Text messaging has become ubiquitous, and travel agents have noticed an uptick in clients using it to communicate, but the agent-client texting relationship is largely dictated by the client’s preferences.
For the past few years, Corinne Winchell, who works for a Travel Leaders franchise in Liverpool, N.Y., has been texting clients. Winchell has gone so far as to plan entire trips, from start to finish, by texting. For her, it started as a convenience.
“I worked from home for quite some time, and I just always wanted my clients to be able to get hold of me any time,” she said. “So whether it was morning, noon, night or weekends, it didn’t matter, which was great for them and great for me.”
Winchell does not plan all her clients’ trips via texting. She estimated that about 20% still prefer a phone call, while the rest fall into a mix of texting and email (but 95% still call with their payment information). She communicates with clients using whatever medium they prefer.
Debbie Sebastian, the owner of a Travel Leaders franchise in Danville, Ky., texts her clients on a daily basis. She appreciates the immediacy, but she said it can be tough to respond right away when she’s with other clients at her brick-and-mortar agency.
Sebastian has been selling travel for more than three decades and estimates she has about 10,000 clients. She said the number who text her is definitely in the minority, but she expects more clients to communicate that way in the future. As a result, she is investigating the possibility of a desktop application that will enable her and her three agents to send texts via their computers to help manage their workflow.
Millennials are most likely to prefer texting, but while they lead the trend, the phenomenon has spread quickly to other age groups, said David Kolner, senior vice president of global member partnerships with Virtuoso.
“The point is that everybody texts to some degree,” he said.
Scott Koepf
Scott Koepf, senior vice president of sales at Avoya Travel, agreed.
“I think there are varying levels of embracing varying technologies that happens through the boomer years or the boomer generation, etc., all the way down through the millennials,” Koepf said.
Scrolling through her most recent texts, Sebastian pointed to clients in their 50s, 40s, 30s and 20s. “It literally is just a collage of different people,” she said.
Beci Mahnken, president of Ensemble-affiliated agencies MEI-Travel and Mouse Fan Travel, said, “While communications via online and mobile technology tends to appeal to a younger base who are already using smartphones and tablets for everyday tasks, we actually see clients of all ages embracing texting for quick assistance. I suspect it’s likely following the same learning curve of all generations becoming accustomed to technology as the user interface becomes more intuitive over time.”
While agents tend to base their texting habits on the preferences of their clients, from a personal perspective, some agents like to text, some don’t and some simply won’t.
“It takes some time to get to the point where you’re text-messaging your client,” said Erina Pindar, managing director of SmartFlyer, a Virtuoso agency. “I think at the end of the day, email is still incredibly important.”
Pepe Delgado, who is with Avoya independent agency DelRu, started texting clients a few months ago, although he feels it’s a less personal way to communicate.
“It will never work better than a phone call,” he said. “Never.”
Koepf said texting will likely remain a secondary form of communication unless a client desires otherwise, but agent-client texting is on an upswing.
Kolner agreed. “Is it going to be the only way to communicate? Absolutely not. Is it the way some clients prefer to be communicated with for some types of transactions? Absolutely. Will that increase over time? I’m sure. How much? I don’t know.”
Agents are already turning their heads to what might be coming down the road beyond texting.
“I have to think: What is next?” Sebastian said. “What could come out next that is going to top this, because there will be something.”