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Why Your Next Booking Might Already Be Sitting Inside Your Database

Ros: Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. Ros here and today I am going to share a little bit about repeat and referral clients. Now, the reason why I wanted to come to you with this episode today is because

Last week, was speaking or recently I was speaking in Las Vegas at the Travel Agent Forum event and I delivered a session on repeat and referral clients and strategies and the statistics around it and how important they are for a travel business to have and to stop creating like the hustle culture of always having to

find new clients. So I delivered the talk on that and there was a number of things that really stood out for me. So I wanted to share these with you. The reaction, the conversations that happened, know, why did advisors keep asking me questions? You know, there were a whole lot of things that actually came up during the session and I wanted to share it with you right now.

All right, so let me just jump straight into it. There are a number of things that came up and some of the questions. So here was the first question that I got. Why do you think, Ros, so many travel advisors are scared to follow up with clients? Now, this question came up at the end of my talk. And so what I did was I jumped off stage and

I got amongst the crowd. took the microphone down there and I asked the advisors to jump up, share their name, where they're from, so that we could actually diagnose these myths or these questions together. So the question was, why do you think, you know, or that so many travel advisors are scared to follow up with clients? And I really feel as though there are a number of reasons. One question that came from this was that an advisor asked how many times is it OK to follow up with a client from a legal perspective? Now, I'm not an expert in the legal system in the US or in Australia or anywhere in the world. As a matter of fact, I'm not a lawyer. But it really surprised me. This question came up.

because there is this sense of fear and repeat and referral clients are so important in a travel business because of so many factors. But I really feel advisors are scared to follow up because of their own fears. know, their fear of bothering someone else, their fear of rejection, fear that the clients that they booked when they returned from a trip that they may have hated it. You know, the fear of being annoying like a telemarketer that we often overthink the silence. If a client doesn't call us straight away when they get back from a trip, there's this fear that they've done something wrong. We make it personal. know, that advises the ones that I spoke to and I know that I've gone through this myself that we make it about us.

And the experience isn't about us. It was about the clients. So when I thought about this question and the advisor that asked it, was, they were very serious. You know, from a legal perspective, how often can we follow up? I thought about it and I thought, is there a way or, know, to, is...

Is it possible that we get sued because we're following up with someone? And then I put myself in the shoes of a client. And how do I feel when a service provider follows up with me?

In my experience, I'm actually really grateful if a service provider calls me and I'm busy or calls me and I'm in the middle of something else. And I will I will actually say now is not a good time. Is it OK to call me back at so-and-so time? Whether I am interested or not, I genuinely want to hear what's actually going on if this is of interest to me in a roundabout way. But for me, that time is not a good time. I know that they need something or they want something from me or, you know, they're curious because I've expressed interest in something. And so when a service provider follows up with me. I'm grateful for that reminder. Now, if they do call me back and at that time I'm still not available, I will ask for them to call me again or they may call and I don't answer the phone.

It's in that follow up when we do get the opportunity to connect that I am incredibly grateful. And I know for my clients in my travel business, I don't make it about me because we get hundreds of emails. And this was a question that I asked. said, who gets 100 emails a day and the amount of hands that went up in the room. It was very normal to potentially miss something. And so to be reminded.

of a follow up balance or checking in or you've sent out a proposal and you want to follow up with the client. For me, I feel that people are usually quite grateful for the reminders and we often create stories in our heads that aren't true. Sometimes clients are just busy living their lives exactly like you are. And so how often or, you know, why are advisors scared to follow up with their clients? I honestly think that it comes back to who we are and our own level of confidence or our own level of fear. There's this imposter syndrome that sits on our shoulders or there is the the person that's there saying, no, the proposal wasn't good enough and so you shouldn't follow up with them.

Who cares? If you don't know, you don't know. And you cannot assume that you know until you actually know the facts. And so what I would love is when you are talking about getting repeat and referral clients, building that muscle for yourself to say, I'm not doing anything, you know, that's bad. You're doing something to actually

Check in with your clients. You are building that relationship. Put yourself in the position of the client and what they may be going through, not necessarily what you're going through. So that was my first question that I really just felt. clients are busy, you're busy. Everybody's living their lives and we often need the reminder. So make the phone call, send the email. I have an email series as part of our booking process and what I call my 67 steps to processing a booking. That is, if you haven't heard from them after a few days, check in, either send them a text message, give them a quick phone call, send a follow up email, whatever it might be as part of your process and how you connect with your clients. Do it and do it until you get a no or do it until they've booked something else, because if you leave it too long.

That is where you will lose that booking. You will leave it because they think that you've forgotten, you don't care, whatever it might be, you've moved on. And so because they didn't hear from you or they just didn't get the email because it fell into their spam box, then you'll lose that sale. And I have experienced that myself in my travel business where I sent a couple of follow ups to the client and then I heard that they were going on the trip.

And so I picked up the phone and I just went, hey, I just wanted to double check. Did you receive my emails? And they're like, no, I'm so sorry, Ros. I did not. And then they went into their spam or their junk folder and they found them and like, my gosh. But I put that back on myself because I could have very easily picked up the phone after two days or three days and say, hey, just checking you receive the email. That is not being intrusive. That is being proactive in my opinion but it is how you are also building those relationships. You are building that trust. And that's the next thing that I really felt came up during my talk and after my talk as well, is that repeat and referral clients are built on trust. Right, they're built on trust. So the other question that I received on the next question was what actually creates loyalty and repeat business in my experience? So for me, loyalty, repeat business, what creates that is that I become an extension of my client's team. My clients feel safe when they're working with me. There is an emotional level of trust. I listen really well. I have discretion and confidentiality, and I'll say to my clients that I am their vault.

They can talk to me, they can share their fears, they can tell me what's going on in their lives and that will not get repeated. There is also a level of care beyond the booking itself. And so when I think about my repeat and referral clients that I have in my business and how I've actually continued to build that relationship with them, from a corporate client perspective, I will actually talk to my client about I'm not their travel agent. I'm not their travel advisor. I am an extension of their team. And so when you put yourself in the position of being an extension of somebody's team or an extension of somebody's family or an extension of something within that client's world, you are integrated into it. And so for my corporate clients, they know that when anything comes to travel, when it comes to a group experience, when it comes to a corporate event, that I am the extension of the team that they pick up and call. So that is just a different mindset, a different way of thinking about building that relationship from a repeat and referral client basis from a corporate perspective. Now, when it comes to families that book with me and I think about many of them and the repeat clients or the ones that refer me a lot, it does... in essence come down to the relationships and what we've built over time together. for me, from a corporate perspective, I'm an extension of somebody's team. From a family relationship perspective, I get to know different parts of the family. I'm so excited when I get to speak to a client and there is a grandchild that's just been born or I know if...

There's been an illness in the family or something tragic has happened or you know there's been a relationship breakdown or something that's going on and so for me I'm not involved in a personal way but I understand what's going on and I can navigate different situations by reading the client, by listening, being there for them and then in the travel perspective I can then understand dynamics.

Do they need single beds? Do they need twin rooms? Do they need interconnecting? Is it a multi-generational thing that's going on that the adults need to be in the adults only wing so they can be separate from the families or the different kids or whatever it might be that's going on? Those family relationships, if you understand the dynamics, if you understand and you listen to what those clients need, they will continue to come back to you. So whether they...client's relationships, getting to know them. One thing that I'm very grateful for, and I spoke about it before, was being the vault. And clients in a travel business, they trust you with their personal information. They trust you to understand that you know the dynamics that go on behind the scenes. And so when I use the words to my clients saying that they can trust me, A, to get them out of a situation, be that I'm their vault and that their personal information or what's going on in their personal worlds does not get repeated, but it can help me navigate different situations. Navigate different situations with suppliers or hotels or change things around at the last minute if I need to because of something that's going on in their world. That really matters and it makes a difference. So for me, that emotional intelligence... absolutely matters as a travel professional. It matters because you care. It matters because there is trust involved. And for me, building those relationships and loyalty, it's because of how you make them feel. It's how that relationship built on trust and loyalty, you've got their back, you can catch them when they fall.

Being a travel advisor is more than a travel booker. It's deeper than that. It is the relationships. And that's where your repeat referrals come from. When you are building those relationships, you are not just booking once and then letting it go. You are consistently there. You are present. You're not present in a pushy way, but you're present in being an available way. So next question. So this is question three.

What makes someone, so the question was what makes a client actually refer their friends or their family to an advisor? Now this was really interesting because there are so many different referral strategies that you can put into place in your travel business and I put together a resource which I will link to in the show notes around creating repeat and referral clients. Give you strategies. I give you the different ideas. I give you email templates. I give you the whole thing because I love a full step by step and I love to be able to keep it simple and help you get the results. But the question was what actually makes someone refer their friends?

that there's a whole lot of things here. There's trust, there's reputation, there's emotional connection like I was talking about before. There's the fact that they feel looked after. There's a level of care there. And I know situations for me where, you know, during the pandemic, just as an example, I had a conversation with my clients before they even left to go skiing in Japan and I said,

Roslyn Ranse (16:03.576)
Things are getting a bit crazy right now. I know that you want to travel. I will help make that happen. But if I give you a call and I say get to an airport, I want you to get to the airport. Are we cool? Right. And my client said to me, absolutely, we trust you, Roz. We know that you know what's going on and you will be able to hear things on the ground.

before the media takes hold of it or anything else that's going on. And so I was able to make a call at five o'clock in the morning to clients when they're in Japan. And I said, I need you to get to Tokyo tonight. I will have you on a flight. That's all I need to know right now. It looks like the borders are closing. Are you okay to do that? And they went 100%. We know that you've got our backs. We'll get the next bullet train to Tokyo and we'll be in touch. Now, when they, I gave them a few hours.

I kept in contact with them, found out where they were along the way. When they got to Tokyo, I had their business class flights to then get them home. Right? So that is where there was the emotional connection that they trusted me. They felt looked after and they knew that I would have their back. And I've worked in situations where as a travel professional and a travel advisor, there are times that we never want to experience it. I have had clients

where there has been a terrorist attack. They were supposed to be where the bomb went off and thank goodness they were in their hotel room at the time. I cannot imagine the devastation of what went on, but I know that I was able to connect with my clients and help them get out of the country and meet them in Singapore and be there for them and give them the help and support that they needed. That was going above and beyond.

But for me, it's that level of care. It's the extension of the team. It is treating my clients like they are close friends and family that I would be there to support them for. And I've also got clients that will call me and say, hey, Ross, you know, I know that I fly out tomorrow, but I can't remember my flight time. And I will be able to support them on that and say, hey, I have sent it to you on email. That's your boundaries. But at the same time, you know, let me just check it out.

Roslyn Ranse (18:19.19)
and then I can do that on the spot. Now that creates an emotional connection. Clients know that they that I am there for them. I do put boundaries in place. I do make sure that the clients have the information that they need and I can be there to support them. But I will also catch them if they need it as well. Now, when it comes to confidence in recommending me as well for these experiences, what I like to

share is that not every client is going to feel comfortable to recommend you. They don't know how to and we need to make it easy for them. But there may also be that they want to keep you to themselves. It's like they're part of a secret club and so they don't want to necessarily tell all their friends and family. But on the other side of that, there are clients

that will also self-select their peers, their friends, their family that they know will be great clients for you as well. So the confidence in recommending you also goes down to how much you're able to communicate with them, who your ideal audience is, and your clients will become advocates to then refer you as well. So over time,

It's the trust that is built up. is the reputation that is built up. It is that emotional connection that you are building with your existing clients now so that they do feel looked after and you give them the confidence to recommend you as well to other people. That comes over time. Consistency in getting those repeat and referral clients as well also happens over time. Now, referrals do

happen naturally when clients will also genuinely trust you because it is their reputation on the line as well when they recommend you to somebody else. It's a transference of trust. is a transference of reputation. It is that you are being led into their world. And so that can happen quite naturally when they know that they can trust you, but also that they know how to do it as well.

Roslyn Ranse (20:43.33)
So we need to give them the tools and a very simple tool for that is to add something onto your email signature, something as simple as your referral is the greatest compliment. Very simple. I had that on my emails for many, many years and it works. It's very subtle, but it is something that you are just reminding your clients that it's OK to refer you. So.

The next question that I received was around travel advisers, the travel advisers feeling too much pressure to constantly market themselves. my talk was all around getting the repeat and referral clients and the trust that you have in your business to grow it in a way that is sustainable for you with the right type of clients. And when I think about marketing,

And I mean, my whole background and from a business perspective was in marketing. I was the director of international education to promote Australia as a destination for a number of universities and colleges. And for me, was marketing was my thing. But marketing for me also comes down to relationships as well and building relationships. And I am not somebody who has ever liked or

prefers cold calling. I am not the extrovert that goes out and likes to talk to a whole lot of people. I get quite nervous. And if you see me at an event, please come up to me and say hi. I genuinely like the conversations. I like to get to know people. Is there too much pressure right now? Or has there been too much pressure for travel professionals to constantly market themselves? I do think that there is social media pressure.

I think that there is also pressure to be on video. I think that there is pressure to be visible and that we need to do more. But the thing is that we're often comparing the front end of somebody else's business that you see online to the back end of what's happening behind the scenes in your own business. And this comparison-itis or the fear that you're not doing enough.

Roslyn Ranse (23:02.99)
in that hustle culture and you've constantly got to be marketing, chasing every trend, you feel behind, you, you know, I just, I've gone through those cycles and the reality is not every business needs to look the same. I was having a conversation with an advisor who said to me that they have 50 clients that they look after.

50. They love their clients. They love to look after them. There is an emotional connection there. There is that trust there. They are an extension of the team. All the things that I was talking about before. And that business to me sounded beautiful.

There is also the other side. So for me in my travel business, there are groups that I run for 300 people, 450 people. Can I get to every single one of those? Not necessarily. Do I know each and every one of those clients? I used to. I don't now. And it's really surprising. But at the same time, there are key people within those experiences and in those groups that I know very, very well.

And the repeat and referral clients come from that. But I can also build it up if I need to or I want to with getting to know 200 people, 300 people in my business. I am very comfortable and confident with the numbers that I have in my business because it's exactly what I need. But I look at it and I also say it's growing the team. When you get to certain numbers and when you get to certain cycles in your business.

there are decisions that need to be made whether you are going to grow and have people join your team so that they are, you know, doing managing the administration behind the scenes. You might remain the face. And that's one thing that I talk about as well as being the face of your business and then also having the support because that's what I have in my business. But I look at it and think, well, everybody has their own business. Not every business needs to look the same. And for you, it might be that

Roslyn Ranse (25:15.382)
You have 50 clients that you love to take care of, or it could be that you have a thousand clients that you love and want to take care of. Do you need to be, you know, with a social media following of 10,000 or 100,000 people? In my opinion, to build a sustainable travel business? No, I don't think so. It's deciding on what your number is and it's then taking care of those clients in a way that works for you.

and also helps you build that sustainable business. Right. So not every business needs to look the same. And when I think about the hustle culture of marketing all the time and all that pressure that we need to do more, we need to be on every trend, we need to be doing all the reels, we need to be on YouTube. I don't think that it is necessary, but I do believe that you need to choose.

the platforms where your clients are and show up there. Because if you have your ideal client and you have the clients that you really want to take care of are on Facebook, then you need to be on Facebook. If your clients are on YouTube, then you need to be on YouTube. It's about getting the right clients for your business to make it the sustainable business you want to get those repeat and referral clients where are you going to show up? So that was the answer to that one.

The next question that I received was how do you, Roz, balance visibility with deeper client relationships? Well, I think I've kind of answered this already. think that, yes, social media still matters. Being present still matters. Being visible still matters. But it depends on where your ideal clients are. I think that as advisors, we need to showcase our expertise.

But I personally believe that relationships matter more. And visibility and having that presence without the connection will not sustain a business because you could be great on visibility and you could be great on getting out there on all the social media channels and communicating the message and promoting all the trips. But when you look at sustainable businesses over a longer period of time,

Roslyn Ranse (27:41.154)
having to do all of those things all the time and consistently get new clients and new clients, that can become exhausting. So building the deeper relationship and building the connection with the clients, in my opinion, is definitely a more sustainable way to build your business there. So that's what I think. Pick up the phone, have the conversation with the clients. When I am traveling, I like to be able to get to know my clients a little bit better by organizing a dinner or

breakfast or catching up with them. It is about that human connection and repeat and referral clients come down to that element of human trust and human connection. So why aren't we doing that? I know that if clients, if there's an illness or something happens, I can send flowers, right? Check in. Remember those milestones. You know, you don't you don't need millions of followers in order to build a sustainable business. And the sustainable business, my friends.

comes down to what you want. Why did you start your business in the first place? What is it that you want out of it? And what is the experience that you want for your clients as well? So there are different stages, different stages for everybody. And I think that depending on the size of your business and what stage of your business it is, then there are repeat and referral strategies for each and every one of that, which was another question that I received. At what stage do you set up a repeat and referral strategy?

And there are different stages for every business. And as a travel business owner, if you're new to the industry and you are new to building your business, then you need visibility. And I was talking to a brand new advisor just recently, and there was a certain level of impatience that nobody was booking. And it was...

over a period of time that I just had to say, keep showing up, keep being you, keep being available, keep showcasing your expertise because if you don't, people won't know who you are. And there is only a certain level of clients that you might be able to get within your immediate circle. And I know when I first started out, I was booking friends and family and it was small trips through to, know, trips to Europe.

Roslyn Ranse (30:09.696)
But we all start somewhere and it's talking to people, it's being visible, it's about saying, hey, I am here and this is what I do and being consistent with it. So I do believe you need to have visibility and you do need to promote yourself. You need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And then as your business grows, there is a different stage that getting a repeat client.

So a client who has done one trip with you and then comes back to book another, that is something to celebrate, my friends, because it means that you have crossed the bridge from being an unknown to a trustworthy source. And in that stage of levels of trust and that trust ladder that we can build throughout time with your clients, starting from a complete

you know, new client through to somebody who is advocating for you all the time. There are certain levels of trust that's built. And as a solopreneur, that is also a different strategy through to having a very large business as well and getting the repeat and referral clients. So at every stage there are different levels. You will also have different capacity levels. I know of advisors who are amazing at picking up the phone and talking to their clients.

all the time. They're amazing at it. And I look at them and I talk to them and they'll call me and just check in with me. Hey, Rose, just want to see how you're going. You know, what's going on this week? Building that relationship. And I love that, that they have taken the initiative to call and to check in or send the email or whatever it might be. Now, thinking about how they do that for their clients as well. Those relationships are so strong.

They are the first person that they think about when going on a trip. But your capacity level may not be that you can pick up the phone every single day and call 20 people, right? That could be the reality of it if your business is that you've got 500 or 1000 clients that have come through your door or that you've booked over a period of time. So when your capacity is that maybe you can make

Roslyn Ranse (32:24.686)
one phone call a day to check in with a client or follow up with them from a trip that they've experienced recently. Or you can send that email or thank you note or ask for a referral. Set your pace because you want it to be sustainable over a period of time. You want it to be something that just becomes habit for you, not something that is a grudge or you feel like you've just got to do all the time. So.

There is no one size fits all approach to then getting, you know, repeat and referral strategies at different stages of your business. There is no one answer. It comes down to who you are, your capacity levels, the size of your business, at what stage of your business you're at. And so I really encourage you to look at the trust ladder and where you're at in your business.

and I have a resource on that, which I will make sure, as I said, I'll link to it in the show notes so that you've got that and you can come back to it. You can do the worksheets and all the things that are there. Okay, so when it comes to repeat and referral clients, do I think that there needs to be a shift that travel advisors need to make? I honestly believe that everybody is running their own journey.

I encourage everybody to look at their current existing database. And when I say database, that is clients that have inquired with you, booked with you previously, that have, you know, gone on an experience with a friend. Have a look at your existing database and where your clients are currently sitting at the moment. Nurture those existing relationships that you have. Get to know your clients.

Learn something new about them. I am constantly learning. I am asking questions and a word that keeps coming up for me over the last few months when talking to advisors is be curious, get curious, listen to what your clients are telling you that they love, that they want to do, that they're looking forward to experience. Just be curious.

Roslyn Ranse (34:36.812)
because we're all humans at the end of the day, right? We all need to be human in our business because travel is something that is so personal. Now, inside your database, there are already clients who will consistently come back to you. And if you're able to pick two, three, five, ten and connect with them and touch base, then that long term loyalty will build. It's about focusing on trust. It's about

building those relationships is what I think because they compound over time. And that's where you are becoming that extension of the team, that natural phone call, the natural email, the natural referral, you become that person. you know, when I think about repeat and referral strategies, when I think about building a sustainable business, I honestly believe that sustainable businesses are built on trust.

They're built on relationships and they're built on, you know, consistency, human connection. In the travel industry that we are in, technology is there. We can't be afraid of it because it is here to stay. It is something that can enable us to be more efficient or to create experiences to a certain level that we can then have that human element on. But if we...

take away our expertise, our personal knowledge, the emotion, the storytelling, then that's where as an industry, you know, we become the internet. Now we've already got the internet, so why can't we just use it to help us grow something absolutely magical? That's for another time. So for me, it is sustainable businesses, they're built on trust. Referrals, repeat business.

It comes from the relationships and that really matters, that human connection, that personal conversation that you can have. Consistency matters. So when it comes to referrals, we need to be consistent in our ask. It's OK to ask people. The worst possible thing that can happen is they don't do it. Like nobody's going to send you a death threat.

Roslyn Ranse (37:00.738)
there's, it's just not going to happen. So that's the worst thing that can happen. So we need to sometimes get over that fear. And I do, I do think that we don't need to hustle consistently. It's consistency in the ask. At the end of the day, our clients want to feel remembered. They want to feel valued. And as travel professionals,

It's about building that human relationship because the goal necessarily isn't just to get more bookings. I believe that the goal is about building a business that people genuinely want to come back to. People want to travel with you because you're excited with them. You want to help them deep down, explore this incredible planet that we live on.

And as travel business owners, we have the most beautiful gift that we can help people do that. So today, repeat and referral strategies. There are many of them. I will link to the resource in the show notes for you so that you can have the access to it. But please reach out to me. Build those relationships with your clients. I'd love to see you be able to identify three people in your current database that you believe can

help build your referral strategies. But I would love to also know how many people are in that database that are your repeat clients and what are you doing to build those relationships and nurture them, take care of them. And at the end of the day, build that beautiful business that I know you got into this industry for. So for now, thanks for listening. Take care of yourself. Go out and connect with somebody, be an extension of somebody's team, build those relationships and always feel free to say hi.

whenever you see me. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Have a great day.