You don’t need me to tell you that far too often it can seem that all the hard work you do for your clients is undervalued.
With holidaymakers now primed to search out the cheapest bargains online, the pressure to match web prices is a constant headache for travel agents.
Admittedly the industry, including established firms and new online entrants, has encouraged this behaviour by selling on price and not value. But two stories we have run in the past two weeks suggest the tide may be turning and good travel agents are prepared to state their worth.
This week Midcounties has revealed it is to trial a £25 service fee in stores to supplement commission earnings.
And last week we heard how Travel Counsellors bosses have implored their agents to increase margins to 12% during the January peaks.
At last week’s Travel Counsellors conference, agent Gilly Markham told how she used to discount £20,000 a year of her commissions while working at a high street multiple.
She said it was a “scary leap of faith” to stop being the cheapest and increase her margin, but that she was upfront with her customers and she has not lost one.
Within 11 months she had become a Gold Travel Counsellor, has been able to buy her dream house and in the last year did £750,000 of business.
The great fear in the ultra-competitive world of travel retailing is that if you are £1 dearer than the next guy you will lose out, but maybe it’s the fear of not demanding true value for what you do that’s the biggest threat to agents.