Is your client a Nervous Nelly?

Aug 10, 2016
2 min read

We've all had them: clients who are excited to take a trip yet are also worried about every single detail. What's a caring and effective Account Manager to do?

Create a Safe Harbor

The best thing you as a Travel Professional can do for your nervous client is to make sure she knows that you're the expert and that you're going to make sure that every single connection, every single transfer, every single ship's cabin or hotel room is going to be firmly booked and ready for her. All she has to do is show up. Because she's working with you, she can rest assured that she's going to have a trip of a lifetime. And this approach will also make her one of your very best repeat clients because she feels safe traveling with you.

By taking extra care with her program and confirming all details are fully in place, you're creating a "safe harbor" or an extra layer of help between her and that foreign place that scares her. No matter what happens, she has a perfect, detailed itinerary from you and she knows she can call or email you anytime should anything unexpected happen. It's almost like you'll be traveling with her holding her hand while she explores the world. And that's what she needs.

Some agents might be tempted to get frustrated with her and roll their eyes every time she calls because she might call every day with five new questions. While it's important that you discreetly manage her expectations and keep her from taking up all of your time, a better approach to rolling your eyes is to be proactive about the kinds of things she's nervous about. If you take the time to send a detailed proposal or itinerary with all her questions answered up front, she'll both be satisfied with the information she has, plus feel extra safe working with you because you respect her concerns.

As travel professionals our job is to make people's travel dreams come true. Just because someone is dreaming of an exotic location doesn't mean they necessarily have the courage or sophistication to travel there unaided. This is why you are so important. Nervous Nelly can't get to the Taj Mahal without you, yet if you support her this time to see this remarkable place, she'll call you over and over again to make her next dreams an easy reality.