Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 155 - Travel agents' guide to crystal clear communication
Transcript
- Rachel K: Welcome back to the Travel Agent Senior Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. Thanks for joining. Yet again, we are on 155. 365 episodes if you haven't picked up on that yet by yet by now, by yet. Whew. Okay. Anyway. Today's episode is about crystal clear communication. And I know I've touched on this before, and I just wanted to expand on it a little bit in case you are listening to every single episode. Just a little reminder. But this is more from a ⁓ perspective of transitioning from a passive mode of communication to a more assertive mode of communication. And I'm bringing this up because I have noticed this with some of the travel agents that I mentor. And they Still act in a passive like I want to be friends with you, leaning a little people pleasy. And that can bite you in the butt if you are not careful. Let me make sure I got this mic set up correctly. So the big one here is If if why are we saying if in our emails or in our text messages? There is no if somebody has hired you to take a big burden of planning their trip. There should be very few if not any ifs, even though I just said if. Here's why you want to practice or at least check your email communications, your text message communication, DMs, however you do it in your business, whatever your communication philosophy is, but just like review your communication methods and see how often this pops up and see how often those people come back to you. If is a really big one on practicing eliminating, I've brought up other ones in the past episode, like try and But I've got a few other phrases in here written down because there's a lot in communication. Number one reason why you should really focus and analyze your communication, especially if you're using if. Using if as the beginning of a statement, like if this works, I'll pride provide you some examples and from my handy dandy notebook. It will erode confidence. You were hired to do a specific job and if you are saying things like, ⁓ if your dates are available That erodes confidence. You're projecting a lack of control. And I get it. We work and travel. A lot of things are out of our control. The weather, number one. We cannot control the hotels or the suppliers. We form specific relationships with goods suppliers, DMCs and hotels, cruise lines, et cetera, et cetera. However, we still cannot control them and they can change their policies or Their attitudes about things, that is out of our control. When you say things like if to your client, you are already demonstrating, I don't have control over the situation. So. If your dates are available, then I could do this. If that's that's that's not a very good example. That's what I wrote down, sorry. But instead of saying that, you could say when your trip is deposited, the dates are secured. Or you know, I know some in some cases for like a cruise itinerary, for example, if you have their names and date of birth, you can hold the cabin for like a day or two. So you can say Once you fill out this form, I will have this information and I'm able to place a 24 or 488 48-hour hold on the room at least. I can't guarantee the price, but I can at least get the room. Okay, number two, using if. It undermines your authority. If you want to hire me, or if you hire me as your travel advisor, that invites doubt. Like Don't ever say that when you're trying to close a consultation. 'Cause I that just they're like, Why why wouldn't we hire you? Why wouldn't you say you're the best choice? That's already saying, like, I don't believe in myself to do be the best for you. So instead speak confidently of your value and what you will deliver. Once we get started on your vacation or trip or wedding, whatever the heck it is that you niche in, here's what I will do for you. Like, don't even say if you'll hire me. That's a whole part of like the phrase assuming the sale. There's no if in it. It's just once we decide, once we get started, here's what I do for you. And you just lead them down that path. Number three. How to turn the page of my notebook. Using if-then statements creates a conditional culture in your workplace. Once you have a team. Like if this works, then you'll get a raise. Then it gives them an out and it kind of lowers morale. And they can be like, Well it didn't work, so I don't care about my race. I'm miserable here. That one's not so relevant to many of you travel advisors. I know a lot of us are just like independent at home, don't have teams, and that is something that could be created in the workplace culture using the if then statements because you're creating conditional yes, there should be boundaries and conditions, duh here hiring people. And also that's just like the like the employee handbook side. This is more of like when you're trying to implement a new program or get new ideas from your team, if then statements gives them an out, like, ⁓ it didn't work. They didn't do anything. ⁓ but it it doesn't when you have ideas and new things that you want to implement and new innovations for your business, instead of presenting the if-thens statements and making it a conditional thing, ⁓ focus on communicating how it aligns with the core mission of your business. Okay, number four. If statements puts the burden on your client to make a decision. And then again, back to the doubt on your abilities. If it's more convenient, we can do this. You're ⁓ saying if it's more convenient or if it's easier for you, once you say that, you're saying I'm no longer ⁓ advising, I'm putting the decisions on you. So instead of doing something like that or saying something like that and forcing the decision on them, lead with your definitive solution slash recommendation first, and then the second option if there is one, and then say which approach do you prefer? And I think I bring those up yeah later on. So let's say I'm trying to think of something that's in your control as a travel advisor. let's say that you have a small family group going. So it's like three rooms and the third room has four kids and they don't want to pay for the two bedroom family suite. And so they're slightly frustrated because they feel like they're getting the out because their kids are are just old enough that they are over capacity for like a one room, like a regular room. And the and the resort doesn't have connecting rooms, or they don't want to pay for two rooms. So, in that situation, saying something like, Well, if it's easier, leave one of the kids at home. If that if if you want this price point, leave one of the kids at home. That's putting the decision of which kid they gotta give up and if they even want to do that. That's gonna frustrate frustrate them further. Another way to say that could be Let me talk to some of the other family members. There is what is it? Capacity in the suite or whatever for one of your children to be placed in one of these other rooms that are already deposited. I will see if they are willing to have them in that room and we can book the room for your family of five instead of family of six, getting you the lower room category, and then you're all still together. The other s option would be you would have to make a decision on leaving one of the kids at home. What are your thoughts? How would you like to approach this? You've already given them they only have two decisions to make instead of if it's easier for you, you can do this. ⁓ you've already provided them the solutions and exactly how it would work out, and they can just select one. And it demonstrates when you communicate that way instead of if it's more convenient for you or if it's easier for you. when you just provide the solutions that you're offering and then one alternative, and then what are your thoughts? ⁓ you're demonstrating like even if you haven't been in this scenario before, you're demonstrating I've been through this, you haven't, I already know the the best options for you. So that eliminates any sense of doubt. Okay, the fifth reason you want to avoid the if at the beginning statements, your clients are investing in your business. If you aren't clearly communicating with them, with the weird iffy statements, which is projecting your own doubt and your own s insecurities secretly. Go read your emails that you've sent to people. They're making an investment in your business. They know most likely you are I mean, all of us are small business owners. I d I think you have to hit like like ten figures annually. I can't remember. We would be like the small cap in the stock market. Or we weren't we can't even get in the stock market, first of all. It's how small we all are. But if we were doing like seven plus figures, at best we'd be in the small cap on like the S P 500. Okay. We are not anything special or big. We are not Amazon, is what I'm trying to say. And they know this. And so they're investing in your business. They are supporting your business. When you have clear communication, it helps your clients build confidence in their investment with you and supporting your business and supporting the economy in general. Okay. Now we're gonna go into some reminder phrases to avoid. Why did that sound like a teacher? Number one phrases that are minimizers. I could be wrong, but or the don't don't do that. Anytime I've had someone attempt to I've had some people randomly, usually like wedding guests, just come out of the blue and be like, well this is this. Trying to I don't know what their deal is. It's just like random, like one wedding guest every like five or six weddings. It's like, I'm gonna be a huge pain in the butt to you. And they'll try to call you out and say you made a mistake. And if you were to reply to that and say, I could be wrong, but my memory is da da da. This is why you want everything in writing writing, this is why you want everything in forms as much as you can. You don't even have to say that. You can say, here's what I understand about this. Happy to share the f an email or the form that you submitted. You know what I mean? Like happy to share all the receipts I have. You're just crazy right now. So instead of saying I could be wrong, but you could say something like, Here's how I here's what I have. Here's the information I have. ⁓ or let's say you have a client that maybe has paid your fee or signed on to work with you. And you've submitted your proposals to them and they're like nit nickel and diming and nitpicking, even though they're in budget, even though it's like hit all the marks, but for some reason they've lost that trust with you. And they're trying to assert dominance over you when they start doing those sorts of things. So you need to pull back and you could say, here's how I'm thinking about this. This is the information that I have. This is hitting all of the marks. What has changed? Instead of I could be wrong, but I remember da da da da. Like that's just gonna start an argument. That's a that's minimizing them as a human being. Number two, generic subjective descriptors will dilute your claims. So if you are like writing copy on your website or you're trying to close like an FIT or whatever consultation. ⁓ saying things like, I think I could get you a great deal. I will say at the time of recording this, I had a repeat client, like a three Peter, maybe three Peter come back. And they wanted a honeymoon and they're like, What deals can you get us? I don't even use the word deals. And ⁓ I just asked, like, do you have a budget in mind? Because I already had what I wanted to offer them. For their experience, because I know that, like, this is a third trip for them with me. So it's like I know exactly what they're gonna get, what they would like the most, you know, and I just gotta make sure it's within their budget. ⁓ but saying things I could get you a great deal, or I think I could get you a great deal, that's not like generic descriptors like that, or all over your website. We have the best deals around for your next cruise. It's less effective than writing something our like if it's copying your website or saying on a consultation. Our clients or my clients, I like to use our, the royal we. Let's just pretend we're this huge organization, no big deal. Even if it's just you. ⁓ my clients typically save fifteen percent on average from their travel budgets and gain roughly twenty hours of their time back not having to take on X, Y, and Z, which could be like researching, travel management, travel logistics, whatever it is that you offer. And it's true. Twenty hours is a low no amount of time that the average person spends planning a vacation. It's usually around forty hours with research and then booking and everything. So that is a b different way to word it. If And even if it's ⁓ you just practicing and you're like brand new and it's your first consultation, but if you're practicing and you know like this supplier offers the best pricing around and you've done a few practice rounds comparing to like booking through Expedia or booking direct or whatever, or maybe your perks with your consortium add more value, like throw those statistics in there and just do some practice trips. That way you can confidently say I can typically save my clients 10 to 15% from their budgets, get them more bang for their buck, better value for their time. ⁓ and also I save they gain back twenty to forty hours of their time plant because they don't have to plan the trip. They just go. ⁓ that was something that I learned when I had my cleaning business. I would have people be like, thirty-five dollars an hour? That's ridiculous. This was a long time ago. So I know you're now like, thirty-five an hour, that's not bad. ⁓ and so I would explain to them, I said, Well, how much what do you do for a living? ⁓ I'm an optometrist or something. Okay. what's your average rate per hour? And they'd be ⁓ I make about forty bucks an hour. How many hours do you spend on your weekend cleaning? And They'd be like, ⁓ it takes like six, seven hours to get it all done. It's like a full day. Well, you get those six, seven hours back in exchange for two hours of your work life or three hours of your work week. Plus, you have someone that's licensed, insured, bonded using reputable products. And then they'd be like, ⁓ I'm sold, because it's like statistical, factual information. And I have talked about the customer versus the consumer before. This is what the c The customer wants to hear, the consumer wants to hear, I'm gonna ease your mind and make this beautiful Instagramable vacation. But the customer wants to hear, I'm gonna save you X amount of money, I'm gonna save you X amount of time, and I'm gonna give you all of this. All right, this episode's running over. I don't care. this is one I'm guilty, so guilty of all the time. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Guilty as charged in my notebook. When I wrote, I was like, this is something I've been working on myself. It expresses your own lack of confidence in your ability to communicate. For me, I know it's for sure that and insecurity. Like, does that make sense? Like, am I just like this weird autistic person? Or you know what I mean? Like, am I like on the spectrum and you're not? Are we different levels of neurodivergence? what's going on here? So instead of saying that does that make sense, then you can just ask, what are your thoughts? Because that invites them to clarify if it doesn't make sense, you still sound secure and they're participating in a conversation rather than just listening to you spout off a bunch of stuff and then be like, Does that make sense? All right, moving on. Does that make sense? I had to throw that in there. All right. Avoiding those words and phrasings when you're communicating with clients. Helps to ensure clear and compelling messaging. Please check your communications. Is there anything that you're using in from this episode? Phrases ⁓ that I've gone over in this episode that undermine your own authority and create ambiguity. And here's the problem: once that trust is broken, especially as you start to scale and do like higher end trips or larger group trips. The second that trust is broken with those clients, you cannot get it back. And that's when you're gonna start getting possibly not the best reviews ⁓ from and a big part of that is the broken trust in your communication. And I get it, you're like, I didn't do anything wrong, but it's the little teeny tiny words like if that could really change how someone perceives your service. And it's just you can do it now if you're ⁓ you know, working with a lot of local stuff. But if you're starting to scale, please really take a look at how you're communicating with people and always be monitoring that. Okay, that was day one fifty-five. ⁓ tomorrow I'm just gonna do a random destination wedding planning process episode. If you like this episode, please subscribe so you can get daily notifications. ⁓ do check comments. Feel free to leave a comment and fight me. I don't care. Otherwise, have a great day.