The Oceans big enough for both of us !!

Please don’t believe all you hear because as I found out this week some people can be very cut throat and underhand when it comes to gaining your business and your hard earned pennies.

The cruising market is one of the biggest expanding industries at the moment and with more and more cruise ships being built and more cabins to fill everyone wants a piece of the action and agents want you to book with them.

I always believe that yes while most people shopping around are looking to get themselves a bargain and the best deal out there they are also looking for an agent who will look after them and provide a service that will last for the whole experience not just until your debit card has been handed over.

At this time of the year a lot of the cruise lines are launching their 2016/17 programmes and marketing goes into overdrive to get customers to book early.

I had a client call me this week who had never booked with us before and only booked with another competitor of ours.

She rang me to get a quote on a P&O sailing for next year and after spending time going through all the details , the itinerary and extras to gain from booking early we got to the nitty gritty of price.  I had given my client a good discount and what I felt was as much information as possible and then she asked the golden question ‘is that your best price’.

I answered honestly and replied that I had given her a larger then average discount to try and get her to book with us but if she called the competitor they would probably go in and knock another £10 off and we could keep going back and fourth like so which I wasn’t going to do. I advised her that she should book with the agent who she felt would give her the best service and look after her every step of the way – which of course would be me !!!.

I was really pleased when half an hour later the client called me back to say that she was going to be making her booking with me and delighted that she was going to give us a try for the first time. What she said next I just couldn’t believe.

She informed me that she did call the competitor who once she had mentioned she had obtained a price from me went on to completely trash cruise.co.uk and frankly tell her a bunch of un truths!!!!!!! She was informed that we charged over the top credit card fees (we don’t we are in line with everyone else), that we charged to send out letters and any paperwork (we don’t and are happy to help any of our customers who do not have a printers or who need guidance in navigating the online systems) That we charged booking fees (we don’t and have never done so) .

This bad mouthing clearly did not impress the customer and she felt that it was quite unprofessional, thank goodness.

Why a cruise consultant would feel the need to do this is ridiculous. A lot of my customers will come back to me year after year to book there cruises as they know that along with a great price which of course is very important they will also get a great service from me which I am not ashamed to say.

Only this morning I had a client who wasn’t sure if he had completed his persoanliser properly so I went through it all with him and filled out the missing bits for him and showed him how to print off his documents and which cabin he had been allocated – all free of charge.

So next time someone starts bending your ear about how rubbish a company is maybe take it with a pinch of salt and wonder why they are so desperate to get your booking and cannot rely on selling themselves.

As my blog title says – it’s a big old ocean out there and room for all of us agents to give you the experience that you are looking for. Let the client make their own mind up and let the good reviews and fantastic feedback that we get talk for it self!!!