Giving Your Clients Advice and Getting them to Listen
Nothing is more frustrating than a client hiring you to be their travel agent and then not listening to your advice. Isn’t that one of the very reasons they came to you? For advice? Let’s break down how to give your clients advice and how to convince them to actually use it!
Step 1 – Start by listening to what they want: Only after you know where they want to go, what their budget is and what kind of trip they are hoping for can you can start offering the advice in the first place.
Step 2 – Think of multiple ideas: Giving people options feels less like being pushy even though it is still your expert opinion of sound advice. Be completely honest and forthcoming from the start on everything from pricing to climate conditions to hotels and flights.
Step 3 – Listen again and prepare to make your case: If and when they don’t like any of your ideas find out why. This is when you can flex your “I know better than you do” muscles. If they are wrong about something tell them so, but be sure to also have a reason to back it up. For example, no you don’t want to go in the winter to Alaska because everything will be colder than I think you realize and many of the best activities will be closed due to the frigid temperatures!
Step 4 – Know when to give up: The truth is even though you may be 100% right, some clients just won’t let up until you give into their demands. Of course, if they can’t afford the trip their opinions won’t matter, but if they have the money and they want to over pay for a crappier hotel than you recommend you might just have to let them do it. Make sure, however, if you let them book something you don’t agree with that it’s known to the client and that you can not guarantee their happiness as you would not recommend what they insisted on doing. It sucks and they may have a crappy vacation for not listening to you, but your only option at a certain point is to either let them make the bad decision knowing you don’t guarantee their satisfaction or to not work with them at all.
#TammyLevent #EliteTravelGroup