I suppose one can get too close to clients. But I have always taken the risk of not following the rule of separating business from friendship. In a service business, it seems to me, the goal ought to be to bridge that gap whenever possible.
Which is how I came to be sitting with a psychiatrist who is also a very good and rather new client.
I am slowly discovering that sitting across from me in my office is not very different from his perspective when a patient is lying on his office couch.
The Doctor wants to probe and understand. He needs to know why the travel field is the way it is, and in discovering this, he is perfectly happy to drag me along as a personal witness.
"So let me understand this," my client-shrink says as he leans forward in his chair, across the conference table in my office. "I'm trying to get the scope of this job you do. I mean, I have to get inside the brain and understand why my patients act and think the way they do. But I only have to work with one brain at a time. I know what I'm dealing with.
"But, Richard, you had no idea that we were going to be talking about a trip to South Africa today. And five minutes after I leave, you may take a phone call about a trip to Egypt or the Galapagos. How does the brain process all that?"
"Well, Doctor, it doesn't always process it. Sometimes I do confuse Papua New Guinea with Pittsburgh, but I try to right myself if I tip over."
"Clever, Richard, but you don't see what I'm getting at? There's a certain pathology involved in being a travel agent. You see, I'm not sure that you can ever be successful at your chosen profession. You must set yourself up for failure. Follow my logic."
He leans ever farther forward, waving his hands for emphasis. "So, what do you have to know? Everything, right? You have to know conditions in virtually every major tourist country in the world. What conditions might be like politically in three months or whenever I choose to travel, weather exactly when I travel, and you have to be able to clue me in on local hot spots, restaurants, shopping advice and special treats most people miss."
"You forgot the air arrangements getting to and from your final destination."
"Oh, sure. But I know the airlines make it worth your while."
I start to respond, but he goes on. "Of course, there is first the big picture: Where do I go and when? Do I do the cruise through the Panama Canal now or in 2017? You are supposed to calibrate alternatives as though you actually know my psyche well enough to ordain my options. I mean, should I be partying with the Masai in July or strolling the streets of Sitka wearing a newly purchased fur hat? Do I do Tierra del Fuego and combine it with an eco-lodge or take that new small boat up the Amazon?"
"Well ..."
But he goes on: "No, wait a minute. I want to be able to get my hands around this. But that's not all. It isn't only options; it's me and my safety and the information that I'd better acclimate to the elevation in Cuzco before strolling the mysticism of Machu Picchu. I've been 'shrinking' for almost 20 years. I'm inside people's brain stems a couple of hours a day, but even I would not presume to tell someone what is safe for them and what isn't. But you do, and if you get it wrong, can't they sue you?"
"Well, yes, I suppose they could."
"So I have to ask you, Richard: Why do you do it? Oh, I know, it must really pay well. You're making lots of money, so you are free with the advice. By the way, what did the average travel agent earn last year? Do you know?"
"As a matter of fact, the average full-time agent, with two years of industry experience, earned about $29,000 last year."
"You're not being serious."
"Oh yes, I am."
"OK, so now this is really interesting. So you people take on all of this angst, and you set yourselves up as experts. You need to know the impossible, but you sell your services as though you are all-knowing. You have to read constantly, I imagine, and prepare your mind for every personality you deal with while knowing the latest information about any of the destinations they may care to visit. Your goals are virtually impossible to achieve, and you earn in a year about what I earn in a month.
"This has to be a profession driven by ego or some deep psychological need to be omnipotent.
"But the money -- that really intrigues me. What do you charge per billing hour?"
"Well, actually, in the travel profession we work mostly on commissions that are built into the price."
"That's really interesting. How much do you build in?"
"We just charge the rate set by the travel suppliers. They determine the commissions."
"Whoa! So you sit here, hour after hour, day after day, no union, the Internet nipping at your heels with all sorts of deals, and you don't get to set your own commissions?"
"No, but we do get to add on a small charge if a client makes us jump through hoops. But ours is a service business; we are here to serve."
"Ah. So perhaps that's it. You are providing services practically at cost, tacking on some extra fees to help pay the utilities. So you are less an adviser and more a travel servant. You serve the client for very little compensation."
"One could, I suppose, make that case, Doctor. But most of us really love what we do because we are working with people's best times. We are fulfilling their dreams."
"Yes, but Richard, my boy, you are fulfilling their needs, not necessarily your own. You may indeed take some pleasure in planning this trip of mine to South Africa, but I will be the one actually going on vacation. All you will be doing is waving goodbye."
"It's funny you should say that. My mother always urged me to choose a real, more practical and better-paying profession."
"Richard, it always comes around to the mother, doesn't it? Perhaps you should have listened to her. I hope those free trips that you people get are worth it all."
"Well, actually, they aren't free."
Contributing editor Richard Turen owns Churchill and Turen, a vacation-planning firm that has been named to Conde Nast Traveler's list of the World's Top Travel Specialists since the list began. Contact him at [email protected].