Top Tips New Year’s Resolutions For 2018
Running a business is never easy and travel agencies are no different — indeed they may be even more difficult to successfully manage — given the wafer-thin margins that necessitate high turnovers in order to make any money and of course the threats and challenges that face owners on a day to day basis. All the more reason to take time out and evaluate how you can start working smarter rather than harder. Clearly, not everything that we do is effective so we need to identify those activities that are and stop wasting time on those that are not, otherwise all we do is continue to perpetuate the status quo. New Year’s Resolutions are a great way of re-evaluating everything about your business and making them the corner stones of your new, re-vitalised and re-focussed approach to making money because (and let’s be honest here) that’s what business is all about, at the end of the day! Not all of the following items on the list will necessarily work for you but I suspect most will so just think of them as a reference point — a blueprint, if you will — on which you can base your own business strategy for the coming 12 months. These resolutions are based on the very simple premise that there are only three ways that you can grow your business: 1. Get more customers 2. Sell more often to existing customers and/or; 3. Sell more things to existing customers Since there appears to be ample evidence from multiple sources that acquiring a new customer can cost you up to nine times more than retaining an existing one, it clearly makes more sense to focus (at least initially) on selling more stuff, and more often, to your current customer base. Here then, are our 10 suggestions for what you can do to maximise your sales, your time and your profit:
1 Increase your compliance levels
3 Take on a junior
Make a conscious effort to increase your compliance levels in supporting preferred suppliers. After all, they probably pay you higher commissions than what your agency can earn, delivering discretionary sales to non-preferred ones. A perfect example is when your agency places cruise sales through tour operators who pay you 10% commission when you can earn anywhere between 12% and 15% (or higher) when you book them directly with our preferred cruise suppliers. The same goes for other industry sectors.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find experienced staff So take on a junior and start training them up so that they can take the pressure off your more senior staff and thus minimise the incidence of costly mistakes. It also provides you with more coverage when it comes to days off, sick days, holidays, maternity leave etc.
2 Invest in training Spend some money and send your front counter staff on training courses — particularly those that focus on selling skills as it will be the best money that you’ll ever spend. Consider such expenditure as an investment rather than as a cost.
4 Conduct weekly staff meetings If you don’t already do so, instigate weekly staff meetings on Mondays in order to review sales performances from the previous week; Address mistakes that might have been made or problems encountered and plan for the week ahead. In order to make time for such staff meetings, don’t open until an hour later than normal and put a sign on the door and/or message on your answering machine or night service. It is quite common for most companies to open late one day a week for training purposes so why not travel agencies? Your customers will understand.
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