The consultant at Seaside Travel in Peterlee, County Durham, gave fantastic advice to Mystery Shopper this week, who was looking for a break to Tuscany with some culture and wanted to include car hire. She was able to advise on driving in Tuscany, gave recommendations of specific places to visit, knew about some festivals and was able to help Mystery Shopper visualise the holiday. Mystery Shopper wrote in their report: "When describing Italy she sounded both knowledgeable and enthusiastic."
But Seaside Travel only came third, with points lost because, for example, Mystery Shopper was not given a definite quote and was left standing while the agent sat at the customer's side of her colleague's desk.
With such strong knowledge from the consultant, was Mystery Shopper right to give the score they did and although reward the knowledge, not let this override some of the negatives of the consultation? This ultimately gave Seaside Travel a lower score than an agency where the consultant initially thought Tuscany was a city.
Im sitting reading the Travel Weekly baffled myself as to why we (Seaside Travel) recieved such a low score.
A) When the lady walked in she went to one of our consultants desks. I was actually stood in the doorway. On hearing it was Italy I immeadiatly joined in, as I have visited Tuscany lots of time. This is why I was on the client side. I sat down. There was a chair next to me and we chatted for about 15 mins so she could of easily sat next to me. I was always taught that sitting on the same side as the customer puts them at ease.
B) I pressed the lady several times for dates but she wouldnt give me any! (with 3 other witnesses!) I told her that it also depends on the star of Hotel she would like. I said I could put a package together myself and that it is usually cheaper than using a Tour operator. But without dates I didnt want to mislead her. I told her my car hire cost approx £140 for the week and for instance a week in Sep would be about £700 each but she would really have to give me specific dates (she still didnt give me any!!)
C) I didnt take her contact details but she left with a Citalia brochure that I scribbled in and had folded over the pages with recommendations of resorts, food, festivals etc, and also my business card with my personal details on to ring me as soon as she had dates and had read about the resorts I had recommended. Its very unfair that she did not put this in the report.
D) The window of the shop is obviously down to personal choice, however we are nothing if not colourful. We stand out. Its as simple as that.
I cant understand how we can recieve such a low score in comparison to other agencies who didnt even know where Tuscany was! Surely being a Travel Agent is about knowledge and not just about handing random quotes out?
Hi there Nicola, thanks for your comments. One of the reasons we set up this blog was because we wanted agents to have a forum to discuss Mystery Shopper.
In this case, I thought it was particularly worthwhile to write about the consultation at Seaside Travel, as I thought readers would question the result.
Mystery Shopper is a snapshot of one person's experience at an agency and although we use professional Mystery Shoppers, they will always have their own opinions or interpret the consultation their own way - however that doesn't mean people will always agree!
It is called Mystery Shopper not Mystery Mastermind; knowledge is an essential part of the sales process but not the only part.
Selling is a difficult and subjective profession. Unless you treat it as a profession and learn how to do it you are basically just having a nice gossip about your hols with someone who will then go online / next door. When they get there, their opening line will be "A friend was telling me ..." as they recount all of your valuable information.
Wake up and smell the espresso ...