BASIC
SELLING SKILLS & CUSTOMER SERVICES
The role
of a travel consultant is to provide satisfactory excellent services to
customers and sell the travel products to them in the most effective manner. We
must always bear in our minds that customers are:
Ø The most
important persons in any organization
Ø Not
dependent on us; we are dependent on them
Ø Life
blood of every organization
Ø The
source of our income; without them our business cannot continue
Therefore,
they deserve our sincere, polite, courteous and attentive treatment. On the
other hand, the customers have expectations from us to get the best services.
Travel consultants require learning many skills and their application in order
to provide the best customer care. To begin with your career as a TRAVEL
CONSULTANT, you must remember and exercise the 4Ps during any interaction with
your customer to possibly meet his expectations.
REMEMBER
THE 4 Ps
Presentable: Be well
groomed and appropriately dressed
Pleasant: Begin
with eye contact and smile and behave very politely
Positive: Be
positive in your attitude, sincere and helpful
Professional: Know
your job well and communicate effectively
Sales and
customer services go hand in hand. As you know sales is the whole purpose of
any business. All the products, right from a needle to a big fleet of wide
bodied aircraft are introduced to the market for selling to people (customers)
for their beneficial use. There is a huge cyclic process of selling and buying
all around to continue the economic survival and well being of an individual to
the world at large. Almost every professional person is involved in selling
directly or indirectly. Thus Selling has become such an important profession.
Travel consultants basic job is to sell the travel services which require more
professionalism. Therefore, SELLING travel services should be learnt as an art
and a science. Imperatively, as a prerequisite, a travel consultant must be
able to communicate thoroughly well with the customer.
The
travel consultant needs to train his mind about adjusting his bbehavior with
the customer's, rather very pleasantly and positively. The other thing is to
learn the "YOU" principle. It is human nature to think about his own
(ME) interests rather than the other person's (YOU). This principle is about
training our minds to think in terms of the interests of the other person that
is YOU, the customer, rather than ME, the travel consultant himself.
>>>>>> I care about your benefits, advantage and well-being.
The Sales
formula, AIDDA
The
interaction between a customer and the salesperson during a sales process leads
to different stages in the minds of the customer. Extensive research of the
customer behavior has lead to derive the sales formula AIDDA. The acronym,
AIDDA stands for: give ATTENTION > create INTEREST > develop DESIRE >
reach DECISION > request ACTION:
Let us
try to understand each of the stages of this sales formula.
ATTENTION
When customers approach you, they expect friendly attention and
assistance from you. Hence, you must prepare yourself to receive them
accordingly. It starts with non verbal communication. First of all your office
should be in a clean accessible market location, with carefully designed, very
tidy exterior and interior appearance, furniture and fixtures etc. all ready to
offer silent attention to the customer, also to draw his attention to your
business environment. Then as he contacts you, the travel consultant, you must
give him full undivided and uninterrupted attention during the entire sales
process. > Make sure to be very neat and clean, well groomed and
immaculately dressed; keep a smart posture. > Begin with your eye contact
with the customer and a pleasant smile on your face. > Exchange pleasant
greetings, e.g. saying "Good morning, Sir. How may I help you? >
Introduce yourself, giving your name to him and try to get and note his name
and contact. Try to address him by his name appropriately during your
conversation. > Always be very polite, courteous, cordial and helpful. Starting
your interface with the customer this way will create the first good impression
about you and your agency in his mind. He will start feeling comfortable and
may tell you what he needs. From here the process will enter to the next stage.
INTEREST The next
stage of mind is to determine his needs by asking the relevant questions to get
some information from him like; the names of passengers, contact, the
destinations, the date and timing of travel, the purpose of travel, class of
travel, passport and visa possessions, may be the personal budget, preferences
of the carrier, any special requirements etc.. Most of the questions start with
Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. You need to learn how to make a question
starting with them. Generally there are two types of questions which may be
asked according to the situations; open ended and closed ended. Closed-ended
questions are used to get some specific facts or information with short
answers? For instance, "What is your name?" Or, "Which country
do you prefer to visit?" Open-ended questions, on the other hand are used
to know about customer's feelings, wishes or interests in order to widen the
discussion which may have longer answers with some details. For example,
"What would you like to see in Istanbul?" Then listen effectively
without any interruptions to his response. Note down the salient points
carefully on a paper pad as we tend to forget quickly. Listening is considered
as the most important communication skill. A travel consultant must learn
listening techniques to become a good listener. While answering your questions
he will realize your professionalism and be interested to expect the desired
information from you. Think quickly, refer to your sources of information and
data like GDS and suggest the most suitable and convenient product information
(travel plan) to him.
DESIRE It is
human nature to appeal to his benefits and advantages in everything he seeks.
Just plain information about a product does not make much effect unless you
talk in terms of its features and benefits. Therefore, importantly, you must
always offer the solutions/product highlighting its features and benefits and
that will develop a desire in his mind to buy. For example observe the
following statement of a travel consultant offering a solution, saying,
"Emirates
Airlines flight number 064 departs Dubai at 0450hours and arrives London,
Heathrow at 0710hours."
Then he
adds more information telling about its features and benefits, like: early
enough">>>>(feature) "for carrying out any business there
during the whole day." >>>>(benefit).
"This
flight is operated with the latest aircraft Airbus A380 with wider seats and
advanced entertainment facilities">>>>(feature)
"which will make your travel more comfortable and
enjoyable">>>>(benefit)
"It
is a non stop service">>>>(feature) "which saves your
time.">>>>(benefit)
Travel
consultant may, sometimes encounter objection from the customers about the
solutions offered. Such objections are termed as sales resistance. Sales
resistance can also be considered a buying signal from the customer as any
objection to the feature of a product reflects his hidden interest in it. May
be, he needs to be more clear about it. It should be handled rather,
positively. Try to find out the reason of the objection and clarify any doubts
in his mind. In case the objection or sales resistance persists, display an
understanding with him and suggest an alternate solution. However, always
remember the following rules in customer handling.
Ø Do not
force your ideas on the customer.
Ø Do not
argue with the customer win the argument; lose the sale.
Ø Do not
make assumptions.
Ø Do not
lose your patience.
Show
empathy to his expectation. Empathy means sensing the feelings of the other
person if you were in his situation.
After
receiving the solution/travel plan in the most professional manner from you the
customer may feel satisfied and confident to develop a desire in his mind to
buy which may be reflected through his behavior. This is called the buying
signal. This is the most critical stage of the sales process and must be
identified in order to close the sale. Many sales are lost if a travel
consultant fails to recognize the buying. signal. At this stage you should help
customer to reach a decision to buy.
DECISION Once you
note the buying signal you should close the sale. Closing the sale means to
have the customer decide to buy, to obtain a commitment or the purchase order
from the customer. Buying signal may be identified with certain behavior of the
customer like his positive body language and his asking further question about
the product to reconfirm the information. For example, "Would you please,
tell me about Emirates flights and pricing once again?" Or, "Is it
the last price?" Or, "When last can I pay for it?" After
answering such questions, you should try to close the sale by asking a question
like, "Should I go ahead to make your reservation on Emirates flight right
now? Some customer may start thinking and reviewing the information provided, possibly
to make decision from choices of solutions. This may also be a buying signal
and you should help him reach a decision by asking a leading or presumptive
close question? For example, "Which flight should I book for you, Emirates
or British Airways?" Finally, the customer may reach a decision and places
his order to book a flight. Then, you should immediately close the sale by
taking all the necessary action. Explain the details and confirm understanding
with him. Most of the travel services are sold or reserved with a payment
deadline or a ticketing time limit which must be advised to the customer and
you must follow it up for the final action that is accomplishment of the
payments and issuance of tickets or any other traffic documents.
ACTION The
sales process will not be completed until the payments are settled and the
product is delivered. Therefore, you must contact the customer before the
ticketing time limit expires, requesting him for the final action which is to
accomplish payments and deliver the ticket. Ticket is the document which
details all the features of his travel and also honoured by the airline
concerned to allow him the specific journey. This should be a win/win situation
for you as well as the customer. Both should feel satisfied. Summarise the itinerary
and salient features of the trip pleasantly. For example, saying, "Here is
your ticket, Sir 17 Finally, a warm send off, saying, "Thank you so much
for using our services. I hive a very pleasant travel, Mr. Yousufzai."
Though the sales process is completed at this stage but the need of contact
with the customer does not finish. He will start experiencing his travel and
judge the quality of it. He may require your assistance at any time before he
finally completes his travel. So be ready for such a demand from him. Rather,
you should offer this service yourself while delivering the ticket. You may
say, "Please do not hesitate to contact us for any help any time."
This is called After Sales Service.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customer
service is defined as the service provided to customer before, during and after
the sales. The development of business of any organization needs growth in its
number of customers.. Although, it should make efforts to create new customers
but the important matter is to retain the existing ones. According to research
findings, it costs about five times as much to attract new customers as it
costs to keep an old one. The over all impression of you and your company upon
the customer should be excellent in order to establish a durable relationship
with him so that he may buy again and again from you. Therefore, it is
essential to keep in contact with your customers even after the sales. Maintain
the record of all the potential customers and try to establish contact with
them. Imagine about, how a customer may feel receiving your good wishes on his
birthday or another one receiving an attractive travel package brochure.
Naturally, they will feel that you care for them. Also you may contact your
customer after he returns from his trip asking, how he feels about the way you
planned his travel. He may express his full satisfaction with it and thank you
for your interest. Very likely, they all will remain loyal to your company. Not
only that but they will recommend your name to many other people in their
social circles to do business with you. This is the way your company will be
advertised without any cost and your reputation will build and so will be the
number of customers and of course, the profitability.
TELESALES
TIPS
Telephone
service is extensively used, commercially, world-wide for transacting sales.
Travel consultants are also employed to work in the telesales or call centres
of airlines and big travel corporations where they do not encounter customers
face to face but just contact verbally. Though same sales principles apply to
it but it requires a travel consultant to create all the good impressions
through his voice. Following are some Telesales tips.
Ø Answer
the calls promptly. Never say, "Hello"
Ø Greet the
caller pleasantly e.g. "Good Morning"
Ø Identify
yourself e.g. "Global Travel, Zara speaking. How may I help you?"
Ø Speak
clearly and naturally. Be very polite and courteous.
Ø Use
correct grammar.
Ø Keep
paper pad and pen ready to take notes.
Ø Display
same professionalism as you would do in face to face contact.
Ø Put
warmth in your voice and give full sincere attention.
Ø Refer the
caller by his name as soon as it is established.
Ø Give
correct information clearly and confirm understanding.
Ø Do not
let the caller hold the line for long time. In case if it needs so, try to get
his phone number to call him back in a specified time. Do call back in time.
Ø Terminate
the call nicely. Like; "Thank you for calling Global Travel, Mr.
Bari."
INTERNATIONAL
PHONETIC ALPHABETS
Many sounds of the words
are not clearly heard when listening on phones because of some sonic
disturbance or people from different lingual or cultural origins have natural
resistance in pronouncing some particular sounds. To clarify a word, sometimes
we have to spell it out for accuracy of information during a transaction, using
following International Phonetic Alphabets.
A Alpha, B Bravo, C
Charlie, D Delta, E Echo, F Foxtrot, G Golf, H
Hotel, I India, J Juliet, K Kilo, L Lima, M Mike,
N November, 0 Oscar, P Papa, Q Quebec, R
Romeo, S Sierra, T Tango, U Uniform, V Victor, W
Whiskey, X X-ray, Y Yankee, Z Zulu.
