NB: This is a guest article by Steve Crowhurst, author and trainer at SMP Training.
The new travel agent is slightly different from the travel agent you know and love and have hired in the past.
For the most part you have not yet lived through the ups and downs of the travel trade with this next-gen travel agent and to create a relationship that works ‐ you will have to learn their ways.
She (and, obviously, quite conceivably a "he") will be a 20-something new kid on the block and she may be someone who does business in a way you do not understand.
You will need to be trained in virtual staff management and coaching because the next-gen travel agent is mobile and can think, tell and sell as she travels about town or travels the world. She will not settle for less than a high 5 figure income.
This new travel agent, the next-gen travel agent will be super savvy when it comes to using technology, she will be wired into everything, maintain a mobile office, a virtual presence and a business format that uses the cloud for all accounting, filing and general backroom systems.
She will be able to book anything to anywhere from anywhere. She will communicate with her clients who share the same techno travel lifestyle through all forms of social media. She will sell visually via her own iPhone App that she created called Me.
She will offer her personal ring tone to her clients who will know, when they hear that sound, that it’s time to travel. She will know which hotels offer large screen TV’s, high speed everything, laptops, iPads and the comforts that next-gen travelers want and need.
She will engage her clients with barcode marketing schemes. She will upload her Me travel videos to keep her customers visually connected and informed via her branded personal channel on YouTube.
She will talk on camera to describe what she is looking at right now and invite her customers to fly‐in for the week to share the experience. Back home she will meet in a coffee shop or anywhere with a white wall and with her palm sized projector show her recent travels to a small group of clients.
She will connect to ViVu via Skype and talk to 100 customers via live video feed. She will transmit live from her ocean view room using uStream. Her customers can get her latest newsfeeds, blogs, newsletters with one click.
She will build her business through Facebook, Tweeted and reTweeted referrals. She is LinkedIn to her corporate accounts, frequent travellers and high end vacationers. She understands the value of viral and always creates the book‐now buzz that her clients are happy to forward.
Why?
Because she is exciting! She reads quality online magazines and continues her education gaining trade and speciality certifications and designations.
She supports various trade associations and is a stickler for human rights, staying green and protecting the planet – her main source of revenue.
She is next-gen travel agent – your next hire! Your next partner. Your next home based/mobile agent. Your next New Business Generator.
NB: This is a guest article by Steve Crowhurst, author and trainer at SMP Training.