Turning A Negative Into A Positive
I just got off the phone with an agent who wanted to talk more about NexCite. She said “Don’t you know times are bad and business is slow? No one is calling me.”
After listening to her genuine concern we did a bit of brainstorming together. I mentioned how we could help her make her site more effective and that we were here to help her with that. I suggested we could add Facebook or Twitter to her account for her. She said she would look at some sites and get some ideas and would sign up for email services. She decided to do more research to make NexCite work better for her.
This discussion ended well, but it made me think of all of the other agents that we talk to. Most of them are so busy that they do not have time to work on their website or find creative ways to stimulate new business. While talking to her, I started to think about how different her perspective was from the one I recently read about in the recent article on CNN titled “Are Travel Agents Making a Comeback?” If you can get a chance, read it because it’s very exciting news.
This article tells me that this is an exciting time for travel agents because clients are looking for that personal attention and there is a need for that agent to customize that trip for them.
Instead of thinking about your business in a negative way, why not think about the positive? Think positive and do something about it. It’s your business.
Think of new things you can do while you finally have time to breathe. If your phone is not ringing, here are a few suggestions to turn it around:
- Update your customer list: make sure you have the correct info for every customer on it. Ask yourself “When was the last time I talked with this customer”? Follow up with them.
- Are you sending emails to your customers? If you don’t have time, let Passport Online send emails out for you twice a month. It’s free.
- If you have recently booked a trip for one of your customers, did you then go into AgentPort and create an email with that offer in it. Then simply send it to your existing customer and ask them to share their great upcoming trip with other friends and family. I had an agent tell me that he booked a cruise for a couple celebrating a 50th anniversary, and he asked if friends and family were going. They didn’t even think about that, so he asked for a list of friends and family. He sent an email out to 60 names and he booked 20 people to join that couple. You don’t get the business unless you ask for it.
- One of my customers said she did a lot of group tours, but I didn’t see any of that info on her website. Are you listing your group info? Are you emailing that offer out to your group list? Here is a wonderful example of a travel agent’s site that shows all of his own group cruises.
- Social networking. Are you set up with Facebook and Twitter?
Because this agent took the time to make a call, and have a conversation, we were able to talk about the NexCite possibilities, but there is a bigger picture here. You may have the tools to grow your business, but they won’t work if you don’t actually use them.
Related posts:
- 10 ways to get more Facebook Fans
- Canadian Exclusive Offer Groups
- Is Your Website Yelling “Me Too!”?