How to Educate Clients on Your Value to Ensure They are Loyal for Life

We’ve all had to contend with questions from clients wondering why they should book their travel through us. They want to know what we can do for them that they can’t do on their own or online. In an era where we often find ourselves competing with large online agencies with huge marketing budgets, it can be tough as a small home-based agent to justify all of the things you do that make you worth your weight in gold.

Much of it comes down to perception, since online agencies have done a terrific job of promoting their “cheap fares” and ease of use. But what they don’t tell the consumer is that hotel bookings made through them drop to the bottom of the hotel’s priority list (for upgrades and special attention), compared to those made through top agents, which go to the top of the list. Many hoteliers also confirm to me that bookings made through third-party websites are typically assigned the least-desirable rooms in the house, since hotels know the traveler is more likely to be a budget-shopper than a serious upscale traveler with great potential for long-term loyalty.
 
This is not just my theory, but it was confirmed recently in an article that appeared in the June issue of Smart Money magazine. The cover lines say it all:  “Forget Online! Travel Agents Get Better Deal.” The article goes on to illustrate how consumer patience with online agencies is waning and that more and more travelers are looking to expert travel agencies for assistance with their high-end trips. It also states that agents can often do things for their clients that online travel websites cannot do, such as secure a coveted room at a sold-out property, have an escort waiting to meet clients at the airport, and arrange for special amenities in their room upon arrival. 

This is terrific news for those of us who spend countless hours trying to educate our clients on our value to them. You may wish to email the article (titled “They’re Back!”) to all of your clients and potential clients, so they can see just how valuable you can be to them. 
 
That is, of course, assuming you do prove your worth to your clients on a regular basis. As I’ve stated before, it’s the small things you do for customers that constantly remind them why they should be booking all of their travel through you and referring all of their friends, colleagues and family to you.

For example, I recently had a client email me late on the Friday night before Memorial Day weekend letting me know that she had booked a last-minute stay at a luxury hotel in California for the next day. She wanted to know if I knew anyone there who could possibly upgrade her. I told her that I’d call my contact (the sales manager) at the hotel, but I’d have to actually take over the booking for her as this was the only way she would be entitled to enjoy any of the benefits from my Virtuoso affiliation and personal relationship with the hotel sales manager. She arrived the next morning to find she had been upgraded to an ocean-view room (which was ready for early check-in). Complimentary breakfast was added to her reservation and there was a gorgeous plate of fruit and cheese for her to enjoy. She promised me she would never book on her own again, since she realized it truly makes no sense to do so. 

Another client who always booked his own rooms, largely due to his habit of last-minute decision-making, at first didn’t understand why he should book through me.  A few days before his preferred travel dates, however, I scored him a great room at a wildly popular Manhattan hotel, arranging early check-in/late check-out and reservations at a sold-out hot spot. He now calls me all the time to handle his luxury hotel bookings.

As the Smart Money article points out, “The humble travel agent is staging a comeback.” Now it’s just up to us to continue to impress our clients with all that we can do for them so they never call or book their travel online or on their own again!