When the final obituary of the travel retail sector is written, I trust that careful note will be made of the role agents have played in creating stores and sales environments designed to remove any vestiges of joy and pleasure from the buying process.
Think of the progress we have made in the last 30 years. For the most part, the people selling travel haven't changed. The same faces sit behind the same desks, which all seem to share one architectural feature: The client gets to look at the backside of a computer screen as the salesperson types.
Actually, even that bit of product interaction has disappeared. Now, the consumer watches a commercial on YouTube while dealing with a qualified agent on the phone. Or an outsourced agent from Kazdeshgolia. Or maybe a fellow earning points with the parole board on a work-release program.
The great advance of the retail agent community has been the elimination of any excitement associated with the purchase of travel products. Most agencies do their selling with the creativity and verve of a state motor vehicle bureau.
When did we embrace this notion that planning some of the best moments of our clients' lives ought to be boring?
When did we decide that instead of dream-makers we would become a cadre of clerks and commissioned order-takers?
How did we blow it?
Part of the blame must be shared with those suppliers who have allowed us to be their primary distribution channel while contributing nothing to the design and upkeep of an office largely dedicated to the selling of their products. In the old days, they would mail us an occasional poster.
Think about walking into a local travel agency in your neighborhood. Now compare it with, say, walking into the nearest Apple Store.
You may think this an unfair comparison. After all, what is more exciting than personal computing? What is more exhilarating than viewing the world on a 17-inch screen? Or perhaps you prefer shrinking your worldview to the size of an iPhone screen, to reduce the majesty of the Eiffel Tower to a 2-inch image.
Well, you know what ought to be just as interesting as buying a computer? How about actually going to see the Eiffel Tower?
Planning a vacation ought to be stimulating. Travel agencies ought to be staffed by super-friendly dream engineers. But somehow they aren't. Agencies are, with some notable rare exceptions, boring booking dens.
Apple, on the other hand, has managed to turn retailing upside down. Dell tried to sell computers in its own retail stores. So did Gateway. Both failed. So, what is so unusual about the way Apple sells, and what can our industry take away from its concept of retailing?
First, Apple made retail interactive. When you enter an Apple Store, you don't just see products lining the walls; you can walk up to them and test them out.
Any travel agency can duplicate this. They can remove all their desks and have computers lining the walls, videos playing in a theater setting, fascinating lectures, even food samplings from exotic locales. An agency can be the place to start to plan a vacation. It can be a media-driven travel resource center.
Entering an agency ought to be an experience. It ought to feel good. Colors and lighting ought to evoke the notion of escape. Instead, we give the consumer office chairs and industrial carpeting or a guy named Benji, who has never traveled beyond the five-mile radius of his call center cubicle in Mumbai.
What I found amazing was that during my visits to Apple Stores in several states, no one was trying to sell me anything. Instead, each store was set up to allow me to explore everything the brand represents. The staff was there to assist.
They were using subtle techniques identified in a recent report by Alex Frankel on FastCompany.com. For an article titled "Magic Shop," Frankel went undercover to unearth the secret of Apple's revolutionary store concept.
When Apple recruits, it looks for staff who can describe the role Apple products play in their own lives. This is not so different from ascertaining a travel agent's passion for travel when recruiting.
But the most important thing Frankel's article revealed about Apple's approach is its semi-secret "three-step" process, which is, I believe, totally reasonable and adaptable.
Travel agencies need to tap into new ways of approaching and dealing with educated, Internet-savvy travel purchasers, and the three-step process is simple. The first step is that you informally meet the customer and then "position" the relationship. The salesperson, who actually resembles a salesperson less than a sort of laid-back, super-knowledgeable helper, explains that he or she has some questions that will help them understand your needs.
You nod. You are then asked for "permission" to have those questions thrown at you. This is the second step of the process. Why would you say no?
In step three, the employee starts to dig in to see which product is going to suit you best. This is the "probe." So position, permission, probe are the three steps.
Of course, there's a lot more. Your agency has to be a brand that people want, and I know that is terribly difficult in a sales environment that hasn't changed for several decades. But think of the potential here.
A travel agency ought to be a pleasant hangout where dreamers come for information. It ought to feel like belonging to something special, where the staff is less interested in making a quick sale and instead wants to help you plan the best way to realize your travel dreams by probing until the very best product for your needs is revealed. And yes, there will be times when that product is noncommissionable.
I finally bought a MacBook Pro after my 14th visit to an Apple Store. They offer one-on-one training, so I set up an appointment on a Tuesday afternoon.
When I arrived, the store was packed. My trainer and I started going over the machine. After about 15 minutes he casually asked me if this was the first time I had purchased a Mac product. I said it was.
Ten minutes later, this quiet young man stood up and yelled out, "Folks, could I have your attention for one minute? I want to introduce you to Richard. He's a brand-new member of the Mac family."
Every employee and every customer in that store stopped what they were doing and started applauding. People started coming up to congratulate me. The store manager appeared minutes later to welcome me and to give me his personal phone number should there ever be a problem.
OK, so this is all a bit cultish, and I was a wee bit embarrassed. But I do recall a branding expert who pointed out that in a busy airport, when a Mac user moving through the throngs passes someone seated using a Mac, there is subtle brain recognition. It is a club.
I wonder if, in my lifetime, any agency will step out of the box to create an interactive travel store that is staffed by real travelers who sort of hang around and give out truly helpful information.
We are selling to new generations of travelers. They covet information, but they lack the time to seek it out themselves.
We don't sell embedded memory chips from Korea. We don't sell keyboards made in China. We sell life's greatest moments.
Why can't our selling environment be at least as interesting as theirs?
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].