Cultivating Loyalty: Staying in Front of Clients, Earning Trust Are Critical, Especially Now

As the travel industry labors under a pandemic that just won’t quit, travel advisors face all-too-familiar competitive pressures from OTAs and suppliers who have stepped up consumer marketing in recent months.

There’s little new about this tough competitive landscape but, as one longtime agency owner said of supplier and OTA marketing, “It’s in the extreme now.” Said another, “It has picked up tremendously.”

And that means advisors have to work harder than ever to cultivate and maintain client loyalty, or risk losing their customers.

A big communicator
Travel advisor Shari Kavalin of Elegant Escapes in Lighthouse Point, FL, has always focused on nurturing client ties by staying in frequent contact, including through regular emails and Facebook postings.

“I’m a big communicator. I’m very high-touch,” said Kavalin, who has been selling travel for 14 years. “With my left hand, I’m giving, I’m value adding. With my right hand, I’m taking a moment to educate them.”

Soon after the pandemic hit, Kavalin decided she needed to change things up a bit. “I was sending out emails, but I was not communicating fast enough with my clients, because things were moving at the speed of light.”

So Kavalin began creating timely eight- to 10-minute video clips to share with clients. Then, the minute travel started opening up again, Kavalin hit the road and relayed those experiences via video too, with the goal of overcoming clients’ fear of the unknown. For example: “‘I just flew for the first time. This is what the experience was like. I’m in this island destination – this is what I see.’”

Kavalin, a former mortgage banker, is always aiming to reinforce her position as a “trusted advisor,” she said. “I was making people bonded to me. They see me out there, and I’m answering questions before they ask me. I’m aware of what’s going on. They know if they want to know something to ask Shari. They trust me.”

Earning (& keeping) client trust
Cathy Brooks-Oliver, founder of Make Time for Travel, a ProTravel affiliate in Las Vegas, is another advisor who has always been intentional about cultivating client loyalty. For her too, “it starts with trust.”

“That’s something you have to earn from your client. It could be that you did something for a client that nobody else was able to do for them, maybe they had an issue you resolved for them. Maybe it’s as simple as you offered them comparisons, taking the time to research and offer different options and then voice why this option is better than the others.”

In other words, Brooks-Oliver builds and sustains client loyalty by doing her job in a way that differentiates her services.

This means knowing her clients well enough to personalize their travel experiences and cater to individual preferences and special needs. It means making recommendations based on her extensive firsthand knowledge, advocating for clients with suppliers and proving her value by answering middle-of-the-night calls to get travelers out of “hairy situations.”

These days it also means providing accurate, up-to-date information around evolving Covid rules and protocols, so her clients will enjoy smooth, worry-free travels.

“Experience and the ability to advocate and be persistent about it – they go a very long way to letting clients know that you have their back, that you are going to represent them. They reward you by coming back again and again,” she said. “That’s one of the main compliments I get from my clients – that they trust me, they know I’m going to give them what they need,” Brooks-Oliver said.

Staying front of mind
Early on in the pandemic, Isaiah and Deborah Banks, co-owners of a Cruise Planners/American Express franchise in Lithonia, GA, made a decision to nurture client relations by stepping up communications. Starting in late March 2020, they began sending out weekly emails to their 8,000-person client list, updating them on the latest developments in travel, including evolving Covid restrictions and protocols, and providing links to additional resources.

“It helps cultivate client loyalty because it keeps us relevant. It keeps us in their faces constantly, every week. Whether I’m selling to them or not, they know I’m still active. When clients feel inclined to book, they do call.”

To create a more intimate connection, early emails included personal information about the Banks and even family photos. The point, Banks said, was for clients “to get to know us as their family.”

The Banks also continue to invite selected clients to join occasional Zoom calls with suppliers. Here too, they are seeking to create a more personal tie. “I think when they can see your face, see those verbal cues, it helps build that loyalty and grooms those relationships,” Banks said.

Keeping their attention
For travel agency owner Valerie Gossett of Premier Resources Travel in Ellijay, GA, the key to maintaining client loyalty has always been “staying in front of clients every chance you get,” including through a weekly email that focuses on travel experiences and product and destination news.

As the pandemic dragged on, Gossett also decided she needed to do more. So starting in November 2020, she began traveling monthly, nearly triple her usual pace of travel. “I’m testing the protocols, so I can tell them firsthand what’s going to happen to them,” she explained. She posts live videos from her travels on the agency’s private Facebook pages and on Instagram and emails links to the videos.

“You have to do things to keep their attention because they’re getting emails from everybody and they see it on TV. Everybody else is in front of them,” she said.

Respecting boundaries
One thing the pandemic has reinforced for Linda Gage-White of My Cruise Travel Agent is the importance of respecting the sensibilities and boundaries of her largely Louisiana- and Texas-based clientele.

Also, timing is everything.

Just before the pandemic started, the Shreveport, LA, travel advisor had been building an email list so she could implement regular email marketing. The first such email she sent out landed in customer inboxes just as Covid hit. “I didn’t get any unsubscribes, but I got a whole bunch of, ‘Please don’t send me anything right now,’” she recalled.

Since then her contact with clients has been intentionally low key. “I send emails every once in a while, but not sales emails. What I’ve heard from the majority of my clients is, ‘We’re not ready to travel yet, and we’d rather you left us alone.’

“Even back in May and June, when everybody was starting to feel more optimistic and I sent out emails saying, ‘Hey look at this cruise,’ I got back the same answer. Now I don’t even send it. We are in the middle of a crisis,” said Gage-White, referring to the resurgence of Covid in her market area.

Even so, she said, “I still feel a need to try and stay on their minds. But I don’t send sales material; I send destinations material: ‘Here are some pictures of Antarctica. Aren’t they cool? Look at those really neat little penguins.’ When all else fails, I send out or post something that says, ‘Happy Pumpkin Day’ or ‘Happy Teachers Day,’ that kind of thing.”