You can listen directly here. 

Systems just don’t sound like a sexy or fun thing to do. I get it, I thought the same. However, when a staff member recently left my employment, boy was I glad that we had set up systems to know what happened in that role and also how to do each part of the role. 

 

We have set up systems across a lot of our business and the role of booking travel is also part of this. From the time an enquiry comes in, to the time the client returns, plus some, we have a step by step process, which has been refined over time. Now we, as a team can see where each of our clients is in the process, and also what we need to work on. This has been a game-changer for us. 

 

We took it one step further and have also now automated a number of steps in the process and use an online tool to track things when we aren’t in the same office! 

 

We are starting simple, as we all know, I like to keep it simple. The 67 Step Guide I put together gives you every single step we have in our process. It has proved time and again how important it is to not miss a step. It has also shown that we go above and beyond what a client expects. And we know that by following each of these steps we won’t miss a thing. 

 

I am now opening up our back office to giving you the opportunity to also have this for yourself. There are 4 key areas we dive into. 

#1 - The enquiry is in..

#2 - Confirming the Booking

#3 - Before clients travel

#4 - Upon return and beyond. 

 

I give you EACH of the individual steps you need to do to ensure you wow your clients every single time they come to you. The guide is easy to read and ready for you to print, so you can keep this next to you, tick off where you are at with a booking, or take it that step further and put it online as part of your processes. 

 

Systems will change your business. They have for mine and I know that with a little help and guidance you can also make things so much easier in your business. 

Don’t delay go and grab it today. 

Show Transcription: 

 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Hey guys welcome back to another episode, Episode 18 of travel agent achievers.

 

More and More I am reminded about how important it is to set up systems in your business. 

 

If I didn’t have systems, I would not have coped with the loss of a recent long term staff member. I would have felt lost. However, we built systems to ensure that I knew what her role was. There was a forward plan, others could step in and it’s actually made me realise that the loss has created a huge opportunity for something very different. 

 

Losing a staff member can be the pits. I get it. I hear it. I hear it from you guys, I have experienced it myself. However, it's the way we look at it and how we move on and move forward to the next stage that is where the cool stuff happens. I will miss my assistant very much. She was like a family. But I can’t stop someone from doing their own thing and neither can you. 

 

So, setting up systems gives you clarity, helps take the foggy away

from what’s next, it helps you BUILD your business.

 

I started this podcast with the hope and dream to help other travel agents build the business of their dreams. 

 

I want this podcast to be a reference, a guide, a chat - just you and me. Planning and working ON your business. We all spend too much time IN the business, day-to-day. I want you to use this time we catch up to work on the business. 

Take away the ideas, use the planning sheets, get the most out of it and take action. 

 

This week I am going to start setting you up for success with a SYSTEM.  It's a very cool step by step system about how to wow your clients every single time they book with you. And you, my friend, are not going to miss a step. 

 

I would have to say in the first 5 years of business, I did pretty much everything manually. 

 

What do I mean by this? You may also relate. I had piles of paper on my desk. I had written files for everyone. I had notebooks after notebooks. BUT,  I knew exactly where everyone was going, when they were going, what time they were going and how they would be travelling.  My CRM (database) didn’t give me the information that I needed - and in complete honesty and transparency it still doesn’t, but that’s what my host agency uses, so I have worked out a way to manage and get the information I NEED and Want in order to grow my business. 

 

You all know, I don’t like tricky things, I like to keep it simple, so that’s what we are going to do. 

 

As my business grew and grew there were times when things got out of control.

 

I remember one particular instance where my sister was visiting me from Germany and just after I had a baby, Jackosn was only a month or so old. 

I had clients who were calling me wanting updates on their travels. Wanting to book new trips. I’m like you, I worked alone and from home. A solopreneur. I got to the point where I just couldn't answer the phone. I didn't want to check my messages. I wanted to hide from the world. It was just all too much. I couldn't keep up everything. 

 

No one told me how hard things would be and how much juggling I would have to do when having a baby. I thought I could do it all. If you are like me, you get it. 

 

It was different from being pregnant. The foggy brain was different.  I know this now as I reflect that I was very hard on myself. But as a people pleaser and I know you can relate to that one, for me, I felt like I was letting everybody down. 

 

I said to my sister at one point, I can't answer the calls I can't even listen to my voicemail messages can you go through it and you listen to it because maybe I won't feel as bad then know what it was that I was thinking about but I just couldn't take that next step.

So, being the awesome sister she is, Hi Bron.  She downloaded all the voicemails for me, she checked all my emails she was able to answer all the phone calls over a couple of weeks. She literally carried my phone. She was like an assistant and a really good friend. She enjoyed the new challenge and had me to dictate replies, I physically didn’t have to do the work and this was what I needed. I needed someone to step in and guide me. It just allowed my brain to breathe. I could sleep and eat. I could focus on my son and the day to day I am keeping another human alive!  

 

She wasn't in travel and but she was able to ask me questions on my own time and get back to people and let them know what was going on. I didn't feel comfortable enough to do that because I felt that I was letting everybody down. I also didn’t want to be on the phone for 30 mins at a time and have to explain what was going on. I felt that I was the only person in my business and I was doing everything wrong.

 

As small business owners, we are not only are wives or mothers or business owners but we can also be the harshest critics ourselves. 

 

As small business owners and when you're working from home you're also looking after your own finances you are taking care of clients and their individual travels you may be managing ticketing timelines, processing payments in addition to marketing and finance and managing you're an accounts social media it might be public relations and this can get so big that you don't even know where to start so I set up a plan. 

 

That plan was put together with a very good friend of mine as we were flying from Australia to the Philippines for the 2nd time in 2 months. We were heading up there to meet with some staff and hiring and training. I also had a large group traveling there as well, so it was a full work trip.  I knew that I having more people on my team that we would need to be streamlining processes and systems and she sat with me and asked me about our travel systems. Each question was … What happens next, ok so then what happens next?  What do you do next? Yes - it was repetitive, but it allowed me to get things out of my head to write down. That was the system that I started with. 

 

It was exactly what I did each and every time a new booking came in It was what I felt was good enough for my clients. How I continued to wow them every single time they came to me.  It was a step-by-step process. 

 

I knew that if I wasn't there or I wasn't involved in one of these processes that somebody would be able to continue without me to a level of satisfaction that I was happy with. I am a perfectionist, I will admit 

that. I don’t like it when things go wrong. I do like to have everything sorted and structured in my business. You don’t want to see my lounge room, trust me. 

 

That resulted in my 67 step process on how to handle a travel booking. Over the last few years, I have amended this.  Added to it, making it more detailed, automated a number of the processes and also put this online so that I can see where every single client of mine is at. I have also trained my team, so they can manage this as well. That last step, taking it online is a more advanced step. But I do think it is more achievable today. 

 

This step by step process a bunch of you have been asking about. So today, I am giving you exclusive access to The travel agent achievers 67 step process in handling a travel booking. I want you to ensure that you wow them every single time. I can’t wait to share this with you. To get your copy, all you need to do is click on the link in the show notes, or go to: travelagentachievers.com/learnwithRos and click on the link to the 67 step process. 

 

If you want to take your business to the next level you want to ensure that you're not going to miss a step then you need this guide 

 

I am giving you a peek inside the guide right now. 

 

There are four key areas that I talk about which ensure that you're not going to miss a step. The guide gives you the exact steps and breaks them down so you know what to do next.  

 

There are 4 key areas that I break it down to:

#1 - The Enquiry

#2 - Confirming the Booking

#3 - Before you go

#4 - Returning from a trip. 

 

Let’s dive into these to give you an overview of what these could look like. 

 

#1 - The Enquiry

Deliver what you promise 

(Deadlines. I can sometimes really suck at this one. If I am not passionate about it, I can get lost. If I get swamped, I can forget. Lists and my step by step checklist are gold. Not only for me to keep me on track, but also my team. Don’t over-promise. But do over-deliver)  

Listen but be a psychic 

(recommendations and suggestions. Listen more than you speak.)We are the experts. That’s why clients come to us. 

 

Honesty is the best policy

(If you don’t know the destination or supplier, don’t fake it, you will look silly. Just say you aren’t sure but will get back to them. If you are unsure, reassure your client that you will find out. Scramble, get messy and do everything you can to find the answers. The clients come to you for your guidance, show them how they can trust you will find out and do the right thing by them.) 

 

Get back to your client quickly, listen and recommend and then be honest with them. 

 

#2 Confirming the booking

• Remain professional, follow timelines but give yourself some wiggle room for deadlines. For instance, we allow a week additional for final balance payments. Sometimes more. JUST in case you can't get the funds or can’t track your client. Don’t make things too tight it stresses you out. We have reminders in our system, calendar entries to ensure we don’t forget anything. 

 

• Building relationships with suppliers. Be nice. 

When you are confirming your booking, talk to your suppliers. We have a two-prong approach most times with bookings. We let global sales offices know about a booking, but also the end hotel or property for instance. This helps us in the future when we need a favour, or introduction. Building these relationships have certainly helped us over the years. 

 

• Set your standard… 24 hour turnaround time? 2 hours? What works for you and your clients? A short-haul flight leaving tomorrow is obviously more important than an insurance quote for a trip next year. Prioritise. It is something we have to juggle on a daily basis. Make sure you are constantly looking at what is coming in and going out. 

 

• Can you simply acknowledge an email and advise your client of realistic turnaround time? Why not? Do it. There is no harm in doing this. You are building a relationship and communicating. We can get caught up in - oh I will get to that and you are thinking about the client, but can also then forget to acknowledge them. Give them the respect that you would also want. 

#3 Before you go

• Double-check everything, and I mean everything. Including checking with hotels direct. You can never be too prepared. Check your flight queues. Ensure you have booked those seats and meals and added Frequent flyer numbers. (My absolute pet hate and one of the reasons I got into travel in the first place)

 

• Send a travel pack with a thank you card. Well done to Allison Macdonald, a travel agent in Australia, who took action and designed thank you cards with a blurb and got them printed. I love action takers and I don’t mind you are using the blurb I also use. 

 

#4 Returning from a trip

• It can feel scary - what will they say. Can you 100% confidently say you nailed every component of the trip to the satisfaction you would want? Ask the question, for the next trip, what could we do better? If this scares you, then start with a thank you and welcome home. 

 

• Make sure you have the client on your database. Don’t lose connection… even following up in a few months doesn't hurt. 

 

The 67 steps are in much more detail. These are the 4 main components I talk about. 

My guide gives you more of a run down and the different ways you can work through the process without missing a step. 

 

In any business, if you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business. Make sure you also are starting to track what business you do have coming in. Even if you start with a basic Excel or google sheet that shows how many sales, who they come from and where the booking is for, so you can assess in 6 months or 12 months time your busy periods or your quiet periods. This is one of the best things I did for my business. 

 

I was able to sit with my assistant last week and go through our 12-month sales calendar. We were able to look at our sales for the last 2 years. See the trends and what was booked when and work out a plan for the next 12 months. It felt so good knowing that we have been tracking this and following our numbers to know what we should focus on and where we need to be careful. 

 

If you don’t have this but WANT to know how to track your sales figures on a monthly basis super easily, I will link to this in the show notes. Download and copy it for yourself. 

You can also go back and listen to Episode 4 where I talk about understanding your numbers. And working out what YOUR number is. I like to keep things simple. 

 

I have a very simple Sales Tracker - if you want this, go to travelagentachievers.com/podcast/018 and you will be able to download it there as well. 

 

Everyone has their own process. If you are looking for a process and a system and possibly a way to not forget things, then make sure you check out the 67 Steps guide. The link will be in the show notes. 

 

Each episode I talk about one thing you can do to increase your business. This episode is about slowing things down a little to get organised. You set the foundations to ensure that you can grow. You will. 

 

So don’t let this one pass you by. Let me know how you go. I love hearing how you take action. 

 

Make sure you check out the simple sales tracker and the 67 step guide. 

 

You just need to follow the steps. It may sound like a lot, but trust me, you will get it once you go through it. 

 

Thanks so much for listening. I appreciate all the feedback and comments more than you realise and I can’t wait to keep sharing this journey with you. 

I look forward to seeing you in the facebook group and chatting on socials. 

Have a great rest of the week everyone, I will talk to you soon.  

 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business.