Travel

Common mistakes that can make your travel agency suffer and different ways to avoid them

Written by Qasim Hussain · 3 min read >
Common mistakes that can make your travel agency suffer and different ways to avoid them

With the constant developments being observed day by day, the number of factors disrupting the daily business activities of travel agencies is also increasing day by day. There are several factors that travel agencies, or any other business organization, might have to consider even before taking the tiniest of decisions.

For example, if a travel agency decides to come up with a new service that they plan on offering their clients, they might have to consider factors like their budget, to what extent will that new service impact their revenues and the services being offered by their competitors.

During the process of considering these factors, travel agencies might end up making a few incorrect decisions or mistakes that can have a massive negative impact on the organization as a whole. However, there are ways to fix the mistakes that have already been made or ways to avoid them altogether.

One of the most basic and the most common mistake that is made by travel agencies is the lack of personalization that is being offered. People appreciate it when an organization remembers their past purchases and keeps a record or their information, it makes the client feel as if the organization is concerned about their likes and dislikes.

Lack of personalization can make it harder for your clients to decide for themselves. For example, there are times when the client themselves are not sure about what they want or what they require, that is when they start to rely on the travel agency to help them out and tell them what is best for them or what is in their interest.

Sometimes customers also feel overwhelmed when they see a lot of information being provided on a website of the preferred travel agency because that makes them even more indecisive about their options. A very good and easy way to solve this problem would be to employ a system that helps you keep track of everything related to your previous clients.

That way, the customer will also feel hiring your travel agency and they won’t consider the other competitive agencies in the market. This will also increase the level of customer loyalty, indirectly.

The second mistake that is usually made by travel agencies is not offering extended or more complex services to their clients. These days, when a client hires a travel agent or decides to employ a travel agency, they expect the travel agency to take care of every little detail. Clients expect that the travel agency provides them with all the extended services along with the basic ones that are provided by all the other travel agencies.

For example, along with making the bookings and the reservations, planning out tours or helping out your client with the visa formalities can be the extended services that your travel agency can offer. Your travel agency can also offer customized packages and discounts according to the preferences and the requirements of your clients.

Travel agencies need to understand and should be able to differentiate business trips and leisure trips. Clients planning a business trip have different demands and requirements as compared to clients who are looking forward to planning a leisure trip. If the travel agencies can do that efficiently, they will be able to save a lot of their time and the travelers’ money. One of the most prominent differences between a business trip and a leisure trip is the flexibility of dates.

On a business trip, the travel agent can not play around with the dates. Price is another factor that can help a travel agency determine the difference. On a business trip, lower prices are not the topmost priority since the top priority of the client is getting things done in an orderly manner.

Clients planning a business trip may ask for facilities like a stable wifi connection of a hotel reservation that is closer to the workplace whereas a client planning a leisure trip may inquire about different restaurants or tourist destinations. Knowing what your client wants can be extremely beneficial for both the client and the travel agency as it will save time, money and help the travel agency to understand the demand of its customers better.

Information overload is another mistake that is usually made by travel agencies. A perception has been created that the more information that you provide for your current and potential client to explore, the better it is. This is not always true because you might think that you are indirectly helping out your client but you might end up overwhelming them with all the information that has been uploaded on your website.

People usually prefer to get informed about the things that are relevant and helpful only to them, providing a lot of information that is of no use to the client might confuse them. A study conducted showed that 60 percent of the potential clients of an online travel agency leave the website as the information overload confuses them about the decisions they wanted to make.

A lot of information may even lead to the ineffectiveness of the relevant information that has been provided. To avoid this problem, your website should be divided into different parts or sections that provide specific information. That way, if a client wants to know about something, they can visit that particular section of your website.

Not having a personal blog is another mistake that is usually made by travel agencies. Having a blog may make your clients feel as if they are getting an opportunity to know more about your travel agency on a personal level.

This is a great way to develop a healthy and long-term relationship with your client as they will feel as they can trust your organization and the decision it makes for that particular client. The blog created for your travel agency can have different pictorial articles of a wide variety of different topics, for example, the role played by social media in our lives or the benefits of working with an online travel agency.

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