Left out in the cold
Just as spending in the new year sales has picked up, bookings have been brisk too and I’m pleased to report that in these parts, long haul and tailor-made holidays are forming the bulk of our business.
I was pleased to be engrossed in such a booking, with my left ear clamped to the telephone, when the client who had kept me in the office until well after closing time one day last week, reappeared and distracted me briefly.
She spotted that I was engaged on the phone and headed instead for Sal’s desk. As it was Sal’s first day back in the office after a short spell of absence I had not had time to give her the lowdown on the lady in question, who had taken up so much of my time only to decide to purchase a dish washer instead of a holiday.
She entered the shop with her husband and three-year-old daughter in tow. Apparently he’d bought her a pair of Marigolds and told her the dishwasher could wait but a family holiday couldn’t.
The brief they gave Sal was rather different however, from the one put to me the week before; this time they wanted a beach holiday in the Med at Easter. It sounded simple to Sal. If only I could have warned her instead of having to watch as she went through the same procedures I had struggled through only a few days ago.
The team at Palmair were brilliant, finding convenient flights from Bournemouth Airport and ideal accommodation well within the budget the couple had given Sal. I heard her sale-closing pitch and waited with bated breath.
The client didn’t fail to live up to my expectations.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “What aboutÉ” she went on to hypothesise about a variety of potential problems: cash points in the area; hours of the baby-sitting service; children’s clubs; proximity of nightlife and so on.
Throughout this period, the three-year-old child had pestered mummy and daddy. She started with an desperate desire for the loo, so mother obligingly took her to ours. Upon her return and evidently much relieved, the child threw her energy into wreaking havoc in the shop.
She flung every brochure in reach onto the floor so that other clients entering the shop had to skate along a shiny lake of literature. I was having difficulty hearing what was being said to me on the phone because of the hideous and incessant wailing but I think I would have preferred that to what followed.
The mother, totally ignoring Sal, jumped up and sang ‘This is the way we jump up and down on a cold and frosty morning’, while hopping up and down. The father sat still, as though he’d been hit by a truck.
When the song had finally ended – we witnessed hopping, jumping, crawling and skipping all on this same cold and frosty morning – the family left without booking but promising to return the next day with their decision.
It’s Julie’s turn nextÉ
Price of age-old problem
Like many agents, I have been wondering why we continue to encourage clients to book early when operators and airlines persist in penalising them for so doing.
One elderly client of ours who travels every year to Spain with Monarch Airlines could not understand why he had paid £159 for his summer 2000 flight last September only to see it advertised in a national newspaper recently at £109.
Monarch agreed to give him a voucher for the difference to be used next time he flies to Spain with them.
“I might not be around next year,” exclaimed our client. “I’m 77 now!”
A morbid thought, but the old chap has a point. Clearly there’s no rule bending allowed at Monarch but one would have thought that a loyal customer deserved something better.
A change of direction?
There are two ways of looking at the new Brittany Ferries strategy of issuing brochures without prices. Either you think it is a brilliant marketing idea which will benefit agents and clients alike, or you think it is a blatant attempt to sell direct to the public, using agents as a convenient brochure supplier.
We have been told there are no prices in the brochures because prices change constantly and Brittany Ferries will offer the best fare available on the day you enquire.
In reality, the client calls in for a brochure, asks how much the crossing will cost on three different routes on three different dates. The agent accesses the system or phones. Prices are quoted but the client cannot make up his mind or hold an option.
He goes home, discusses with his wife the pros and cons of the possibilities he has been given, phones Brittany Ferries direct and is told that he will need to book then and there with his credit card. Deed done! Client lost to agent, probably never to return!
The reservations team at Brittany Ferries is currently taking the flak from agents and has been told to refer queries from agents to customer relations. It would be great if operators realised that you cannot have your cake and eat it.
Let direct-sell operators stand up and be counted, not persist in this farce.
What can we do for you?
What with Brittany Ferries muscling in on the direct-sell market albeit through the back door, is it not time that ABTA hit back? We are being bombarded with TV ads expounding the merits of booking direct, why can’t ABTA produce an ad promoting the benefits of booking with an agent?
I agree that booking direct is much easier for the client who knows exactly what he wants – the booking is the easy bit, it’s the rest that causes concern. Let’s tell people what we can provide beyond picking up the phone and making a reservation!
Theo makes an entrance
And finally on a happier note, I am a grandmother – again!
Theo George has hit Planet Earth weighing in at 7lb 11oz. I wonder if that’s illegal now that weights and measures are metric!