Today my colleague spent a good hour with a customer who was very vague on what she wanted after finding her the perfect holiday the customer stood up and said thanks for helping im going to book it on the net and walked out. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard. Anyone else had these problems?
I experienced the exact same thing a few weeks ago. My enquiry was over the telephone, I found them the perfect holiday. They asked who the tour operator was and when I told them I got 'Thanks so much, Im going to book it on their website'! I was so gob smacked I didnt have time for a witty reply!!
My colleague had something similar a month or so ago. A couple came in who had recently moved to the area and spent hours in the office putting together an itinerary to Australia and the Far East. The customer told my colleague they would not be contactable until after the weekend. When they were chased up on the Monday we were told that their agent from where they had moved from was extremely impressed with what my colleague had put together and they booked it with them!!
Not an internet issue, but annoying all the same!
i have literally just had a customer do this to me, looking at flying to canada in the next week. spent ages search different dates and airlines and into 2 different airports. found him a great price, and he asked if it could be booked cheaper online, although i would have looked to have said to him "yes you can book it cheaper on the net, i dont need your business, also while your asking bananas are cheaper in morrisons than tesco's" but i didnt, i just said i didnt know. he got up and said im sure it will be cheaper on somewhere like moneysupermarket, if not i will go direct to air canadas website, then he walked out........why do we bother????
I felt really sorry for my colleague she did so much for this customer going on the internet (trip advisor) phoning around for information and then the customer just goes "nah ill book it on the internet" its really worrying aswell
Apparently last week on This Morning some lady was saying dont book with travel agents they rip you off - give us a break
Iv'e always found it best to not tell them who the deal is through. When they ask who its through I say its a tailor made deal and name a different airline etc. Then if they come back to book I would say that deal has gone but I can get exactly the same thing with X,Y,Z. I know this is not always possible but from my experience of customers just hawking my quote around other travel agents, you really need to protcect yourselves. How some of you guys work for ages on a quote and really give good service, only for the customer to walk out is criminal. I am saying this now as an online travel agent who lets our website do the work. We still get the odd numpty but at least bookings come through on a daily basis and we can get on with fullfilling them, and not waste our time on timewasters.
Danny
i completely agree with that superparker, i learnt the hard way when i gave customers exact details of who i was looking at and which airlines i have priced. now i just say i have looked at several companies and this is the best price. dont give them too many details till they actually book
I get this frequently I spend ages putting together the customers holiday off a life time for them to come back and say "If I book the flights with XX airline and the hotels with XX it's coming in £40pp cheaper than what you have quoted." (which when their quote is like 2500-3000pp is just ANNOYING!) I just say the following:
"Thats fine but are you are aware that if you book directly with the Airline you are not Atol protected? If something happens like an earthquake, ash crisis, snow it is your responsibility to sort it out? You will have to sit for HOURS on hold just like everyone else who is trying to rebook, may have to fork out masses in fare differences etc etc as your holiday isn't classed as a package. If you book with me and anything happens you are covered by ATOL and ABTA and I sort out everything and anything for you!"
9 times out of 10 they book with me. Usually putting the fear of god into customers is a good thing as it helps sell your service and what you will do for them should anything happen before, during and after their holiday.
But some customers are incredibly cheeky like that and if they came back into the shop again I wouldn't serve them! Or ask for a service fee that would be refunded should they book with us.
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