Cu Chi, Cu Chi coo
We welcomed back our boss, Nigel, from a Travel 2 educational to Vietnam. He enthused about the high hotel standards, the quality of the food, the tranquillity of the deserted beaches and the hospitality of the people. We gathered he’d had a good time!
A visit to the Cu Chi tunnels during their stay was not for the claustrophobic or the faint hearted but Nigel followed Travel 2’s Rachel Healey on all fours through the second level. He recognised his limits however, and declined the third level which was evidently built for the smaller Vietnamese frame.
His experience was still fresh in his mind when a client called in to collect her tickets. She thanked Nigel and warned him that she’d call in after her holiday to plan ‘something a bit different’.
“Well,”said Nigel relishing the opportunity to relive his educational again, “I’ve just been to Vietnam”…
Take it to the marketplace
Many moons ago when Iwas working for a multiple, we were invited by the company’s marketing department to submit promotional ideas.
I don’t know whether such practise still goes on in companies; it always struck me as somewhat unfair – the lowly travel clerk comes up with a brilliant idea and is rewarded with a bottle of wine while marketing personnel touch up the idea, claim it as their own and receive pay increases and promotion!
Anyway, in those days Iwas working in a market town and our office idea was to rent a pitch in the market for a day and sell holidays from there.
We checked availability and pinned up huge posters to advertise the holidays we’d found, scattered brochures all over the stall and bellowed for all we were worth at the bemused market goers.
Because we were allowed to negotiate with our commission we could ‘wheel and deal’ to arrive at a price acceptable to the client.
With a ‘runner’ scooting between the shop and the stall to check availability and tie-up the transaction, we had a very successful day.
Outdone by direct line
Why do Imention this? It’s because it strikes me as rather similar to the situation some of us feel we are caught up in at the moment.
For example, not so long ago, two women asked to book the First Choice holiday they had been researching for their respective families – there were eight passengers in all, four adults and four children.
The cost of the holiday to the Algarve at Easter had been based on receiving at least two free child places (can you guess what’s coming?) I accessed the system and established that there were no child places left. I tried alternatives but to no avail.
I tried other companies, but couldn’t match the original price. The clients were naturally disappointed but said they would wait for the new Palmair winter brochure to see if it might contain something along the same lines.
The day of the Palmair brochure launch arrived. I rang and held an option for a holiday in the Algarve for the clients and then telephoned them to tell them the good news.
However, I detected from my client’s voice that she was not receiving the news with the unmitigated joy I had hoped for.
Sheepishly she told me that her friend had already booked the holiday and she was going to call me today to break the bad news.
She went on to say that they had managed to get their FirstChoice holiday with the two free child places by ringing First Choice’s direct line.
Am I surprised?No. Annoyed and frustrated?Yes. I do wish we could do away with the pretence that we are competing on a level playing field. Operators want both bites of the bun – they will not openly admit that they will negotiate directly with the client for fear of losing agents and yet we are seeing examples of it time and time again.
The agent is still the public’s first choice as a source of information, draining us of our knowledge and our brochures, but we’re being pushed lower down the ranking when it comes to actually placing the booking!
Today’s consumers are conditioned to ringing operators direct for deals and long gone are the days when the agent could nail their boots to the floor to get them to book.
There’s a storm brewing
It was good to hear from my former Southend colleague, Barbara, who told me of the novel way of relieving stress adopted by boss Mandy.
Apparently a client who owed Lipscombe Travel cancellation fees was spotted drinking merrily in the pub opposite the shop. Unable to suffer him cocking a snook in this public manner, and feeling that if he had money to buy beer then he had money to begin paying off his debt with, Mandy left her desk and went to confront the client in front of his pals.
His attitude – reckless and arrogant – only served to heighten her fury. She picked up a pint of beer that was conveniently at hand and poured it over his head.
That done, and with a certain weight lifted, she returned to the shop. When she reached the door she realised that she’d been followed by another gentleman. It transpired that he was the former owner of the pint with which she had doused the debtor and he was not happy. He demanded the price of the pint and refused to move until she paid up.
The police were called but Mandy stood her ground while the chap was removed from the shop.
Mandy felt a good deal better for the action she’d taken but, as Barbara said, the staff couldn’t find the training manual advising that particular response although they’d looked under chapters on recovering debt, customer relations and coping with pressure!