The Five Attributes of A Great Travel Agent

Does it seem like you have not unpacked your bags before you start planning your next vacation? Well, if the previous statement describes you, then you are not alone. With that said, I think you will find this article explaining the five attributes of a great travel agent extremely timely and helpful. Many travelers today are traveling more frequently than ever before. Every popular vacation location you can imagine is marketing and enticing travelers to visit like no other time in our history. According to Ustravel.org, the popularity of travel has been steadily increasing over the course of the last several years. With that thought in mind, travelers are currently trying to find new, unique and popular travel destinations to add to their social media feeds. This newfound travel craze has created a direct impact on vacation planning. Not to mention, the travel marketplace has become overloaded with an exponentially increasing number of travel options and travel deals. Hence, the travel market has transformed from a simple do-it-yourself marketplace to a complex one, which now requires a great deal of careful research. To navigate through these challenging waters, it is imperative that you find an agent who can cut through the red tape, conduct valuable research, and keep fees reasonable on your behalf. It is equally important to select a travel agent with the right attributes which closely match your love and desire for travel. In my opinion, the first and foremost essential attribute of any travel agent is professionalism.

Professionalism

The main attribute a travel agent must exhibit is the ability to act and conduct business in a highly professional manner. After reading the last statement, I know many of you are saying to yourselves that this is a “no brainer”. Often, many people enter long-term professional business relationships with individuals because of kinship, proximity or due to long-term friendship. In fact, the same poor characteristics or mannerisms that you have witnessed from your relative or friend can end up causing disappointment and dissatisfaction later on down the road. Likewise that impending flare-up will eventually destroy a wonderful social or family relationship that may never be repaired. So, I recommend that you search for a travel agent that has a proven track record for being highly professional, competent, polite, prompt, and most importantly shows a genuine care and concern about your vacation details. If you would like to read further on the matter, please read this great article I found on Linkedin. In the same fashion, don’t be afraid to tell a potential travel agent up front that you wish to conduct an interview with him/her before making any initial decisions. In fact, I also suggest that you interview several travel agents to find the “best fit” for your family and your vacationing style. Let’s face it, over the course of several trips or years you are going to trust this person with your available time and hard-earned money. For that reason, you deserve red-carpet and white-glove treatment. Also, if they become your “best-fit” agent, you will probably refer them to friends and other acquaintances. In the end, you are not just shopping for your family’s long-term travel agent but for other potential families as well. So, spend the time up front to find the best agent who demonstrates unsurpassed professionalism, dedication and competence. If you want to learn more about how a professional should act, read this article from Mindtools.com

“Don’t be afraid to tell a potential travel agent up from that you wish to conduct an interview with them first before making any decisions going forward.”

 

Proactiveness

Next, a great travel agent must be proactive. Dictionary.com defines the term proactive as “serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation”. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that planning and assembling a travel itinerary is a multistep process. Even though a client may pay for an entire trip at the initial meeting, a great travel agent will still build email reminders, check and recheck flight schedules and provide various trip updates. Furthermore, a seasoned travel professional will also keep an eye on world events and the travel market to make certain their client has all of the essential information to make a well informed decision. As a matter of fact, the synchronization of actions and tasks behind the scenes is how a true travel professional earns his/her value. Over the long term, a great travel professional will always remain proactive behind the scenes to make sure your travel plans are not ruined due to a simple oversight or clerical error. So, if your current travel agent does not seem to fit the “mold”, then it may be time to reexamine your relationship. It is also important to realize that a travel agent not only has to be proactive but a good listener as well.

Listener

As I mentioned earlier in this post, every traveler is looking for a super professional travel agent. Therefore, excellent listening skills are also a desirable skill of a true travel professional. Good listening skills are genuinely an art form that has to be perfected over time. The very first time a traveler calls a travel agent, the travel professional must immediately switch into active listening mode and pay careful attention to every word that the traveler says. Throughout the conversation, the travel professional should take notes, maintain eye contact, and show the traveler that he or she is paying attention. At key points of the conversation, the travel professional should repeat critical points of information and ask clarifying questions, but not be judgmental or condescending in any way. Sadly, some travel professionals stop listening once the traveler states a budget that does not seem to conform to anticipated commission levels. As a traveler, you should always feel comfortable talking to your travel agent about your budget, and details of your travel desires without any hint of negative feedback. So, if you notice that your potential travel professional seems to turn the “cold shoulder” or their attention span starts to wane just after you state your budget, then it is time for you to consider a new travel professional. A truly professional and customer service-oriented travel professional will always treat you like royalty irrespective of your travel budget or the number of questions that you may ask. Remember, a great travel professional will focus on your wishes, desires, and will have you walking away feeling like you are their “Client of the Year.”

Organizer

Similarly, today’s high-paced society requires a travel professional who is highly organized and detailed oriented. Each trip or vacation has its very own set of unique requirements such as initial payment dates, final payment dates, and other critical time-oriented tasks that, if missed, will jeopardize your trip or make the client incur additional fees. There is nothing more disappointing or stressful than to receive a call from your travel agent informing you of some unpleasant news about a missed critical date. Therefore, today’s ordinary vacations call for extraordinary attention to detail and organizational skills. A great travel professional must be able to not only prioritize client needs but be prepared to structure all of the future payment requirements and other tasks in such a way that the client remains stress-free doing the entire vacation preparation process. Furthermore, a great travel agent should be able to provide you with all of your critical suspense dates upfront and set up email reminders to keep you on track. This sounds easy, right? Well, an organized travel professional will make this all look easy. But, behind the scenes, your travel expert is continually checking on your air, land, tour, and rental reservations almost on a bi-weekly basis to make sure everything remains according to plan. In the event your vacation plans seem to change for some unknown reason, your proactive travel professional will take corrective action to fix the problem before it becomes a nightmare. In summary, a great travel agent is highly organized and will be able to support a family-of-four trip in the same manner in which he/she could support a group of 50 travelers. In the end, it is all about organization. So, if your travel agent is struggling to handle your small family vacation, well that should send red flags about their ability to plan more complicated trips. So, look very closely and observe your agent’s organizational skills.

Personality

Finally, selecting the best travel agent for you and your family, it is always beneficial to choose an agent that has the right personality for the job. According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, the best personality type that matches an organized and professional travel agent is the personality type of ESTJ. ESTJ is an acronym used to describe one of the sixteen personality types created by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers. ESTJ stands for Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. So, an agent that displays the following strengths should be the ideal agent for you:

• Organization and efficiency.

• Dedication and commitment.

• Integrity

•  Stewardship

The ESTJs solve problems by expertly applying and adapting past experience. They like work where they can achieve immediate, visible, and tangible results. – Isabel Myers

If you like to learn more about this personality type, please visit truity.com In conclusion, finding a great travel agent can be somewhat of a challenge. But, with these five attributes I have listed in this article, you should have no problem finding a great agent to handle your travel affairs. Remember always to do your research, and you should be able to navigate the challenging waters of finding a travel agent just fine. Have you ever had any problems finding a great travel agent? If so, I would like to hear the steps you employed to find your remarkable agent. Do they have any of the five attributes of a great travel agent? Image by Pixabay