When World Events Cause Customer Concern

The war with Iran is just the latest in a series of events around that world that cause worry for travelers. Michael, Chris, and Scott share their thoughts on how to ease client anxiety over world events.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome to Beyond the Handbook. Practical insight from the moment behind the menu. Your hosts are the authors of the best-selling travel advisors handbook series. All of fame cruise counselors, Michael McConnell and Chris Crumb. And the late cruise counselor, Scott McAllister. It's time to go beyond the handbook.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

One of the big topics in the world is always the stability of the world or lack thereof. And it bleeds into the world of travel. And what I mean, and the most recent example obviously would be what's going on in Iran. But you can talk about the Middle East in general, seems to always be in some kind of conflict. We're now, and it's hard for me to believe this number, guys, but four years into the um conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I'm sure it does for them, but I mean four years. I had to look back at a calendar. But the reason we bring this up is not to get into political things so much, but rather our customers and their concerns. Because they do start to bring these things up from time to time. And I think it's good that travel advisors have a way to handle these type of questions and objections and concerns. Uh, and I will say that my first step, and then we'll kind of throw it around the virtual room here, is my first step is to validate those feelings. You know, we don't want to dismiss them outright because if somebody has a concern, we definitely want to acknowledge that we understand that they have that concern. Even if it's one that might be misplaced, we certainly want to at first, at least to my mind, step up and say, I completely understand how you're feeling. Now let's talk about addressing those concerns and whether or not potentially you should travel. And I'm not even talking about traveling to those regions. I've had customers concerned about going on Caribbean cruises because of the Ukraine issues. And if that's a concern, I don't want you uncomfortable on your trip. But Michael, let's start with you. What would you say to a customer that has concerns about things, geopolitical things going on in the world, and how do you address that?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

That's a great question, Chris. I mean, the conversation has come up on um uh most inquiries about travel, I mean, even domestic travel. And sometimes it's uh a little difficult to um separate, you know, what what's happening domestically, say, you know, our recent long TSA lines um and what's happening um internationally. Um but um you know, I I think that that the biggest problems that I've had recently were those who were traveling through or connecting um on flights in the Middle East. Um recently spent a couple of weeks unraveling some travel that was connecting in uh Doha Qatar. Oh yeah. Um so like uh Emirates Airlines had opened up a lot of their flights um before flights in uh Doha had opened up. And you know, my take on that is it's not so much the um um um location of Doha and it's proximity to um Iran, um, but also the proximity to uh US air bases and you know other sort of airspace complications. Um we ended up in that case uh just rerouting everybody completely. We're going through uh London Heathrow instead. Sure. Um and I think that uh you know some thought just has to be given to uh what are some of the potential um you know travel delays that you would have, um, you know, where might airspace be connected? And I think in general, I mean, even since we go back to um you know some of the post-COVID days, um, you know, just allow more time, give a buffer.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

That's a great piece of advice. You know, it's interesting you mentioned uh Emirates Airlines. I got to fly them once from Houston to uh to Dubai, and this is years ago, and then there wasn't much going on in the world as far as this the instability we're seeing now, I guess the best way to put it. And what was uh unique about that flight was we flew over, because it is an Arab airline, we flew over Iran and Iraq and places that U.S. airlines, they kind of go, nope, go in this direction. And it was it was unusual, to say the least, to be looking at the in-flight map and go, oh, I'm over Tehran right now. This is not something I ever thought I would do. Now I can only imagine in the world we're in right now that that would be a little bit more uncomfortable. And so I think your rerouting is an interesting idea. Scott, how do you uh see this and what is it you tell your customers when they bridge this uh this topic?

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Well, I like how you kicked it off by by saying, you know, first we absolutely want to validate their their concerns or their thoughts regardless of how uh uh I don't want to say valid they are, because if they have them, they're valid. And I truly mean that, but how realistic maybe they are, yeah, not downplaying the concern.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

I'm glad you said that because I might have misspoke earlier. I don't mean to invalidate something. Right, right. But I think the realistic uh, you know, there's yes, you're feeling it, so you're right, you're valid. But I guess my the better term I should have used is like you said, is it a realistic concern? And and so continue, please.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Or, you know, or something like that. And you know, I have some clients set to leave in about three weeks to go to Rome. And they're, you know, we've we've had these discussions and everything. And after talking it through, I said, you know, no one has a crystal ball. But in today's climate, and that's all we can go by, I I said, you know, you're connecting through here, you're avoiding this airspace, you're skirting that whole area. Um, without a crystal ball, I I don't see any reason for true concern. I mean, concern's always there, yeah, right. So we don't want to belittle or downplay that, but at the same time, just trying to put them in ease as much as possible without giving them false hope or overcommitting, right? That's why I emphasized I don't have a crystal ball in today's climate, because the last thing I want to do is get a call from and said, You said we'd be fine. Exactly. You know, so it's it's a tightrope we walk in our industry every day, whether it's weather or politics, war, what have you. So we want to address it, be as non-committal but comforting as possible.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

And I I like what you said about, you know, I can't guarantee you anything because honestly, I can't guarantee you walk out of your house and not have a, you know, a satellite fall on you. I mean, it can happen. So you can't ever promise tomorrow, I guess is the best way to put it, but we can say, you know, our anecdotal evidence suggests, and and let's go back to times when the world's a bit more stable. I get the question of, hey, I'm going, like your clients, to Rome, or I'm going to London, or I'm going to, you know, pick your city. How safe is it for me to go out and walk around? Is it safe for me to visit areas by myself? And, you know, the answer I always give them is I say, look, you know, in in most cases, and obviously we take it city by city, but let's take London or Rome, for example. I say, you know, if you use normal precautions and you do what you would do in any other situation where you're out and about in public, you've you've got no more danger than you would have in downtown Houston or downtown New York City or whatever, Scott.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Exactly. And, you know, I've used this before. I tell them, I said, you know, I don't want to pick on a particular city or get too deep into this, but to to your point, let's look pull up the crime statistics for where you live. Yeah. And, you know, you you you still go about your daily outings and go to the grocery store and take the kids to soccer and everything like that. So kind of use that lens or mindset, if you will, when you're asking that question about, you know, overseas. Because to me, it's very applicable. I mean, we don't think twice about driving in downtown Houston, but if you were to pull up the the statistics, right, it's like, holy crap, I shouldn't go south about way eight.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I you know, I think sometimes you and I share the same brain because I was just about to bring up the analogy of, you know, it's interesting whenever there's an air accident, for example, or if there's an accident with a with a boat of some kind, I'm never going on a cruise or I'm never flying again. And you think this is the one thing you've seen in the last 10 years, and on the freeways we have sadly accidents every single day, and we we don't for a moment think about not driving. Michael, what are your thoughts on this whole area of the subject?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, you know, I was just thinking, you know, as uh Scott was talking about crime statistics uh locally, um, you know, I think a huge benefit of living locally is knowing where the local safe places and dangers are. And what's common sense in downtown Houston might not be common sense in uh San Francisco. Uh it may not be common sense in Mexico City or wherever it is you're traveling, um, because the neighborhoods are all different. And um that's a real case, I think, for when I have somebody going to an area where either the crime is high or there are areas nearby that might not be quite as safe as some of the tourist areas. Um if you're going point-to-point, um, consider either um you know pre-booking transfers or working with the concierge at a um at a hotel. Um if you're concerned about the area you're staying, that's probably not a time to really uh you know um count pennies on the class of hotel you're staying at. Yeah. Um that's a really good opportunity, I think, for um um, you know, staying at a hotel that has um, you know, security, that has uh concerge services, um, that will be able to call quickly a cab or other transfer for you so that they know where you're going and they know the people uh in whose car you're getting.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

That's a good point. And you know, as far as the precautions you would take in any city, I think might need a little clarification on that and kind of where I was going with that, and I think your advice is sound, Michael, as far as each city is a bit different in what they how they will react to people in the different areas. But I think also there are things that in any city you can do to be smart. Uh, one of them is, you know, uh don't wear flashy jewelry. I know sometimes, for example, people want to go out and experience the nightlife of, say, Rio or or any of the other major Paris is another great example. But if you're wearing all this flashy jewelry, you're making yourself a target. And and and that could be whether you live there or not. You know, it just is somebody who's going, oh, look at all that free stuff. Um, you know, also how you carry your valuables. Don't if you have a thousand dollars in cash on you that you've brought on your trip to use throughout your trip, don't carry all thousand with you. Put some of it in the hotel safe or do, you know, keep it off of your body. These are the types of things that you can do to be less of a target. And also probably not the best idea to wear a shirt that says, Proud to be an American when you're in the middle of, you know, wherever. Look, we're all proud, but you don't want to put a big neon sign above you that says, Woo-hoo, tourist, right here. Come and get me. Uh, so those are the little things I'm talking about as far as precautions, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Or take your take your ear pods or your finger out of your ear.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

And certainly you don't want to wear the pig and a poke outfits all over Europe as well. But that's a that's a whole nother movie. Uh as we go around the horn, wrapping it up. Any final thoughts, Michael? Ways to um help your clients feel better about their travel in times of strife. Final tip.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Well, um just having those conversations. And and um, you know, often it's uh, you know, the real threats are not really what's on the mind of your client. It has to do with anxiety, has to do with what their own personal fears may be. So I think talking through it, finding ways to uh, you know, mitigate not just risk, but um their fears and provide options. Scott?

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah, to piggyback on that, you know, we we need to qualify their concerns, right? We need to ask some follow-up questions and say, hey, I understand you're you know concerned about your flights going through airport XYZ, but what's what are your do you do you have specific concerns, or is it just in general that you're going through there and with what's going on in the area? You know, so sometimes I think we need to dig a little deeper so we can so we can walk and talk them through the different options. So I'm gonna go with qualify.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

There you go. Great points both, and I'll add one other, and that is don't be afraid to move the trip. You know, if you're not gonna get penalized, if there's a way for them to maybe push it down the road a bit, say, listen, I know you've really been dreaming of going to Destination X, um, but you know, right now we have the ability and the flexibility to move this trip six months a year down the road. Would it make you more comfortable to do that? Because I think at the end of the day, yeah, we all want that commission right away, but we want our customers to be happy and be comfortable with what they're doing. And if we can, you know, basically say to them, Scott, and this might be one of your qualifying questions, what can I do to make you feel more comfortable about this? How can I help you? Or is maybe we need to look at shifting to another region for this particular trip or cruise or whatever it may be. The bottom line is we want them to be comfortable. Hopefully, you found a few tips that can help you make your clients more comfortable on their next trip.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Thanks for listening to Beyond the Handbook. Visit TAHANBOO.com to order our books. See our upcoming schedule of seminars at the state, and listen to episodes on demand. We'll see you next time when we go beyond the handbook.