Archive for September, 2009
The First to Touch
September 24th, 2009 | 
Author: Who are the first and last individuals to touch you in a travel agency? Somewhere in between, they’re going overboard to provide stellar service—and yet it is the first and last impressions we have of their office that will have a huge impact on whether you get their return business. These things are important for us to know so that we can judge their agency if they can provide and serve us better.
Very often, the receptionist at a travel agency or the front-desk manager at a hotel are the lowest-paid, newest employees in the company As newbies, they might not “get” the high level of service that’s expected of them, and that’s a poor reflection on you. The way they greet a client on the phone may sound as if they’re bored to death, or worse yet, they may answer it the way they do at home, with a curt, “Hello,” or “Yeah?” If they’re greeting a person who has just walked in your front door, they might not look up right away, preferring instead to finish what they’re doing at their desk. If they are on the phone, they might not realize they’re supposed to smile at the person in front of them and indicate that they’ll be with them immediately
I asked a general manager about this very issue one day; I was bent out of shape because at the past two hotels I’d visited, the front-desk attendants have kept their eyes on their computers as I approached them and finally uttered the word, “Yes?” without looking up. I was confused. I was standing in front of them with luggage and had clearly flown here on a plane to visit this hotel. That was a lot of effort from my end—couldn’t they at least say “Hello!’ and welcome me properly? The GM told me that this was not unusual, as the front desk at a hotel often has the highest turnover, since there isn’t necessarily a career track
in place for that position. For that reason, those in the spot don’t always buy into the whole service concept. If your frontline person doesn’t realize that they should emote sheer joy (in a professional manner, of course) when a client walks through the door or calls your office, you may be losing business.
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