Not a Good Fit

NOT A GOOD FIT

A big mistake that almost every small business person makes starting out is thinking that every possible client is a great client and good fit for their business.  I made those same mistakes and have made them even recently.  But with the exciting changes coming to my agency, I have had to really put into practice the truth that not every possible client is a good fit for me or my agents.  It will help you, our valued-clients as well as anyone reading this post, to know what is NOT a good fit for us when it comes to those you might want to refer.  Here are some characteristics that some have that make them NOT a good fit for what we do:

1) They are checking multiple online sites and want someone only to match or beat the prices they are finding.  There is always someone out there wanting to beat someone's price and we are not in the pricing-war game.

2) They don't value our expertise or our personal service.  This really goes with the first one.  Someone just wanting the "lowest possible price" usually does not attach value to a professional's knowledge and personal experience.

3) They expect us to give them freebies in order for them to work with us.  We are not here to win someone's loyalty by throwing gifts at them.  We have bills to pay just like our clients do and this is our livelihood as well as our profession.

4) They expect us to reply to texts, phone calls and emails well after what some consider to be normal business hours.  While we are always accessible for our clients who are traveling, we do have lives just like everyone else does and we need our time with family as much as anyone does.  We may choose to work after hours, but that is our choice and clients cannot expect us to be watching our phones for questions at 9pm on a Friday night, for example.

5) They just don't want to listen.  There are clients out there who refuse to take any advice we give when it comes to flights, resort or hotel reputations, etc and then come back and complain about the very things we tried to warn them about.

If you are reading these and thinking...but I thought travel agents always guaranteed the best price... you have been misled.  What we do is provide the best vacation value.  Lowest price does not equate to best value.  Our expertise and skill allow us to provide each client with the best overall vacation which could include the best possible flight times/connections, the most favorable room location at their resort, the most memorable tours/excursions etc.  We guide our clients on how to navigate customs, we offer insider information when it comes to restaurants and sites to see and our custom itineraries may never be the lowest priced option.

So, if you find yourself in one of the areas listed above, then you are probably not a good fit for us and we would be glad to refer you to a website that would be willing to work with you. But if you do value professional service and expertise and want the best overall value from your dream vacation/adventure, then we would be thrilled to consider you our client and we would be honored to become your travel consultants for life.

Price vs Value: When Cheap Is Not Always The Best Value

When consulting with clients about their upcoming vacation, I usually ask the all-important question...what is your budget for the trip?  Quite often I get the reply, "We want it as cheap as possible."

But do you really want the cheapest vacation possible?  What if the cheapest price consisted of the smallest room at the resort in the furthest spot possible away from the pool, restaurants and beach and adjacent to the employee entrance and trash dumpster?  What if the cheapest price possible meant that you flew on a flight that left your home airport at 5:30am, connected through 2 different airports, had 2+ hour layovers at each airport and did not arrive at your destination's airport until 8pm that night?  And coupled with that, what if the cheapest price then included a shared transfer that stopped at 3 different resorts before finally stopping at yours...1 hour later?

Does that "cheap" price sound like a bargain now?  This is why value has to trump "cheap" price.  So many of us pay $3 or more for a java-house coffee than what we would pay for making a cup of Folgers at home because we put value over price (better experience over the cheapest).  But when it comes to the life-long memories we will make on a vacation, so many think "must go cheap."

So let me lay out what might be a better value and experience over the one I just painted earlier.  Now you leave your home airport around 7am, you connect one time with a 1 hour layover and arrive at your destination's airport @12:00pm.  Your travel consultant has arranged private transfers for you.  You get through customs and you are greeted by a person who is now your personal concierge for the drive from the airport to the resort.  He or she chats with you on your drive about the things to see and do and you and your traveling companions are the only ones in the vehicle and the only stop is your resort.  You arrive at your resort and are checked in by 1:00pm.  You are escorted to your junior suite overlooking the blue waters of the Caribbean.  You change and are at the pool sipping your first umbrella drink by 1:30pm.

Now, scenario number 2 is not the cheapest option for that trip.  But which one has better value and will offer a better overall experience?  Imagine you paying for scenario number 2 and you sit at the pool (the next day) by someone who has paid for scenario number 1.  You both left the same hometown airport, you are at the same exact resort.  But the person who paid the cheapest is telling you that he paid $200 less than you did.  If you didn't know the details of their package, you might think, "Hey, that is not fair. I paid too much."  But if the scenario number 1 person was honest and told you about their long layovers and that their luggage got misplaced between connection 1 and 2 and they missed out on dinner because they arrived too late and you can smell trash every time they open their room door, would you feel like you then paid too much?

Should "cheap" always be the driving factor?  I say no.  But here is what you can do to help your own personal travel consultant; come up with a budget that you would be comfortable spending for your vacation.  Let your travel consultant know that upfront.  He or she has knowledge of what a good vacation will cost for a variety of destinations.  And if your consultant says, "It will be difficult to put together a GOOD package to that destination for those number of nights for that budget," listen to him or her.  Make adjustments necessary such as cut back the number of nights or possibly think of an alternative destination, or possibly look at a different budget etc.  But whatever you do, don't run out to the internet and think your "cheap" vacation you just found is apples to apples to what your consultant was trying to advise you about.  That cheap vacation may be just that...cheap.

If Coffee Could Fly

If coffee could fly, we would all be flying first class.  This will be a brief look into the psyche of the American traveler. Proceed with caution, I may be talking about you.

We live in an age where everyone wants Ritz Carlton accommodations at Motel 6 prices.  Americans will spend hours searching high and low for the absolute cheapest price on every aspect of their vacation.  Travelers will opt for flights that leave at 5:00am with connections in 3 different airports and that does not arrive at their actual destination until 11:00pm that night to save $100 on airfare and then complain about not getting a bag of pretzels for free.  That same traveler will book a room at a hotel that they found on patheticallydirtcheapgetaways.biz and then spend 45 minutes with the motel’s manager complaining about the fact that the room is located near the hotel’s trash compactor.

But get this; that same traveler, the one who just nickeled and dimed every part of their “dream vacation,” will then march down to their favorite coffee venue and order a double-shot, no foam, non-fat, latte with a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top and pay over $3.00 for a Venti and never complain a bit about not getting a free muffin.  Oh…and they do that 5 days a week or more.  You do the math.

Go figure…