Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 262: How Travel Advisors Can Make Business Audits a Team Habit
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to the Travel Agency in a Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. I'm a travel agency owner helping travel advisors build their business. If you have questions, head on over to elevatewithrachelk.com. Otherwise, listen to this podcast because it's freaking amazing. Maybe. A lot of people who listen to it like it. So you're gonna like it too. I'm getting too much of an attitude. Today is day 262. at auditing your tech stack, your systems, your tools, when you need some input, maybe you get some teammates. 'Cause you don't have to do everything alone. but who else should have a voice in this audit? And how to turn this from like a one time quarterly task into like a genuine ongoing habit? So it's like low key, you have your own IT department. And you're like this massive multi-million dollar corporation. anyway. So we talked about, I think it was back on day 258 about Toyota and the Kaisen court culture and how it's so effective because those walks that they do isn't specifically that the improvement suggestions come from the people actually doing the work. Like it is that. Like the people doing the work as the management walks through, and they'll be like, hey, this machine's slowing down. To the management team. It's not exclusively the management looking in from the outside. So Toyota has a specific practice, I can't pronounce Kaizen something, where the frontline workers, the people closest to the given process day to day, are actively encouraged and expected to submit improvement ideas. Okay. A striking share of those suggestions actually get implemented because Toyota is awesome. Fight me. The insight here isn't really about factories, though, but it's that the people closest to a friction point in your processes, in your systems, in your tech stack, in your tools and hardware, they often notice it long before the person that's just reviewing them from a higher level, simply because they're the ones running into it over and over again. And I know all of you have worked a job where you're like, this system or this process or this software or this machine I have to use to operate or the layout of this retail space is terrible because you are the one that's the front line dealing with that day-to-day. So if you have like one like contractor helping you, or one VA, or just like a part-time employee, somebody part-time, they've likely encountered friction points in your systems and your tools and your processes that you haven't simply because they're interacting with parts of the process that you've delegated away and no longer touch directly. Or you thought everything was great, grand lovely, you haven't done the client walkthrough of the processes, and then you hand this off when you delegate it and you think everything's great. However, this team member might be like, this is kinda dumb. We've all been there where you have that boss that's like, everything I do is perfect. And you're like, you know, you could do this and be more efficient. And then they're like, No, everything I do is perfect. And then you just do it on the sidelines and not tell And then they're like, Wow, you're so fast. And you're like, Yep. Okay, so before finalizing your own audit findings, if you have anyone helping you out, ask them directly. What's clunky? What takes longer than it should? What do you find yourself working around? Those answers are the blind spots that you might be experiencing. And it's from someone else's vantage point instead of your own. Now, I know what you're thinking. I don't have any employees. What do I do? This is a low-key part of how I do my mentoring too, is to help you if this is an issue, to help you go through these processes from a different vantage point. But you can also talk to any trusted colleague that you know and just say, hey, what do you think of this process? What do you think of this? But make sure you really, really trust them. I'm just gonna leave it at that. So if you're running this business on your own, you can also ask your clients. I've done I love doing that too. Like a few recent clients clients, you can ask them a simple, honest question, like for post-trip follow-up. Was there any point in working with me where something felt confusing or slow or harder than it should have been? Most of them don't volunteer this feedback unprompted. They have to be really mad because they're gonna do it at they're gonna be nice, right? They're like, good for you, start your own little business. Many will answer honestly if you ask them directly and make Clear, you genuine genuinely want to know, and I think this is a very important aspect of the post-trip follow-up to ask them. And the way I like to phrase it is like, I'm always looking to improve, and then I ask that question, and then I'll take their feedback. And sometimes my clients will be big like software tech bro types and so they'll be like, well you could do da da da da da da da da da da and I'm like, really? Hmm, let me take some notes here. So single audit done once provides a useful snapshot and the business that benefits the most from this kind of review, you gotta do it ongoing, not just a one-time event. Toyota doesn't do theirs like on an annual basis. It's a constant built-in part of how their organization operates every single day. Because they value efficiency. You don't need daily audits, but building a lightweight version of like this kind of rhythm, like a running document or spreadsheet. and if you have teammates, you can jot down the friction points or they can the moment they notice it, rather than trying to remember them months, weeks, weeks or months later at the next formal meeting. that captures a lot more useful information than relying purely on memor memory when you're doing your quarterly reviews. And if you don't have, like I said, any teammates, you can always ask your clients and make a note of that. Like just have a spreadsheet specifically during your post-trip follow-up. If it's an email, copy and paste that information over. If it's a phone call, have that open and put the notes in. Keep this sustainable though. Don't make this another burden. We are all wearing a lot of hats, and you're gonna be wearing a lot of hats until you get to multiple six figures and commissions. Unfortunately. a single note, shared note, or like a simple form is a really easy way to just keep it. And then you just review them monthly or quarterly. This is why I like the monthly and the quarterly. Like take some time to write out all the data weekly, all the feedback stuff. Like you're that's a weekly basis thing, but you don't have to sit and mull over it. And then you can look at it again monthly in the document or the spreadsheet you create and be like, hmm, this is irrelevant. And then at the quarterly review, you present what's remaining and be like, okay, what's most important for this next quarter? So if you do have any teammates. Ask them directly if you are solo. Ask some recent clients, e and if you are brand newbie and you're like I don't even have any clients, ask them to test out your systems for you. If it's like ask a friend or family member, be like, hey, I will buy you drinks or we can go get queso and margaritas. But can I in exchange for that, can you review this process for me? It's as simple as that. I don't know why I brought up queso margaritas, but doesn't that sound lovely today? Some queso, some guac, some s maybe a spicy merg. Go a little crazy. Anyway, you don't to rely on everything from memory. You have a track record, you have it documented somewhere. Don't worry about obsessing over it. Tomorrow we're gonna turn this all into an actual plan. Like, once you have all of this stuff in place, how do you plan for the next quarter? This is a really short episode. I thought I was rambling. I was like, I better speed through this. I just looked at the timer. So that was day 262 of the Travel Agency in the Year podcast. Feel like this makes up for the 25-minute episodes the last couple days. Give you a break. Have a wonderful day. I will see you tomorrow.