Travel Counsellors is a company comprised of 900 travel counsellors in 7 countries with 20 years of experience.  They have experienced rapid growth in a very interesting marketplace; counsellors providing travel guidance out of their home offices.  Most of the motivation in being a travel counsellor is a) being well paid, but more importantly, b) getting recognition for helping and giving their customers successful, enjoyable trips.

Malcolm Hingley, Sales Director at the company, stated that "our success is our relationship with our customers, and that's what sets us apart from the rest."

The travel business has changed dramatically.  There are two components to it -- a relationship aspect as well as a transactional aspect.  Many travel businesses have traditionally focused on the transactional nature of travel, but it is a critical differentiator to also focus on the relationship (partnership) aspect as well.

It seems the travel industry in general has not established itself as a shining example of customer loyalty.  One statistic Malcolm reported was that 2 out of 3 customers would not return to their travel agency.  The reason, he said, is that many customers felt that these travel agencies were primarily out "take my money."  There was no interaction, they were only interested in the next customer.  He said other agencies' customers felt that there was no caring and that this was a very short term perspective.

Amidst this backdrop, Travel Counsellors was interested in engineering the experience quite differently.  Malcolm discussed the 12 golden habits.  Some of their findings were these gold habits had nothing to do with the sale, but about the unexpected moments that motivate customers to refer.

Of the 12 golden habits; it is really interesting that none of these are sales oriented.  As Malcolm put it, it was all about making the customer feel special.  Some of these include:

1. Give the customers great reason to talk about you
2. Have an emotional connection in everything we do; it is not enough to know about the transaction but to truly understand our customers' lives.
3. OK sales people have customers, great sales people have friends.

I really liked this list, and especially its non-sales approach.  It focuses on the right thing -- the customer -- and not the transaction or sales event.  As well, it must make Travel Counsellors feel good that they are working toward this greater goal.

One of the things that Travel Counsellors also validated in the UK, was that NPS that was more relationship-oriented tended to produce higher scores, while convenience-based bookings through the Internet have the lowest recommendation rates.  These seemed to substantiate their 12 golden habits.  Travel Counsellors had on average a score of 82% while their competitors had much lower scores.

Travel Counsellor also introduced TCS (Travel Counsellor Score). They wanted to also validate the external study internally. They asked how likely is it that you would recommend your travel counsellor?  Notice that they altered the wording to be person specific, not about the company.  This was critical, because it was in fact that very personal relationship with the counsellor that they felt made the difference.

On this method they scored  94% on over 30,000 customers. To explain, Malcolm said that part of this score is based on their belief that there are no limits for what you could do for your customers.  He gave the example of one woman who owned a horse, and that she would personally ride out to each of her customers to deliver their tickets personally.

So what were some of the key messages from this presentation?  I'll summarize Malcolm's list:

• Don't transact, relate.
• Keep investing in the relationship.
• Communication is key to keeping your customers engaged.
• Make it personal. (This is a large part of the company's plan going forward.  One of the things that Travel Counsellors is doing is rebranding their marketing material around the name of the counsellor, so it is now person-specific.)
• Don't oversell.
• The power of 'thank you' is huge.

Toward the end of his presentation, Malcolm showed some great short videos in which customers gave feedback about their positive experiences with their counsellor. These customers were extremely real and enthusiastic in their praise. One thing (albeit many) that I took away from this presentation was the "make it personal" message. Travel Counsellors realized that their brand was really represented by their ambassadors; their counsellors. They were very savvy in recognizing that it was the individual personal relationships that mattered, even in terms of how they asked the recommend question. Thanks for an eye-opening presentation, Malcolm.

Click here to download the presentation.