The Devil’s in the details
As agents, we are duty bound to advise clients to read the small print on every document they receive, from booking forms to insurance policies.
It struck me this week however, that such advice can be acted upon too literally and that some passengers would be better off travelling in oblivion.
Among such clients would be the elderly gentleman and his wife booked by Sal to the US. The couple had called into the shop or telephoned on a near daily basis to ask about every conceivable eventuality and its possible consequences for their trip or their insurance policy.
Just about the only question they didn’t ask was how the milk got in the coconut.
As fast as Sal answered one hypothesis, he asked another which invariably required a phone call to the operator.
Sal was not in the office, however, when the client and his mute wife decided to pop in to go through the insurance policy with a fine-tooth comb. That happy task fell to me.
The old gent undid a battered briefcase that had clearly been taken out of retirement especially for the job. From it he withdrew all his holiday documents and began sifting through them.
I asked if I could help, but he just nodded and muttered he wasn’t quite ready yet. Time passed and eventually he found the paragraph he’d been looking for and began to read it to me.
I knew what was coming as Sal had already dealt with the issue and relayed the response to him by telephone. The paragraph in question referred to health matters and suggested he needed written confirmation from the insurers they were aware of any medication taken by the client.
I explained the insurers had accepted his doctor’s letter and that there was no problem, but this failed to satisfy him.
Another call was made to the insurance company who told me that, in order to put the old chap’s mind at rest, somebody would phone him back shortly to speak to him personally.
Meanwhile, the shop began to fill steadily with clients eager to part with their cash. My hands, equally eager to receive it, were tied and I stared at the phone, willing it to ring.
I spotted a regular client, whom I knew wanted to book a flight and car hire. I was about to ask the old couple if they’d like to move to one side while I dealt with the waiting client, when the old chap drew my attention to more small print which he began reading painstakingly.
As he did this, I booked my lady’s flight while she chatted to another customer awaiting attention; the old couple were completely oblivious to what I was doing on the screen.
Eventually the insurers rang back to say they were happy to accommodate the clients’ wishes and allay their concerns, and, by the way, what was the medication that had caused all this concern?
“I’m on blood pressure pills and the wife takes half an aspirin a day,” came the response.
The silence at the end of the line was deafening. I strained to hear the insurance staff laughing up their sleeve, but they were clearly more discreet than I might have been in the same circumstances.
Not my First ChoiceÉ
First Choice’s reputation in these parts is going down hill and no mistake!
One of our clients called in for a First Choice skiing brochure to show her son pictures of the slopes he’ll soon be falling down. The boy is going skiing with the local school which, as is usual in these cases, is booking direct with First Choice in order to obtain the group discount.
The mother went on to tell us how she had been along to an open evening to discuss the trip, at the end of which the audience was offered a 15% discount off any summer 2000 holiday booked direct with First Choice.
If one considers the wider market the company is reaching with these tactics – parents, grandparents, second cousins twice removed, one is looking at a huge slice of the holidaying public!
Where will it end? Will First Choice be worming their way into OAP clubs, the British Legion and adult education?
I would be interested to know whether this is happening nationwide, or whether First Choice is picking on this rural backwater as a soft touch?
Brochures do the talking
European law now requires provision to be made for disabled holidaymakers. A section that will need to be considered more carefully by operators however, is that pertaining to the blind and partially sighted.
Unlike sighted prospective clients who are able to pick up a brochure to study before selecting a holiday from the comfort of their own homes, blind customers require others to read for them, and many, living alone, have no such help.
This view was brought to my attention by a potential client of ours.
He has to rely on the agent reading aloud the description of each hotel and resort to him. This he feels uneasy about as he is only too aware of the time that it takes up. I have to confess I had not even considered the problem until he brought it up, but now I am anxious to know if talking brochures or braille brochures exist? I’m sure libraries can provide a certain amount of help, but perhaps this is an area operators could develop.
Piling on the pounds
We’ve just received a fax from Sunvil promoting autumn breaks at the Three Way House, a Cotswold village hotel famed for being ‘the home of the Pudding Club’.
We have put the offer in our window with a jovial explanation that the ‘pudding club’ referred to is the one that celebrates spotted dick and pineapple upside down cake, and has nothing to do with pregnant women – as far as they know!