Carrie Bryniak, CTC
Embedding Agile Elements, such as application of the Manifesto and Principles, can lead to better business practices and a more productive workflow for Travel Professionals. The process by which we handle each of our clients may vary, but they will typically consist of three distinct phases: Information Gathering, Booking, and Post-Booking Follow-up. The first phase includes client meetings, information gathering, and research into viable travel options, followed by a trip proposal, and then any updates/corrections that are needed before client acceptance. After achieving acceptance by the client, we shift to the Booking Phase. To me, this phase is characterized by a lot of administrative duties such as database input, handling financial data and securing the booking via online portals, issuing invoices/receipts and confirmations. After the vacation is booked, we shift to the phase of Post-Booking Follow-up. I would venture to guess this would be the phase where we would incur the greatest number of differences among agents. How do you serve the client once the booking has taken place? Do you provide monthly emails with information on the trip? Do you check-in with them, offering upgrades or cross-selling opportunities if they become available? What about an itinerary? Do you create one? How long does it take?
These daily processes have also taken a drastic turn considering the global pandemic that we are now facing. Instead of a flurry of booking activity, our days now consist of rebooking, scrutinizing cancellation policies, communicating endlessly, and being on hold with vendors. Many of us have seen our income stream come crashing down around us, leaving us wondering what the rest of 2020 holds and how to rebound from this global disruption to travel.
I believe the current situation affords the Travel Professional an opportunity to make a change to their daily processes for the better. How do we do this? Let us switch gears from thinking about what our daily tasks involve and learn a little about a different industry, the software industry.
In February of 2001, the Agile Manifesto was born when 17 people gathered in Utah and better ways for developing software and communicating that process to others. The Agile Manifesto states,
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan.
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”
(Beck, et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001)
Agile Methodology values the underlined sections of the sentences more than what follows it. This does not mean that the items on the right have no value or are not done. Were this the case, it would be a struggle for our industry, as documentation forms a key part of what we do. Instead, the writers of the manifesto believed that value to their customer (i.e. working software in their industry) was simply more valuable than the documentation that came with it.
To help others understand this, Twelve Principles based on this Manifesto were written. These Principles promote creating a self-organizing team, face to face communication, recognizing and adapting to change, simplicity in workflows and more. My study of the methodology has led me to conclude that while all of these principles can apply to travel professionals, there are 4 that best illustrate how Agile ways of working can be embedded into a Travel Professional’s workflow to increase efficiency and productivity.
The first principle I would like to concentrate on is, “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” (Beck, et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001) How does this apply to a Travel Professional? Let’s look at the Post-Booking Follow-up phase of a Travel Professional’s workflow. Once the client has been booked it is essential to provide consistent communication to the client. The communication can be accomplished in different formats and should be relevant, inspiring, and informative for clients. I would encourage professionals to establish a library of basic templates / topics that can be sent; however, it is important to remember that not everything is useful for every client. You, as a professional, must judge what you think provides the best touchpoints for the client. For instance, you might have information on a destination for the first-time visitor, off the beaten track information, or family activity inspiration messages. Depending on who the client is, all or none of these might be suitable. A frequent traveler doesn’t necessarily need information on Global Entry but may need information on a specific country they are now visiting for the first time. It is important to stress, however, that as the principle states, our priority is to deliver that value to the client. It is then we can determine if what we thought provided value to the client met their need.
Personally, a couple of my best practices include a checklist that I can easily run through for frequently booked destinations. I have templates for all these emails that can then be personalized for each client, but they contain basic need-to-know information, along with some details meant to inspire them to explore other tours or excursions. I can quickly and easily schedule these out at regular intervals that will lead up to their trip, meaning at least once a month I have a touchpoint with the client. I encourage my clients to reach out to me via email, phone, text, or Facebook message, giving them every opportunity to reach me and provide feedback on if what I’m providing is valuable to them.
I have also realized that sending a “Welcome Home” email that allows them to rate their trip and provide feedback on my services via the Travel Leaders site is terrific as a way to communicate with clients after the trip. Communication does not simply stop after a client arrives home from their travels. I will continue to reach out to them using touchpoints that might relate back to their trip, and I have verified through their feedback that my clients like that. A great example of how to do that centered around a family that was excited to celebrate their 3-year-old’s birthday at Disney World, taking him to Galaxy’s Edge to build a droid. Months after they returned home, Disney released an app that can be used to interact with those droids via your cellphone. I sent the information to the family and they loved it and thanked me.
Another key principle of Agile that can be applied is, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is fact-to-face conversation.” (Beck, et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001) Given the current climate with social distancing and lockdown measures it is a given that most of the world is working from home. To accomplish what the Agile Principle is saying, Travel Professionals must turn to current technology and discern ways to utilize that technology to our advantage.
Even with barely scratching the surface of what is available, there are 2 platforms that come to mind that are proving invaluable to workers in many professions. The first is Zoom, the videoconferencing software, that allows us to connect with one another, no matter the destination. The second technology I will highlight is Calendly, an online calendar tool.
Before I provide details on the technology, it is important to mention how I am interpreting this principle. When the writers used the words ‘development team’, they were referring to those individuals who worked together to develop software solutions for their customers. In the world of a travel professional, that might mean members of your company (if you have other travel planners you work with), but also includes the vendors we work with to provide solutions for our clients. In addition, I like to think of my clients as a part of this team, as they work with me to create their dream vacation.
That last point is important as I discuss the first technology, Zoom. Before the pandemic, I had used this with a couple of my clients, as a test, to see what sort of difference it made during the initial planning phase. I was thrilled to find the meetings productive for me and for my client. Based on this success, and the need now more than ever to communicate with clients in a meaningful way and show them I am here for them, I will be incorporating Zoom as an option for clients to interact with me. I have downloaded and started a library of Zoom backgrounds that I will utilize during the meetings. I will adapt the background to their vacation interest, providing a little bit more personalization to our meeting. Now I have that face-to-face communication back and can read body language in addition to hearing their tone of voice and what they are saying. As we all know, these are key factors to consider during the “sales” process. I would also like to mention that my host agency is using Zoom to allow us to connect in a meaningful way during this pandemic, and I hope that interaction continues. As travel professionals are often home-based, it allows all of us to connect face-to-face, even when geographically distant. Finally, I plan to explore Zoom as a way to connect to my vendors, in the hope that this allows us to create better working relationships. Our vendors are key partners for us all, and I would like us to view each other as teammates, rather than suppliers.
How will I make it easy for my clients to schedule time with me? That is where the second technology platform comes into play. I had considered Calendly before and co-workers currently utilize it with great success. The Calendly software provides you with automated scheduling abilities. There is a free version and then other features that can be accessed via a paid subscription. A basic account allows users to set up an account for 1 user/schedule and create a personalized Calendly link. This link can be shared with clients (or vendors, as discussed above), enabling them to schedule a meeting at a time that is mutually beneficial for the two of you. Travel Professionals have now eliminated the need for back and forth emails to schedule times, they can control their availability with the software, add buffers to meeting times and become more efficient. If/when I find Calendly was benefiting both clients and me, I would investigate a move to one of the upgraded plans. This would offer more ways to integrate scheduling capability with my website, analytics software, and newsletter software. In addition, I would now be able to remove Calendly branding, making the platform even further connected to my business. I feel that the utilization of Zoom and Calendly will enable us to deliver face-to-face communication in an effective and efficient manner; with clients, vendors, and our fellow travel professionals.
Feeding off the idea of efficiency and effectiveness, the next Agile Principle that can be applied to our workflow as Travel Professionals is, “Simplicity-the art of maximizing the amount of work not done-is essential.” (Beck, et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001) Pause a moment and reflect on projects undertaken in the last year; how do you work on the projects? Do you divide projects into smaller tasks necessary to accomplish the whole, with a focus on “done”? Or do you tackle projects as one big thing, meaning your focus is on “doing” things instead of the end goal? An Agile practitioner would teach you to simplify your work by breaking the project into a series of smaller tasks, each of which can be delivered to the client (whenever possible). The division of a project into smaller tasks forces us to concentrate on what it takes to deliver value and learn from it, simplifying the project and work needed. If you’re saying to yourself, “This feels like a discussion of Agile Principle #3 (Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.)”, you are not wrong; the Agile principles have a way of linking together! But, let’s get back to our current topic, simplicity. The question to ask ourselves is what can we NOT do to be more productive?
This may sound slightly confusing, so I would like to offer this personal reflection as a way to understand the concept. When I first started in the travel profession, much of my business was in the world of theme parks. The itineraries that I created for clients were 2-3 pages long; multiple-column documents that shared details about reservations (both hotel and dining), followed by personal favorites or little tips to make the most of the trip. Clients appreciated those and used them, but the process of completing them meant a 4-6 hour time investment on my part. It was not efficient, nor was it cost effective. As theme parks and other vendors began to brand their own apps for guests to use, I realized it was time to make a change as well.
I first tested a couple of different online itinerary apps for clients. The one I eventually settled on allowed me to import itineraries from certain vendors, use pre-loaded information, but still customize the itinerary with tips and favorites. I was creating these for all vacations because of the how easy it was to use the software. I had successfully cut my time commitment in half with the use of this software and it offered clients the ability to download the app on their phone and even use it to communicate with me. After a year or so of positive results, I started to see a new trend with the itinerary app. My clients were no longer using it as much, if at all. It was time for another move, but to what? I was perplexed, what did my clients want?
As the best way to learn what my clients are thinking or doing is by asking them, I talked with some of my repeat clients and sent a survey to find out what they really needed. What I realized is that due to the continuous communication/touchpoints that I had put into place under the first principle, the clients didn’t need all the information I was providing during the trip because I had already sent it to them. This made me realize I could stop providing clients with a full itinerary and simply give them simple details of confirmation numbers, times, etc. By testing, asking questions and learning about my clients from their feedback, I was able to find that simplicity was the answer. By NOT doing something, I would be able to better serve my clients.
The final Agile Principle that would serve Home-Based Travel Professionals well is, “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” (Beck, et al., Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001) One way Agile teams embed this principle is by scheduling “retrospectives” throughout their project, during which teams can access their current processes and tasks to see what adjustments can be made, as well as assess their own sense of satisfaction and ensure they are working together in a positive way. Of the principles espoused in this paper, this is the one I struggle with the most and will focus on the most moving forward. I am willing to bet that most Travel Professionals, like myself, wait until the end of the calendar year is upon us before considering what changes could be made for the upcoming year. I am here to tell you that we need to improve in this area! Start by proposing a series of “What-if” questions to yourself. What if I scheduled a bi-weekly meeting (retrospective) with myself or my agents? What if we stopped, looked at our booked clients and adjusted how we were helping them, providing them information, or communicating with them? What if I tried a new marketing campaign for the next month? How am I feeling right now; am I energized, frustrated, overwhelmed? Is there something I change that might help improve what I’m doing or how I’m doing it? What one thing could I do differently for the next couple of weeks or month to see if it helped?
I propose that we would find things that could be improved. Reflecting on my own processes, what if I had a bi-weekly meeting where I sat down with the numbers from my email tracking software and looked at what information was being read the most? Would I be able to eliminate something that was not being used? What if I set a 2-month goal of sales for a certain supplier and then broke it down to specific tasks I would use to accomplish that goal? I know that my efficiency would increase, because I know there would be changes I could identify. This retrospective would allow me, even force me, to be more pro-active instead of reactive. Any adjustments that can be made to better serve the client, make us more efficient, and recognize changes that need to happen are essential to our survival, especially in the current climate. The retrospective would also allow me to improve my relationship with THAT client, not some future client down the road.
While Agile working methods debuted in the software realm, the methodology can be applied, and certainly has been applied to many other industries to improve work. During my research for this paper I came across a study conducted by the central Learning and Teaching Units of Australian Universities that discussed how an Agile way of working was successfully leveraged to “achieve whole-of-institution quality improvement…. The key takeaways are recommendations and strategies for heightening buy-in and active staff engagement, as well as how to clearly and transparently communicate to assure widespread adoption. The surprising outcome of the Agile approach was unexpected gains in confidence and self-efficacy described by numerous participating stakeholders.” (Judd & Blair, 2019) The Agile methodology can have far reaching implications and I believe we can embed the principles discussed to improve our workflow as Travel Professionals.
Remember, Agile is a way of working. It is not a set of activities to be done, but rather a change in how we think about our work that focuses on flexibility, efficiency, learning and adapting. We discussed four Agile Principles that centered on early and continuous communication, effective, efficient face-to-face communication, simplicity & the art of NOT doing work, along with establishing regular intervals for reviewing processes. As briefly mentioned earlier, however, the other eight principles are very much linked to these four, and when we start to embed one, we will certainly see benefits of many.
In a post-COVID-19 world I think these will be keys to survival for many host agencies and independent contractors. The more efficiently Travel Professional can perform various tasks, keep clients informed and happy, build trusting and ‘one-team’ relationships with vendors, and give as much facetime to clients as possible, the better our client relationships will be. Happy clients mean loyal clients and we all know that finding new clients is more expensive than keeping current ones.
Bibliography
Beck, K., Grenning, J., Martin, R. C., Beedle, M., Highsmith, J., Mellor, S., . . . Marick, B. (2001). Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Retrieved 5 6, 2020, from Agilemanifesto.org
Judd, M.-M., & Blair, H. (2019). Leveraging Agile Methodology to Transform a University Learning and Teaching Unit. Retrieved 5 16, 2020, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-2751-3_9
