7 Smart Ways to Get Customers for Travel Agency
How to Get Customers for Travel Agency
1. Create a professional website
If you want to get customers for your travel agency, then you must create a website. It is one of the most impactful things that you can do.
With a website, potential customers can learn about your services at any time, even when you’re sleeping. That’s powerful. You no longer need to rely solely on outbound marketing tactics. You can let customers come to you.
Moreover, you can use a website to streamline customer service processes. For example, instead of manually answering the same questions over and over again, you can post a series of frequently asked questions online. Customers can then read the answers to these questions before utilizing any of your precious time.
By getting some of their questions answered ahead of time, customers will keep their frustrations at bay and remain happy.
2. Offer Unique Travel Packages
The travel industry is lucrative and thus, competitive.¹ It will be very difficult for your travel agency to survive if you can’t think of a way to stand out.
This is why you should offer unique travel packages. Customers are more likely to choose your agency over others if you offer one-of-a-kind experiences.
Try your hardest to offer exclusive perks not readily available to the general public. This can include VIP access to attractions and behind-the-scenes experiences.
You need to partner with the businesses that provide these experiences if you want to offer them to your customers. This means that you need to network with other business owners. Once again, we can see how knowing the right people can pay off in a big way.
3. Leverage Testimonials
Savvy customers do not blindly make purchases without doing some research beforehand. This is especially true for expensive travel packages. People want to make sure that they will get their money’s worth.
Your travel agency can reassure customers that they will have a good experience by providing testimonials from past customers. You can create a section on the website for this. With everyone’s permission, you can also connect past customers with current customers. They can all talk to each other via phone or video chat.
Not all customers are willing to provide a detailed review of their experience. As an incentive, you can tell customers that they can get a discount on their next travel package if they leave a review.
Overall, positive testimonials will elevate the credibility of the travel agency, which will make it easier for the agency to get customers moving forward.
4. Collaborate with Influencers
You should collaborate with influencers if you want customers for your travel agency because influencers are perceived as role models. Their followers pay attention to what they say and do.
A high degree of trust exists between influencers and their audiences. Therefore, it would not be surprising for companies to get customers once influencers recommend the companies’ products to their followers.²
As a travel agency, you should obviously try to collaborate with influencers within the travel niche. Before reaching out, however, you should gauge whether an influencer’s digital marketing strategy aligns with the travel agency’s strategy.
Look at the content that the influencer posts. Does this content complement the travel agency’s brand?
You must also look at engagement metrics to evaluate whether a business partnership would be worthwhile. Besides looking at the number of followers, you must also look at the number of likes and comments an influencer gets per post. This is how you evaluate the reach and reception of an influencer’s content.
If everything looks good, then reach out to the influencer by either emailing them or directly messaging them on the platform(s) that they are on. Hopefully, everyone can reach an agreement on pricing details and publishing frequency.
5. Establish Partnerships
Besides collaborating with influencers, you can also collaborate with established businesses within the travel industry. For example, you can partner with hotels, cruise lines, and car rental agencies.
Business partnerships are mutually rewarding relationships. Each business in the partnership gets more customers by tapping into the customer base of the other businesses. There will be more money to go around when everyone promotes each other and tells each other about valuable resources.
To find business partners for your travel agency, you can go to trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences. You can also go online and identify a few local businesses that you think would be a good fit. Then, reach out to them via email or phone and see if they would be interested in collaborating.
Keep in mind that all of this will take time. However, it will be worth it if you can find a group of people who can help you propel the travel agency forward.
6. Introduce a Referral Program
Implementing a referral program is one more strategy that you can use to get customers for the travel agency. Your current customers would help you get new customers in exchange for discounts and freebies on their next travel package.
A referral program can be an effective marketing strategy because people tend to trust recommendations from folks they know and care about. Also, people like to be friends with individuals with similar interests. This means that if your current customers like your services, then their friends and family will probably like your services too.
To implement a referral program, you must first decide what kind of incentives you want to offer. Three ideas are gift cards, travel accessories, and souvenirs.
Then, you need to decide how are you going to track each referral that comes in.
Will you give credit to a customer if someone simply mentions their name?
Or will you implement a digital system where everyone gets unique QR codes and personalized website links?
Finally, tell everyone about the referral program and watch the magic happen.
7. Provide Exceptional Customer Service
If you want to succeed in the travel agency business, then you need to master your customer service skills. If you do, then everything else will follow.
You will get positive reviews and repeat customers. You will also elevate your reputation in the industry as people talk about your services via word-of-mouth.
What does it mean when a travel agency has exceptional customer service?
Most importantly, it means that the agency is reachable during crises.
There are so many things that can go wrong when people travel. Their flight might get delayed, or they might not be able to find their luggage when the plane lands. They might also not be able to communicate with locals when it matters most because of language barriers.
During these situations, travelers need to be able to reach the travel agency on the phone. Even if the agency does not know how to solve these issues directly, it should at least point to resources and other people that can help. This is what providing exceptional customer service is all about.
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