blogIts surprising to see the lack of adoption of web 2.0 initiatives by the travel industry, especially considering it is one of the top 3 market segments on the Internet. For independent travel agents, competitive advantage is directly tied to depth of expertise and the exceptional level of service they provide compared to larger competitors. Those who are smart enough to adopt social networking early, and use it correctly will find it strengthens their position even further.
What do people want when choosing an independent travel agent, rather setting up a trip with a large agency or going the self help route?
A tool I have in mind that will help the travel agent meet these needs is Ning, a social networking platform. Having used Ning to coordinate my company’s 180 person Caribbean cruise promotion, it has potential to drastically improve the travel agent – client interaction.
Personalization: People like to feel they’ve gotten special treatment. Make the network private, which will add an air of exclusivity. Along these same lines, you can set up separate groups within Ning, meaning you could have one group for the Johnson family vacation, and another for the 150 person corporate trip. Personalize the experience even more by posting a weekly blog for each mini-group that gives tantalizing glimpses of what they can expect on the vacation. As Louis Black says, “theres nothing better than living in the moment of anticipation.” Your job is to heighten this sensation.
Immediate Access: So you’ve given them your phone number , “call me whenever you have question.” Great, but people are not paying money to chit chat with you, rather they’re calling because you are a knowledge base. Share your knowledge and save yourself time to focus on more important tasks, add the commonly asked questions, and answers to the social network forum. Even better you can set the forum to send you email notifications of client comments, and reply near instantaneously using your blackberry.
Anal Attention To Detail: Ning lets its users set up individual profiles. On sign-up you can have them answer questions which would prove useful to you in setting up their trip. For example, you could ask their age, or if they smoke, etc. More importantly your clients can add unique content to their own profiles, which you should definitely read. So Mrs. Johnson added a picture of her beloved cat, Fluffy. Use this information to recommend a cat sitter while she goes on her week long cruise. Mrs. J will sure appreciate your attention to detail, giving you good word of mouth. As an aside, it’d be a nice little source of income if you and the cat sitter worked out a referral program.
Social networking using the Ning platform can definitely be a source of competitive advantage for the independent travel agent. Though I’ll stress that the tool is only as good as the person moderating it. Provide regular blog updates for mini-groups, search out You-Tube videos of the places they’ll be visiting and post these, respond promptly to comments,above all encourage user participation and the community you have created will flourish.
