Other training courses teach the technical aspects of being a travel agent. To be a professional you must acquire the talent to provide service using interpersonal skills. These are not so precise, and there are no rules that customers follow to make your work easier. The human aspect of providing service is what makes the customer "feel served". The technical skills involved in your job and the business allow you to treat customers so they will "be served" in a manner that is correct in a details. Both are important. You know you have had a positive impact upon your customers when you are aware that they "feel served".
In this module you will learn that an agency is successful when the travel agents realise that great service generates repeat customers, which is the key to staying in business. To bring the role of the service provider into perspective, think of this way: Sales is about getting customers for your company. Customer Service is about keeping them.
Success in keeping customers can be enhanced in many ways. The secret is to devise ways of personalising your service so that each customer feels valued. One major benefit of providing this level of service is that customers recommend their friends and relatives.
Role of the Travel Agent:
Overview
Really good service begins with an understanding of your role and of the purpose of your business. This leads you to pay strong attention to the customer as the vital component, and to the practice of really good service. You will learn that service exists primarily during those moments you are face-to-face with your customers.
The foundation:
WHAT DOES THE TRAVEL AGENT DO?
Being polite and friendly are attributes that provide a very solid foundation on which to build excellent customer service. While travel agents may rely successfully on these intuitive skills in dealing with most customers, an added edge is obtained by using knowledge of proven customer-contact techniques.
Your role is the behaviour resulting from a combination of two types of behaviour. One type is being more or less assertive; the other is being more or less sensitive to others.
Our goal is to be able to apply positive customer-contact techniques to improve the interface with most customers, allowing them to "feel served" as opposed to simply "being served". This "feeling served" approach will help you to retain the customer, and will spread a positive "word-of-mouth" reputation.
The travel agent's behaviour is critical as an influence upon the reaction of the customer. You will learn to adjust to being more or less assertive, and being more or less sensitive with each individual customer.
(By adapting your behaviour, you will see a reaction from your customers that indicates a high level of satisfaction with the treatment they are getting from you-they will "feel served" by you, and will probably come back for more of your good service. Also, they will tell friends and relatives your business will grow.)
Types of Customers:
Customers are broadly categorised into:
- Leisure travellers
- Business travellers
Leisure travellers are customers who may want to travel. However, they may also use their disposable income to buy other products or services. Hence, the role of a travel agent is to turn a prospective leisure traveller into a client. For leisure travellers, budget is an important factor when making a decision.
Business travellers on the other hand have to travel and time is of the essence-they want efficient and effective attention to their needs.
Key Learning Point
Using intuitive skills must be enhanced so your behaviour as a service provider is influenced by your selection of assertiveness and sensitivity to deal with customers as individuals so they will feel served.
The purpose of your agency is to be "attentive and responsive" to customer needs. If there are no customers, there is no business! There are only reason your agency exists. Everything else happens because of the presence of customers.
It is extremely easy to lose customers, and very difficult and expensive to replace those you lose. If you are not attentive and responsive to the needs and expectations of your customers, they will take their business to someone who is they always have a choice. Their money goes to where service exists!
As traditionally stated, your role is to "satisfy customer needs". However, your role is not just to satisfy the needs of your customers; it is to "respond professionally" so customers "feels served", and are happy to deal with you again, even if they did not get exactly what they wanted.
Refer back to the "Overview" in the Introduction to the course. When you are doing "sales" type work, your goal is to "get customers". When you are doing "service" type work, your goal is to "keep customers".
This is done when you are able to respond professionally by using interpersonal skills to keep customers happy with the service provided. This is your role as a "positive-impact" service provider.
This is what the course content will review. You can see the possibility that customers may well express needs that you have no hope of ever satisfying-no matter how competent you are. Being a "professional" means you are able to take initiative with customers. So, having data about their preference is the first step in taking the initiative. When you know what they want, it is easier to provide really good service, since you are able to "respond professionally", and to have a positive impact.
Importance of Customer Service Compared with Other Industries:
- The travel agent's success is based upon selling an abstract product, i.e., service.
- This role is challenging-to respond professionally so customers will return and bring, or recommend, friends and relatives.
Customers are:
- The most important person in any organisation.
- Not dependent on us; we are dependent on them.
- Not an interruption of our work; the purpose of it.
- Doing us a favour by asking for our help; we aren't doing them a favour by providing service.
- Not outsiders to our organisation; part of it.
- Not cold statistics; they have feelings and emotions.
- Not persons with whom to argue or match wits.
- Persons who have needs; our job is to respond to them.
- Persons who deserves courteous and attentive treatment.
- The purpose of our work; they are the persons who account for our income; without them, our business would suffer.
- The lifeblood of every organisation.
The High Cost of Losing a Customer The Technical Assistant Research Program Inc. located in Washington D.C. reports that:
- On average, for every customer who bothers to complain, 26 others with problems remain silent.
- The average "wronged" customer will tell 8 to 16 people (over 10% tell 20% or more).
- 91% of unhappy customers will not purchase from you again.
- If you make an effort to remedy customers' complaints, 82% to 95% will stay.
- It costs about five times as much to attract new customers as it costs to keep old ones.
Key Learning Point
The purpose of your work is to be attentive and responsive to your customers. Your success is affective by your ideas of what a customer is, and just how important they are to your success.
WHAT IS REALLY GOOD SERVICE?
It is not a single event; it is a process that requires active, willing and competent participation of all employees.
Service that is customer-driven (that is, the customer's perspective influence more than simply "being served". Their satisfaction is the ultimate measure of your success in having a positive impact.
Customers want to do business with people who make them feel good about themselves and their decisions. The way we help to solve a dilemma is just as important as its outcome, because it will determine the outcome. One way is to maintain a file on each customer's preferences which might include things like:
- Perhaps they prefer small hotels
- Perhaps they prefer cheaper charter rates
- Perhaps they prefer to travel at certain times of the year so you could be on the lookout for "deals" for them
- Perhaps they prefer you to deliver their tickets to their home.
Having "technical competence" gives you the ability to provide service so that the customer is "being served". Having "interpersonal competence" gives you the ability to provide service at a level where the customer actually "feels served".
Each employee is part of the chain of events that end in the customer's decision as to whether the service was good or bad-this linkage is the basis for really good service. The customers experience really good
service when they receive more than they expect. Providing service at this level to a customer rewards you with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction in your work. When you have information (a customer profile) your contact with customers is based upon your knowledge of their preferences.
This makes the difference between coming home after a busy day and being energised instead of upset. When you use practices that help you work with customers, you satisfy both the customer and yourself.
Key Learning Point
Customer service is a process, not a single event. Really good service results form combining technical skills with interpersonal skills.
WHERE DOES SERVICE EXISTS?
It is the interface (contact) between a customer and a travel agent. When customers make their assessment of the service received, it is a moment of truth (see Jan Carlzon's book, Moments of Truth) for the travel agency.
Service may take five seconds, five minutes or half an hour. Whatever it takes, it is critical to the success of the agency. Also, it occurs at each involvement the customer has with all the employees of the agency, so it is repetitive and cumulative. Thus,the customer's opinion of your service is always a con- sideration. You are continuously on trial for your reputation, our job and the life of your agency.