After the cancellations and rebookings have stopped for a bit, you might be left wondering how you should best reach out and communicate with your clients, during a time when booking travel for right now is on hold. How do you talk to them when so much is going on in the world?
We reached out to travel advisors via our social media channels and asked: “How are you communicating with clients during this time?” What we learned was, that many of you are heading to social media such as Facebook to inspire clients for future travel via your own experiences, while others went the old fashioned route, sending personalized notes via snail mail, and some phone calls.
- Social Media- Carrie Mas McNulty with Escape with Carrie says she’s sharing things on her social media stories such as “Inspiration, personal travel photos, future travel ideas, and more.” Danna Kimpel of Always Travel with Danna adds that she is also “posting daily on social media.”
- Create a Challenge- Social Media isn’t just about posting and sharing information. You can make it interactive and get your viewers involved. Travel advisor Noel Reitz says she created a Facebook challenge and asked her followers “to show me pictures of places they had NOT been to and was on their bucket list.” She adds that she then told them to contact her when it’s time to travel. She also made comments on each of their dream vacation requests. This is a perfect way to give you ideas of where your clients are dreaming of traveling to now. And will give you a lead for when things subside and you can contact them to start planning their next vacation.
- Keep it Simple- Jeniece Drake of NuWave Travel is keeping things simple by communicating with her clients via “phone, e-mail, and video conferencing.” Others, like Katherine Ba Suen of Fun in Paradise Travel, is combining posting on her Facebook page and also “keeping an ongoing dialogue via e-mail and texts with cancelled or soon to be cancelled clients.” She added that she also plans to “send an e-mail blast to tell them I am here if they have any questions.” Kimpel says she is also making calls to those who travel yearly with her.
Keeping in touch with clients by texting timely updates is crucial now. Texting- Kimpel adds that she is sending texts with updates as she gets them to those clients who are scheduled to travel in June and July. Keeping your clients informed now as things change on a daily basis should be top of mind. Texting might be the easiest way to reach them when many of your clients might be swamped now as they figure out how to work from home and maybe also help children with virtual school.
- Thank Them- Kimpel is using this time to remind past clients of her services. She says “I just sent out over 100 thank you notes to those who have recently traveled.”
Don’t miss, “4 Ways for Using Facebook for Business.” While you’re busy communicating with your clients,“Don’t Forget to Take a little #MeTime too. And, for inspiration on what other advisors are using this slower time, don’t miss “11 Tips from Travel Advisors During this ‘Down Time.’”
