Telephone Selling Skills for the Travel Industry

Why this training is important

Many people believed that the advent of the Internet and online business would reduce or even eliminate the need for telephone enquiries but, if anything, the opposite has been the case. Simple transactions can often be completed on line, of course, but it is those transactions that are not so simple, or that have gone wrong, that generate the need for a telephone conversation with a “real” person. And quite often that telephone call will be from a customer who is not in the best frame of mind, having spent many abortive minutes online without getting the result he or she wanted.

Who is this course for?

Anyone who has to take enquiries over the telephone, or who needs to make calls to book or discuss travel arrangements.

Course Aims

This course will enable you to establish closer rapport with your customers and thereby to identify their hidden travel service needs. This will enable you to provide enhanced customer care by selling extra products and services.

What will you learn

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Identify ways in which you can create greater rapport with your customers.
• Practise your questioning and listening techniques.
• Uncover your customers’ real wants and needs.
• Identify ways in which you can match "peripheral" products and services to your customers’ needs.
• Practise ways in which you can best demonstrate the benefits of your products.
• Identify ways in which you can obtain greater commitment from your customers.
• Deal with any customer objections so that both you and they are satisfied with the outcome.
• Handle tricky calls effectively and positively.

Course Structure

The course will incorporate a range of learning methods, all of which will include a high degree of delegate involvement. Delegates will be able to practise the skills and techniques discussed and each will undertake at least two recorded telephone simulations using telephone-training equipment. Delegates will all receive a copy of their own recordings, which they can review after the course to help continue to improve their telephone skills.