No matter what business you are in, mails since a good amount of time have become an extremely essential tool for people to communicate professionally with each other.
Today a vast majority of travelers do their travel research and make bookings online. Customers are more likely to inquire and do their initial research on your website instead of stepping directly into your office.
It is very important to have an email etiquette plan to engage with your customers. Sending the right messages, at the right time, with the right information can present you as a professional and reliable travel agent. The right email etiquette plan can help translate a lot of your customer inquiries into actual bookings.
An email plan is that underrated tool, that people often overlook while focusing on the more complicated things. What we need to realize is that it is often the simpler things that make the biggest impacts!
Through this article, we would like to highlight the importance of some email practices you should follow in order to step up your game!
1. Be Polite and Professional
Uphold your professionalism and politeness at all times. While some questions might tire you, do not get annoyed with your customers. Look at every message as if it is from a potential customer.
Be quick to respond and clear their doubts to the best of your ability, even if it means explaining the simplest of things. It is your politeness and professionalism that will win you the customer, even if he chooses not to book with you at that particular time.
2. Be positive towards criticisms and feedbacks
People might point out the flaws in your service or send complaints at times, do not get annoyed or seem rude. Take every feedback and criticism in a positive way and let the same reflect through your mail.
In-fact, thank the person for being honest with you and assure him that you will work on getting the issue resolved.
3. Avoid sending sloppy mails
Some people might throw several questions at you, especially when they’re booking with an agent for the first time. Reply to each question in a proper manner. Make sure to not overwhelm the customer with a lot of unnecessary information.
Try to communicate in a simple, easy to understand and organized manner. Let the customer feel the effort you’ve made in answering his queries. Your efforts are easily reflected through your emails.
Your goal throughout the conversation should be to make your customers feel that they can approach you again regarding any further questions.
4. Offer to have a telephonic conversation
In case there are multiple questions to answer and explain in detail, offer the customer to have a quick telephonic conversation at their convenience.
Email conversations can easily be converted into telephonic calls since several rounds of emails can tire out the people involved.
Simple verbal communication can, in turn, help you pitch better and improve your chances of converting that query into a booking!
5. Enable Auto-Response to be responsive
An auto-response is a fixed message that is sent automatically by the system every time someone contacts you on your email address. A customer can easily lose interest if he doesn’t hear from you, therefore, it is advisable to use an auto-response to tell your customers that you’ll get back to them shortly.
Communicating your availability is so much better than keeping a customer waiting.
You can also schedule a drip campaign where it allows you to automate specific emails at regular intervals and make sure you are constantly in touch with your customers, thereby maintaining a good relationship with all of them.
6. Mention the Booking Process
Since your end goal is to convert leads into bookings, make sure you miss no opportunity to educate the customer on how to initiate the booking process.
Don’t come across as pushy by adding ‘book now links’ even before answering the customer’s questions. Instead, drop it at the end of the conversation so the customer can at least check it out.
Also, it is very essential to build some interesting content like offers, discounts, etc which can help you increase the click rate.
Since email now has taken over almost every other medium of business communication, it is highly recommended to use it to the best of your ability for maximum conversions!
Do not be a lazy travel agent while sending responses. Make a conscious effort to put your best in every mail you send.
Lastly, stick to point one even if the customer doesn’t book with you despite following all the steps!
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