As I was trying to come up with the ideal, inspirational year-end message, my eMarketer email arrived in my in-box with some wonderful news; not only for me, but for my entire team and for all our Tripologists!

First, I love eMarketer.  They take complex data and put it into easy-to-understand formats. I also love them because they highlighted us in a recent report essentially validating our business model.  Today, they again stated there’s a “renewed appreciation for traditional travel agents” and we couldn’t be happier.

eMarketer first reported similar stats this past summer pointing to PhoCusWright data.  Today, they report, again, that there’s even more good news for traditional travel agents.

“This is not due to personal financial concerns—online travel bookers are an affluent demographic,” Mr. Grau said. “Rather, it is caused by frustrations related to the planning and booking capabilities of OTAs. This, in turn, is spurring a renewed appreciation for the expertise and personalized services offered by traditional travel agents.”

This likely explains record sales days here at Tripology this week and should encourage all our Tripologists that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it doesn’t appear to be a fast approaching train!  Hang in there.  The end of 2008 was a rough ride.  While I don’t expect a light switch return to the good old days, I’m encouraged with the potential for 2009.  I believe it may start off a little slowly, but will pick up speed.  This by no means is reason to throw a party.  You have to continue to be diligent, resourceful and you must continue to specialize in what you’re most passionate about.  2009 is the year for specialization.  Consumers are not looking for generalists but rather personalized, professional assistance from someone who really knows their stuff and who can “wow” them with hard-to-find information.

I wish you all the very best for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  Happy selling!

John

Source: eMarketer - read the full report here: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006835

Those of you that have family located all over the US or all over the world will find this post particularly interesting.  Growing up, holidays were huge in my family.  As I’ve stated, my father had thirteen siblings.  I’ve got twenty something first cousins and when you add spouses and children, you’re talking get-togethers of fifty people or more.

Recently, much of the family has moved to Colorado, Florida and even some back to Greece. Keeping in touch always meant expensive phone bills.  Since 2004 I’ve been using Skype, the free internet phone/video program to keep in touch with family and friends from around the world.  Until recently, I’ve only been communicating internationally with people.  There really wasn’t a need to use it domestically. That is, until I had children.

To use Skype (www.skype.com) all you need is an internet connection and a webcam (for audio/video) or a microphone (for audio-only calls). To call other Skype users, the system is free.  Yes, free.  Currently, Skype has some 170 million registered users and since opening a Skype account is free, it is likely you’ll find someone you know is using Skype. Skype can be downloaded fairly quickly.  When you launch it, find a contact in your address book, click “call” and the next thing you know, you’re talking over the internet for free.  Click “start video” and you’ll be able to see one another, each via a webcam, in real time and nearly instantly.

Veronique in our office told me she uses Skype to chat with her niece in Canada every Sunday night. I thought it would be nice for my daughter to “see” her grandparents. So, I bought my parents a webcam. Installation is very easy.  Every weekend, my daughter speaks with and sees her grandparents on my computer.  She loves it and my parents love being able to keep in touch.  My daughter isn’t even two yet, but she sure smiles when she sees and hears my parents, “live.”

To take things one step further, this Christmas, I even put my laptop right on the dining room table so my local family could see and speak with my “far away” family in Colorado and Miami.  This made for such a wonderful Christmas. It felt like we were all together.  My eighty-five year old aunt, my ninety year old uncle and my father all had such a blast seeing each other.   They were even happier to get to see their eighty-something year old sister in Greece. They were amazed at the technology.  I was amazed at how much they enjoyed it.  I promise you, there were tears flowing. Sure, we all normally speak by phone, but being able to see one another added another element altogether.

To bring this full circle, you could do the same with your clients.  Open a Skype account and start promoting your account name and you’ll see how many customers take you up on your offer to communicate via Skype.  There’s only one draw-back to all of this; you’ll have to get yourself out of your pajamas, comb your hair and, if needed, put some makeup on. You are, after all, trying to sell something.  Are you already using Skype?  If so, let me know.  Happy selling!

I bought my wife an iPhone for Christmas. It is very cool indeed; movies, YouTube, Google, iTunes…everything you can imagine.  I’m a gadget guy, so I had tech-envy.  However, I’m also a hard-core Blackberry emailer. Like many other people with the same skill, I can type two-thumbed emails at lightning speed. I can work my Blackberry with one hand and even hit most of the buttons without looking.  Then I tried sending an email from the iPhone. It has a neat, touch-screen interface, but it’s just not meant for power-emailers.  On nearly every word I typed, I hit incorrect keys. Honestly, I was so disappointed.  We’ve had more than a few travel agents who tell us they buy leads from us using their iPhones. I was secretly hoping I could make the switch, but alas, it is not going to happen.   I came to the realization that for me, the iPhone is for having fun and for typing short emails and a Blackberry is for work and for making money.

Just last week, a buddy of mine bought the new Blackberry with the touch-screen, thinking he could have the best of both worlds.  He returned it within a few days for the same reason I described above.  I’m sure there’s either a new iPhone or Blackberry on the horizon that will let us have the best features of both, but until then, I’m sticking with my Blackberry.  If you have a different opinion, let me know. 

2008 ended up being a very rough year for many.  However, this is a great time to think of those less fortunate. Donate what you can, even if it is just some time at the local shelter or a can of food at a local food drive or dropping off old toys and books to kids that don’t have any.  Even the smallest of donations helps and I promise, it’ll make you feel good too.

To all our travel agents, travel specialists and industry partners, whatever holiday you’re celebrating, we wish you all the very best of health and happiness. We’ll be back on Monday for another short week, but look forward to a successful January and 2009 in general.

Warmest wishes from the entire Tripology team!

tripology-happy-holidays1

We’ve been sending out leads between 8am and 8pm EST. Tripologists on the West Coast have been complaining that they have to get up pretty early to get the “morning batch” of leads.  Many Tripologists were saying they were logging in at 5am! (Ouch.)  We don’t want anyone to lose sleep. You talk, we listen! We have taken what you’ve said and made a change to our lead delivery times.

Trip Requests by Hour of Day

So, we’re going to a holiday lunch.  It’s snowing so we moved it up from a holiday ‘dinner’.  It’ll be a fun walk to the restaurant and hopefully we can get into the holiday spirit just due to the fact that snowflakes will be hitting us in the face.  Do people do snow angels on Madison Avenue?  See you all on Monday.  Look for posts on our holiday hours.

I have a question… If you were going to read a book on any sales or marketing topic for travel professionals, what would it be?  Ideas include: “Sales tips for a tough economy” or “marketing in economic headwinds”.  Please tell me.  Then, I’ll tell you why I’m asking. 

This is important, so be sure to send me your ideas.  The sky is the limit.  Tell me any topic(s) that you would like learn more about.  We’re going to be expanding our blogs and I want to make sure we cover the topics that are of interest.  If we end up using your subject (submitted to us via this blog no later than 12/22), we’ll give you ten (ten) free leads.

Thanks,
John

Calling all Tripologists!  I’m looking for experts who offer travel services and special deals to single parents traveling alone with their children.

Remember how happy you were when they announced you could “take your cell number with you” if you wanted to switch carriers?  I do. My work email address may change, my street address may change.  Same goes for my work phone and home phone, etc., but not my cell phone. I’ve had my current cell phone number for over a decade. People travel and move all over the country and now and don’t change their cell phone numbers.  Why should they? Nationwide cell calls are cheap. Some people are abandoning their home phones altogether and keeping only their cell phones.  (I’d love to do this, but for some reason, my cell phone works everywhere on the planet; from New York to the Greek Islands to Thailand.  However, it drops coverage as soon as I hit my driveway and I’m convinced the telephone company has installed something in the asphalt that kills my cell service.)

Nonetheless, the reason for this post is simple.  As you’ve seen from my earlier posts, I’ve been to quite a few trade shows and I’ve met, say, 500 people or likely more in the past month.  I’m always curious to see someone from one state with a cell phone from another state.  Now, when I notice it, I always ask about their journey. I was recently in Hollywood, CA and met so many West-coasters with east coast area codes for their cell phones. It’s a great conversation starter and most people are happy to tell you about themselves and their past.  Plus, when you see one of those new funky area codes (my work cell phone starts with 862 area code), it is just as fun to ask “862? Where the heck is 862?”  When I get the question, I sometimes answer “It’s a new, secret, government agency area code for special cell phones…in New Jersey”. Okay, not exactly true but it’s a fun way to start a conversation. 

Yesterday was a great day, until about 3:15 PM. All of a sudden, there was a noticeable silence in the office. Our office is generally pretty quiet anyway, but there were no phones ringing.  It turns out our voicemail and auto-attendant system crashed (and burned; figuratively not literally).

So, short story, we’re getting a new VOIP system (amazingly, this was the least expensive option for the office; really quite reasonable actually) and it’s getting installed next week.  So, our phones work, but you can’t leave a message for anyone and you can’t reach a direct extension or department.  It’ll all be in order next week.  Be patient with us for a bit.  The good news is that the new system has a dozen features and we’ll all be easier to reach.  As an example, our phones will ring on our cell phones as well during office hours or while we’re traveling.