Location: Birmingham
Shopping for: A middle-aged couple want to booking their first week-long European cruise
The agencies
Travelbag
50a New Street, Birmingham
Score: 61%
Travelbag could have scored higher but Mystery Shopper’s request for a European cruise falls outside the company’s long-haul focus.
The agent was apologetic and very helpful, giving me the number of her previous place of work and an old colleague’s name, saying that they would be able to help me.
She asked me to return if they could help me with plans for a long-haul trip and outside of trying to change my mind on destination she did everything she could to build good will for future sales.
The agency was clean and tidy and all four agents were friendly and polite. However there weren’t many offers on display. This wasn’t necessarily down to the agents but I think the shop design could be improved to attract shoppers.
I would not hesitate to return or recommend this agency to others.
Flight Centre
Unit L1, Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham
Score: 75%
An overall solid performance from Flight Centre on this visit, with a friendly and helpful agent.
She used personal experience to help her sell, telling me that her parents had been on many cruises and that their favourite company was Ocean Village. She picked up an Ocean Village brochure and began checking what was available in my time frame.
There was only one cruise available during the time I wanted to go, Ocean Village’s Tapas and Togas tour. The price for seven nights’ full-board, including flights and transfers, was £696 per person.
Searching other cruiselines might have been worthwhile to get more options.
Points were also lost because there wasn’t a strong enough attempt to close the sale or to get my contact details for the future.
Thomas Cook
Middle Hall, Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham
Score: 76%
Thomas Cook just pipped Flight Centre to second place. I had to wait for four minutes, browsing brochures, before being greeted.
I was taken to the office of another member of staff who was friendly, knowledgeable and competent. She recommended Ocean Village for first-timers and found two cruises available in my time frame.
The first visited Italy including St Rafael and Corsica and cost £639 per person. The second, a Greek cruise, including Dubrovnik, started at £599 per person.
The agent didn’t take my contact details but said I could ring with dates and destinations when I had decided.
I would use the agency again as the competence and friendliness of the agent were excellent.
The winner
Thomson
Unit SU519a, Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham
Score: 90%
Expertise and targeted sales gave Thomson the edge this week.
I waited three minutes for an agent to become free and after hearing what I was looking for she told me the cruise specialist was in the foreign exchange area and went to get her advice.
She came back with her recommendation – Colourful Coasts, flying from Birmingham to Tenerife and gave me prices for four dates in November, starting from £1,174.
She gave me a Thomson – Lifestyle Cruises brochure and offered me insurance for two people, at £91.
She attempted to close the sale, giving me a printed offer and a company business card and asking for my mobile number.
In addition to friendliness and competence, the agent demonstrated a real will to sell, which will give her the edge when selling to the real shoppers out there.
To coincide with Cruise Week, Mystery Shopper was testing agents’ abilities at selling cruises.
She was looking to go on her first cruise with her partner and wanted guidance and the cruising expertise that an agent can offer. There was a good performance all round.
Even at Travelbag, where they were unable to supply a cruise, the agent went out of her way to be friendly and helpful.
Flight Centre and Thomas Cook agents were knowledgeable and helpful, but the Thomson agent went the extra mile by trying to close the sale and sell insurance.
Selling tips
Tip 1: Sell the right cruise to the right clients – younger passengers may want an informal ship with plenty of activities, whereas older cruises might prefer a restful voyage and to dress up for dinner.
Tip 2: Keep up to date with all the new developments in the cruise sector – visit www.travelweekly.co.uk/cruise. Follow the progress of our chosen Cruise Club agents and learn from their experiences.
Tip 3: Make sure you get proper training in the cruise sector. Check out Travel Weekly’s academy and the Association of Cruise Experts’ ‘Understanding Cruise’ programme.
Tip 4: Suggest something a little bit different for repeat clients – they could try river cruising or a destination such as Antarctica or Southeast Asia.
Tip 5: If you want to become a real cruise specialist, join the Leading Cruise Agents of the UK.
Mystery Shopper scoring system
- 60% Advice and product knowledge
- 12% Customer service
- 8% External/internal appearance
- 7% Welcome
- 7% Farewell
- 6% Staff presentation