Seven Ways to Get Rid Of A Client
by Steve Gillick /
Are you losing clients? Experiencing customer migration and defection? You just might have unintentionally mastered the art of client reduction.
Here’s a customer attrition checklist, a tongue-in-cheek list of things travel agents do that chase clients away.
1. Customer Disservice.
Travel Advisors are people persons—but they are not all born with customer service skills. Customer Disservice includes a whole range of skills, from keeping clients on hold on the phone, to ignoring their emails, to responding to problems by quoting policy rather than empathy.
2. The Artistic Approach.
Beware painting all clients with the same brush. Seniors, Boomers, Gen X’ers, Millennials and Gen Y’ers are not plate-block designations of people with identical tastes. Discovering each individual client’s unique life-style choices is the key to retaining them.
3. Embracing NIMBY.
While “not in my back yard” is often used in a social context, it also refers to travel advisors who shudder at the word “staycation” and suggest that clients put off travel until the global situation is calmer. If your clients express concern, instead creatively provide budget-safety-comfort solutions in the 50 United States or 10 Canadian provinces (plus three territories in the North). And remember that staycations can entail all the concierge services that normally accrue to commissions and service fees.
4. The I, Me, Mine Mentality.
This title of a John Lennon song refers to advisors who are so caught up in talking about their travel experiences that they forget to ask what the client is interested in doing. It’s all about Me: my fams, my travels, my hotel experiences, my restaurant visits, my thoughts on the locals and my strong opinion about what my clients have to do in order to enjoy a visit. Put a little 'you' in the conversation before they head for the door.
5. Destination Fixation.
Like stereotyping clients (see #2 above), stereotyping destinations is another great way to clear your office. The Caribbean is a general designation for an area of the world, not a description of the 28 islands and their people, culture, history, foods and attractions. The same holds true for “Africa” or “Western Europe” or “Asia.” As important as qualifying clients—by asking them 101 questions about their travel wants, needs, reasons and dreams—is qualifying the destination they wish to visit, to ensure that it meets their needs and expectations.http://amgbackoffice.travelsavers.net/Article/Edit
6. D.I.Y.- I.Y.P. (Do it yourself, if you please.)
Niche travel is all the buzz these days, where just about any area of interest has to be squeezed into the itinerary. You can build a list of contacts and local experts at each destination to ask for advice--and whether your client dreams about golf or chocolate making, birding or ballet, you can make it happen. Or you can view niche interests as a burden, a pain and a disruption, and suggest that if they want to make chocolates in Cuba, they can make their own arrangements on the internet. That’s a great way to shorten your client list.
7. Play the Price is Right.
This popular television game show is all about price, and sadly it is played in many travel quarters. But what most clients are looking for is a transformational destination or lifestyle experience, where price is less important than the overall value of the journey. Offering the lowest price, rather than something priceless, will have them seeking a second opinion for their next trip-of-a-lifetime.
Getting rid of your clients can be an exciting adventure, and mastering these tips will speed you along the journey. Or you can keep those clients by working hard for their trust, loyalty and value-based satisfaction.