Experts have been saying for a long time that paid consultations in agencies are the future. At the same time, as it turns out, some retail representatives are already actively using the deposit system when working with clients. About why paid consultations are not worth it be afraid, the TRN portal was told by the Aloha agency network, whose offices are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
According to the network's CEO Vadim Pererva, the company introduced the practice of providing consultations on a deposit basis in early July: during a personal visit to the office or a phone call, the company's clients are informed that in order to receive a consultation, they must sign a separate agreement and make a deposit. The deposit is 1,500. In the case of a purchase within a month, it is included in the cost of the tour.
As the TRN interlocutor explained, with the introduction of the practice of working on a deposit basis, managers devote all their attention to tourists who definitely want to go on vacation. As a result, the flow of clients becomes more targeted, and the quality of work with them improves.
If we talk about specific data, then since July 1, the company has processed more than 1,000 deposits, 10% of which were never realized as part of the tour sale. "But here we must understand that deposits are not processed for every request in the office. Exceptions are tours purchased and paid for on our website, and tours selected on the website, but processed by clients in the office. This also includes, of course, those tourists who were not offered a deposit for one reason or another. This was relevant at the initial stage of implementation, when managers were just beginning to adapt to the new work scheme," said the head of the Aloha network.
It is also worth noting that with the introduction of deposits, the company's conversion has increased - plus 3%. "This is a very important indicator. It greatly affects the efficiency of any travel agency's business, and its increase even by 1% leads to a significant increase in sales. And if this is not done by reducing the price, then it also leads to an increase in profits," explained Vadim Pererva, adding that in August the network noted a total increase in sales by 6% compared to July.
The innovation also had a positive effect on the loyalty of tourists themselves: since July, clients' willingness to recommend the chain has increased by 87%. At the same time, the share of applications for which clients refused to continue working with the company due to the introduction of the deposit system was only 5.5%.
"In general, personally, 70–80% of those who applied do not buy from us — that is, the conversion is 20–30%. And these 5.5% were included in those 70–80% that were already there. They did not buy for other reasons, now they did not buy because of the deposit. But it is very important that the conversion has increased overall!", emphasizes Vadim Pererva.
However, it is obvious that the chain's management did not manage to decide on such a step right away. According to the head of the Aloha chain, there were many concerns.
"Firstly, it is the fear of losing clients. But our experience has shown that we only ended up in the black, paying attention to real clients and filtering out those who "were actually going to the theater and stopped in on the way just to find out, while there was nothing else to do." There were also concerns about the unpreparedness of the market as a whole. However, in practice, under certain conditions, tourists are ready to pay for consultations. But, of course, when other agencies see the point in this and are ready to take a step in this direction, it will become easier for all participants. At the same time, we understand that while the market operates according to the old scheme, some tourists will still leave, but in percentage terms their share is not critical," Vadim Pererva is confident.
In conclusion, the TRN interlocutor noted that in order to successfully implement deposits, the company did serious work with its employees: three round tables and three competitions for managers were held.
“At first, we looked at everything that was happening, thinking that everything would fly by itself. Well, the first successes added confidence to us, inspired us. It didn’t fly. The number of refusals began to grow. We continued to believe in the idea and divided the employees of the St. Petersburg sales department into 2 groups and with each one separately we once again talked through everything and played out all possible situations, fears, objections that the manager might encounter. Here it was important to play it all out, so that the manager would already have lived through it all and dealt with it, having acquired the skill and inner confidence. Then we carried out separate work with the offices in Moscow and Kaliningrad. Well, and quite recently we held another one - a consolidating round table. We also tried to help our team overcome this fear in a playful way. First, we held an individual competition for the largest number of deposits made during the period, rewarding the distinguished ones with prizes. This involved part of the team. Then we asked everyone to split into pairs, necessarily with a colleague from a different office. And the competition continued in pairs, involving more and more participants. Then we divided all employees into threes and continued the competition under new conditions. As a result, the growth in the number of deposits in August compared to July increased by 2 times. Then we realized that this is real and the system works! ", concluded Vadim Pererva.
Source: trn-news.ru