Travel Weekly Blog

Regular contributor Brian Hordon reflects on Travel Weekly's Mystery Shopper feature as Cruise Month draws to a close...

It had to happen during cruise month: Mystery Shopper went looking for a cruise holiday. The result? An excellent outright winner and a variety of scores for the other agents.

As for the agents who scored lower, it is difficult to apportion blame - I certainly have sympathy for the sales consultants who were the focus of Mystery Shopper's attention.

Lack of knowledge, lack of awareness of cruising, lack of confidence, lack of training? It is easy to "point the finger", but I see the Mystery Shopper exercise as an opportunity.

How many travel agents actually incorporate the weekly Mystery Shopper feature into their in-house training? The script is in place, the subject is clearly defined; the discussion can be based upon:

• How would our front line sales consultants handle this question?
• What products would we have proposed?
• How would we have closed the sales discussion?

Mystery Shopper can appear a little harsh when reviewed after the event; but used positively, it can be yet another superb resource - especially for cruising.

And of course the feature included five selling tips by Andy Harmer from the Association of Cruise Experts - another invaluable resource for all levels of sales consultants.

Final point; I have every Mystery Shopper featuring cruise requests from the very beginning (yes, I know, how sad!), and with literally a couple of exceptions the score card remains very similar to the latest mystery shopper.

Don't despair, Luton, just adopt a positive attitude and learn from the experience.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd