Keep the budget in mind
SCENARIO: A female
traveller wants to visit her
partner living in Shenzhen
over the December
period. Time was tight,
as she had to be back in
Johannesburg by a certain
date to go to Durban, and
the couple wanted to start
in Shenzhen, venturing to
Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an.
They ideally wanted to travel
between the cities by train
and spend at least two
nights in each city in budget
accommodation. Airport
transfers were not needed.
As she had never ventured
beyond Shenzhen, she
wanted recommendations
of things to do in each city.
All agencies were contacted
in person on a Friday
afternoon.
Flight Centre, Bedford Centre
I was directed to Bianca
Wild when I walked into the
store and she asked a lot of
detailed questions, such as
preferred airlines, etc.
Bianca suggested the
number of nights we should
spend in each city and how
best to divide up flights
and trains to maximise the
amount of time we had to
tour the cities.
She sent her quotation
on the same day that I
visited her. It was thorough,
itemised and included
the rail tickets. She was
conscious of the fact that
we were looking for budget
accommodation
and suggested somewhere
that was central in each city.
However, it didn’t include
any information about visas
or passports. I received
recommendations on things
to do in each city when I
sent a follow-up email on
the Tuesday morning.
Bianca’s manner was
pleasant and engaging
and she showed a genuine
interest in helping us to plan
Bianca Wild the best holiday.
Pentravel, Bedford Centre
The agent was extremely
friendly and took notes of
everything I said. She was
able to find me a suitable
(and affordable) flight. She
was very conscious of the
fact that I needed to be
home by a certain date and
suggested the best ways
to divide up the flights and
trains to ensure we would get
the most out of each city.
She seemed quite rushed
and I didn’t get a chance to
ask some of my questions.
She also hadn’t heard of
one of the cities I asked
about. She didn’t ask about
passports or visa status and
I never received a quotation
from her, however she warned
me that she would need to
get information about the
trains from her supplier,
which would delay the
quotation.
She also didn’t recommend
any things to do in each city.
STA Travel, Eastgate
I was directed to the
agent when I walked into
the store. She didn’t take
any notes on my queries,
which led to a lot of
questioning about what
we had originally said.
I told her that we wanted
some recommendations
of things to do in the
cities we intended to
visit, but didn’t receive
any. We sat for a while in
silence while she checked
her systems for flights
and accommodation (10
minutes to my count)
and asked no follow-up
questions about the kind
of accommodation we
were looking for. She
was unable to find us a
flight for the dates we
mentioned and the flights
she could find were far
out of our price range.
She was also unable to
give us any information
about the trains and told
us that her system was
not able to pull up the
information. She didn’t
ask about passports or
visa status and I never
received a quotation
from her.
Bianca’s top three things to do in China
1.Terracotta Army in Xi’an.
2.The regional towns and rural villages of China
3.Imperial City, Beijing
Take note!
The purpose of the Naked Agent is to assess the experience from
only a sales perspective and not the effectiveness of the travel
agency. TNW believes that sales skills are increasingly important
to travel agents and, in many cases, improvement in selling skills
is the easiest way to increase the prosperity of the agency and its
consultants.
