Digging Deeper: 9 Ways to Get Closer to Your Customers
by Steve Gillick, CTMThe following guest column is the first in an occasional series on selling leisure travel by the founder of Talking Travel.
Travel agents and archaeologists have a lot in common. The adage, “The more carefully you dig, the more you will uncover,” unites these two disparate groups, as it applies equally to both.
For travel agents, the tools of digging include: sales skills, the principles of customer relationship management (CRM), and the use of psychographics, which is the focus of this column.
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The ABCs of psychographics
Literally “a record or study of the mind,” psychographics is used by market researchers to understand the attitudes, tastes and lifestyle preferences of target market groups.
For travel sellers, the big W5 travel questions are a good place to start:
Who are you travelling with?
What do you want to do when you get there?
Where in the world have you chosen to travel?
Why are you traveling?
How does travel affect your everyday life?
You can dig even deeper by using use the tools of psychographics to get closer to your customers and better meet their needs.
Tools to help you dig deep
The convenient mnemonic used to identify psychographic factors is POVAIL: personality, opinions, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyle, and these are the factors you need to uncover.
Here are nine ways to obtain the POVAIL — the psychographic information that will help you target the needs and travel patterns of your clients.
1. Written surveys: Mail or email surveys to your clients with questions to help you better appreciate their specific travel and lifestyle preferences. Sites such as Survey Monkey assist with this.
2. CRM surveys: Informally interviewing a client is a more personal way to gather information. Not sure what to ask? Start with the W5 questions. Be sure to record the client’s answers in their database profile.
3. Modular travel exercise: Assemble cards representing various travel options on a bulletin board and invite each client to pick and choose from them in order to define their next travel experience. Voila! You have gone one step deeper in finding out their reasons for travel, and in a fun interactive way.
4. Focus groups: Invite clients to your office to be part of a “travel the globe” advisory group, where, over coffee and cookies, you quiz them about the POVAIL of travel.
5. Contests: Create opportunities for gathering information by engaging clients through photo contests, quizzes and simple games, such as spin the wheel to win. Offer to publish their stories. Invite clients to be guest bloggers. All these methods of client engagement give you opportunities to learn more about them.
6. Beverly Hills 90201: Make use of websites that “define” zip codes (or in Canada, postal codes) based on a mixture of demographic and psychographic information. You can get snapshots of consumer buying habits, preferred TV programs, types of cars, salary range, education and more.
7. Outsourcing: Marketing firms will profile clients for a fee. But there are more affordable ways to accomplish this. Other often-overlooked sources include college marketing classes, vocational schools and even high schools who may welcome an opportunity for both a meaningful class project and community involvement.
8. Partner Relationship Management (PRM): PRM refers to the bond you have with your suppliers. Is there customer information your supplier partners have on hand that would help you sell more of their products?
9. Cross-business pollination: Local business association meetings will involve your neighbors who sell books, luggage, own restaurants, a health club, etc. Sharing information – with due regard for privacy laws – can help all businesses. (A rising tide lifts all boats.)
More satisfaction, higher revenues
Digging into psychographic factors will move you closer to understanding the motivation and travel desires of your clients.
This in turn will allow you to better relate to and fulfill those needs and deliver a higher level of client satisfaction. And this will give you not only repeat business and revenue enhancement, but a sense of personal accomplishment and career comfort.
You dig?
Longtime travel educator Steve Gillick delivers sales, marketing and destination training to travel professionals via his consultancy Talking Travel. He served as president and COO of the Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors from 2001 to 2012.
