Customer Service and Travel Sales
Understanding needs
Good travel selling begins with needs analysis: destination, dates, budget, purpose, flexibility, accessibility and travellers' preferences. Use open questions to explore and closed questions to confirm. Product knowledge - routes, hotels, visas, seasonality - lets you match needs to options. Present benefits, not just features, and be transparent about total price and restrictions.
Service recovery
When things go wrong, acknowledge quickly, listen without interrupting, empathise, take ownership and offer a solution within policy. The LAST model (Listen, Apologise, Solve, Thank) and HEAT (Hear, Empathise, Apologise, Take action) are useful. Record the outcome in the PNR or CRM. Complaints are data: patterns reveal supplier or process problems.
Sales and traps
Upselling should be needs-led: offer travel insurance, transfers or baggage because they fit the trip, not because of targets. Never promise what the supplier has not confirmed. Questions often test whether you would disclose commission, handle a request outside policy, or deal with a vulnerable customer - choose transparency, documented consent and escalation.
Worked example
A client's flight is cancelled. Rebook on the next available service, confirm the new itinerary in writing, explain your own fees clearly, and advise on any statutory compensation separately rather than promising it on the spot. Rule of thumb: solve the immediate problem first, discuss money afterwards.