for forcing the consumer's hand. As a result, the traveler sees that the prices are going up, so they book their tickets as soon as it does and you lost the booking. This happens to many people.
In addition, teach your clients that going in and out of these sites has provided the online sites with some valuable spending habit information. These sites then sell their information, and your client is suddenly being targeted with emails etc., trying to get them to buy into other vacations.
His/her research is extremely valuable information to them.
Travel agents bring more to the table than dollar signs. Teach your clients that. Tell them that we are there if something goes wrong. We are there to do the work for them, booking the trips and the excursions. We have everything ready for them so all they have to do is go to the vacation spot of their dreams and enjoy themselves.
We will remind them of things they might have forgotten about: A dream wedding in another country? Sure, we can do that, but here's what you need to know about paperwork you'll need to get married there.
The bottom line is that you're competing with online travel agents, so to do that you have to act like one. My agency does just that. We are open 24 hours a day and offer price match guarantee. Except we also do all those other things I've mentioned too-that the online travel agents don't do.
If your customer still wishes to do their trips this way, (by researching first and then calling you), tell them to block searches by going incognito on their site and not have history stored when they searching.
Hopefully, once you share this information with your clients and show them your value, they'll eventually drop their research and just phone you directly.
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