Richard L. Tennant, CTIE
The Decision
So, you’re a travel agency business owner. And as a sole proprietor entrepreneur, you have done everything right; your business and marketing plans were well thought out, and now your planning and road map to success is reaping monumental accomplishments. Your agency has grown so well and so fast that you need help. You think you will need to hire to keep up with the demand and bring on the talent that is distinctly your agency with the service levels that have made your brand what it is today.
The primary question that an owner should ask themselves is what attributes are most important to fill the position(s)? Are you looking for an experienced or a brand-new advisor to continue training, guide, and hopefully retain through their new career in the industry? Or possibly an independent contractor?
Depending on its business model, each travel agency should be reaching out to candidates that possess specific attributes. Is the agency seeking advisors that specialize in air bookings? Or a specialist in one particular cruise line or multi-ocean or river cruise lines specialist? An agent specializes in land tours or well-versed with a specific region or destination’s knowledge and culture. Perhaps an agent who’s multilingual or possesses GDS experience? Or possibly a niche specialist, for example, in health & wellness or senior travel. And finally, could you use someone with managerial, back-office, or training skills that your agency could use to support your agency? These are all questions that an agency owner needs to ask themselves, along with what your agency could financially afford before going into the interview and hiring process to enhance your team’s success. This agency owner is hypothetically looking to fill three positions for the sake of this thesis: an experienced agent, a relatively new but ambitious student. And finally, an Independent Contractor (IC’s).
The Process
So, the owner has to ask, what is their brand? Can your agency claim to be everything to all? Or specialize in one niche market? Where would your agency fall?
- Contemporary, premium, or luxury cruises? Large, medium, or small vessels or sailing ships. Bluewater or river.
- Packaged Land Tours – budget, premium, luxury, private
- FIT Travel – Solo Travelers, couples, or families wanting to do their own experience
- Air, rail, or other means of transportation only
- Destination, or region centered – Ex: Tahiti or Asia
- Group Travel – Affinity (share a common interest) or Speculative (Promoting a particular event such as a cruise or land tour).
- Demographic Specific Travel – Ex: Single females, Senior or Millennials travel
- Romance, Engagement, Destination Weddings, Honeymoons, Babymoons, Anniversary
- Friends, Family Travel, and Generational Travel.
- Corporate or Personal Business Travel
- Niche Travel Agencies – Ex: Golf, birding, sailing, scuba diving
- Religious, cultural, historical, shopping tours
- Accessible Travel
- Health & Wellness – Retreats
- Spa Vacations
- Medical Travel/Autism
- Adventure Travel – Mountain Climbing, hiking, surfing
- Eco and sustainable travel
- LGBT
- Or a niche that perfectly fits the agency
- Or an agency arranged to be specifically developed to serve Independent Contractors (ICs) only with agency staff and support to serve as a Host Agency.
The Interviewing Process
Having a clear understanding of the agency’s needs and requirements builds confidence to an excellent start in the interviewing process. In return, a perfect interviewee will seek to know the agency’s business model, strategy, and market in advance to suggest how they would best contribute to making an impact.
Interviewing New Hire Prospects
Our next step is to decide the caliber of experience we are looking to fill our teams’ needs and find them. Our agency owner has determined that they need to fill three positions: a seasoned, experienced agent, a relatively new but ambitious student. And finally, an Independent Contractor (IC’s).
Questions to Consider Before the Interview
Knowing the needs and positions, they plan to fill, agency owners should ask themselves several questions. What exactly are you going to require them to do, such as front office sales working with clients in crafting reservations or back-office work in clerical or accounting processes. Also, are you looking for someone to manage or coach alongside with other agency duties?
How do you plan to pay them? Host Agency Reviews from January 29, 2020, suggest that 57% of brick and mortar agencies typically pay with a salary/hourly wage averaging $48,470 annually. Some 32% of agencies work with an agreement of a salary/hourly & commission with taking home averaging $68,361. The average full-time employee average income was $56,560, with 11% bringing home over $100,000 with 35 years or more experience. Compared to a full-time hosted agency’s average income of $64,377—a full-time independent agent’s average income was $59,976. Some agreements could offer incentives such as bonuses. In June 2020, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that benefits comprised 30% of overall compensation as 93% of agents said receiving some travel benefits. Independent Contractors are paid altogether differently and compensated with an agreed-upon contract with a commission split for utilizing the agency’s industry accreditation booking information. Brick & mortar agencies may host IC’s or IC’s can agree to become part of what is known as a Host Agency that the business model is structured to service specifically an IC’s business.
What sort of experience or training are you going to require in your seasoned in-store agent or IC? Or any educational certification such as through the Travel Institute, CLIA, or ASTA? Accreditation with a cruise line, land tour operator, destination-specific training, or a unique niche such as health & wellness, spa, or destination weddings? Maybe the owner will require an applicant to possess a AA or AS Degree from a local community college or a Bachelor’s Degree from a university. Or they have completed coursework with a private travel and hospitality school. According to The Travel Institute, “What type of education do retail travel agents need to compete more effectively in today’s marketplace?” to be successful.
- Sales Skills 65%
- In-depth destination education 46%
- Comprehensive product information 37%
- Technology, training, including the internet 28%
- Organization and Time Management 17%
- Training in selling special interest travel 11%
- Budgeting and financial responsibility 3%
The Balance Careers, an online website, also suggest that “Being a travel agent is both a sales job and a customer service job. Agents need to serve their clients’ needs while working with vendors-airlines, resorts, hotels, and more to secure their clients’ best deals. Soft skills related to both types of jobs are beneficial”. They go on to say that “Customer Service Skills,” Problem Solving Skills, and “Negotiating Skills” are very much a required asset.
Today’s travel agencies are looking for more than just an agent order taker to benefit the agency. Being a seasoned salesperson enhances and embraces the travelers’ experience by recommending components to add to the vacation or cruise experience. A savvy interviewer will need to assess a candidate’s customer service skills, problem-solving, computer literate, and negotiating skills. Now that the agency owner knows what sort of candidate they are looking for, where do you find them?
These are all questions for consideration before the first interview.
Where to Find Suitable Applicants to Interview
An experienced travel agency owner, just through networking, trade events, or fam trips, can get a good feel of another’s travel advisor’s capabilities, experience, and professionalism that they have met in the field or through past relationships. Feel free to ask who you know throughout the industry. Consider other travel agency owners, travel advisors, trusted cruise suppliers, or tour operators to hear any advisors looking for a new direction or opportunity. This method adds some accountability from the trusted source that the recommendation may fit the agency’s needs. Other options are placing ads on employment websites such as the well-known Indeed, Monster, or Glassdoor for searching any of these sites for applicants looking to interview.
When looking for a student candidate who wants that opportunity to join the travel industry, building a relationship with college placement services or travel & hospitality schools is an excellent resource for potential and inspiring new students just getting into the travel industry. However, this hire will require a lot of attention with on-the-job training, coaching, and development. And this could also work with students looking to intern at travel agencies. Personally, in 1997, while doing course work for the “World Travel Management” an AS Degree at a local community college, one of my instructors recommended that I apply to the brick & mortar agency she worked in by day as an “Outside Sales Agent.” Now considered IC’s.
This opportunity offered me the chance to view the three options of my travel career. That would be working in a brick & mortar agency, going as a hosted agent, or eventually opening up my agency. The rest is history.
Independent contractors have grown exponentially since 2017. According to a May 7, 2018 survey by the Travel Institute, the “shifting landscape” of the travel industry Independent Contractors (IC’s) have increased from 29% with agency employee of 71% in 2008 to Independent Contractors growing to 62% and agency employees to just 22% in 2017. Considering the overhead costs of operating a specific agency, might this be a more economical solution? In return, an agency or host agency might offer IC’s E&O insurance, vetted preferred travel supplier to back the supply chain they offer, CRM, and IT support. They could feasibly earn higher commissions than if they were working for themselves as a sole proprietor without a host. And to many, a dream of being a business owner. The Travel Institute Survey went on to suggest that the “The DNA of an IC” was the following: 69 % of IC’s were looking for Freedom, 47%- are New, 36%- Favor Part-Time, 44%- Financial Opportunity, 80%- Need support, and 69% looked for a Commissioned Based opportunity. Depending on the agency or host agency legal contract agreement, it may offer an IC from 30% to 100% of the commission plus overrides earned. Where would you seek potential agents to become IC’s? Experienced advisors who are pursuing or looking to move from a brick & mortar to a home business. A host agency could find IC’s through social media, retirees looking for a part-time or a new full-time career or through advertising, or just by word of mouth.
For perspective IC’s, who by law are not employees and work within their schedules, I would also ask for a short business plan to review. A thought-out business plan characterizes how serious both parties are to accomplishing each party’s future goals.
The Interview Process
Before your interviewee arrives, review the type of agent and job responsibilities and review any resumes submitted and professionally written with no spelling or grammatical errors. Dress professionally.
In beginning the interview, consider their dress; how their greeting is received.
The most common interview questions according to Interview Penquin.com: “Travel Agent Interview Questions.” Responses are available to these questions under credits in the link at the end of this paper.
- Why do you want this job?
- Tell us something about your experience in this field.
- Do you prefer to get a fixed monthly salary or paid on a commission basis?
- How do you imagine a typical day at work?
- In your opinion, what matters the most in this business? Price, product, or communication?
- How would you deal with an angry client?
- Other questions you may get in your travel agent interview
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- What motivates you the most in this job?
- Imagine three clients called you in one week, asking for a specific destination/holiday package we did not have in our portfolio. Would you do anything about it?
- What ticket reservation/hotel booking portals you have experience using? Which one do you consider the best one, and why?
- Would you mind working on Saturdays?
- What do you consider your greatest weakness?
- Describe a situation when you went above and beyond with your service (for the customer, for the colleague).
- Give me an example of when you had to explain something fairly complex to a frustrated client. How did you handle this situation?
- How would you define quality?
- Describe your definition of outstanding customer service.
- Tell us about a time when you had to work under pressure.
- Why should we hire you and not one of the other applicants?
Travel is a sales career and one that deals with lots of communications and emotions. Knowing every candidate is different, should you hire someone that has a personality just like you? Or maybe not? One such method is assessing through the science of DISC.
Giving a DISC assessment to each candidate during a first interview is highly unlikely, but maybe a second or even after being hired? It is essential to read and understand the characteristics or emotions, and behaviors of an interviewee or a new hire. According to Disc Profile “What is Disc,” the DISC assessment, based on William Moulton Marston’s theory, centers on four different personality traits. According to the website Disc Profile, people with D tend to be confident and emphasize accomplishing bottom-line results. People with I personalities tend to be more open and stress relationships, and influence or persuade others. People with S personalities tend to be more dependable and emphasize cooperation and sincerity. People with C personalities tend to emphasize quality, accuracy, expertise, and competency.
According to the participant’s surveys, it “is good or excellent approximately 90% correct”. And personally, as not only an agency owner but IC, I chose to take the assessment to see how I would compare. No surprise.
Hiring
The agency owner has now completed their due diligence with having the opportunity to interview many qualified candidates for the three available positions. The owner must ask themselves before making the final decision which candidates are most promising? Will they have the same passion you have and a talent for customer service and sales? Will the individuals possess the traits of being detail-orientated, communicative, and resourceful? And finally, the real work ethic and desire to build long-term relationships with their clients after the sale and vacation concludes? It is now time to evaluate, select and offer new sales positions to the three best candidates for their new roles and ready to begin the next phase in orientation and your agency’s expectations.
Coaching New Travel Agency Team Members
Overnight, you have gone from a sole proprietor to be a staffed agency. The next step is in how you have planned to organize and manage your new successful team to be. First, everyone needs to know your agency’s mission statement and what you and your agency is all about, and what it does. As well, the companies vision statement in how it looks towards the future. These two statements are typically included in all business plans.
The agency has brought on three new personnel: a seasoned veteran, a highly successful, recommended travel school graduate, and a very motivated independent contractor. All three are going to require altogether different training, coaching, and development.
As you continue to evaluate your new hires’ progress through time, this will be an excellent time to consider what training could be most beneficial. One idea is offering a financial bonus or fams to encourage additional training skills from suppliers or destinations to complement their current or new skills. Another suggestion would be to partially or fully reimburse an agent for completing coursework, say from the Travel Institute or CLIA. Yes, it is an investment, but it is also your business. You’re showing your support and guidance in your hires might be enough to gain their loyalty to you and your company for the future.
The Travel Institute conducted a survey in 2017 that certified agents earned considerably more than agents who were not. Why would an agency owner not want to pursue additional certification and accreditation?
Sales/Compensation Results
- Travel Institute Certified (CTA, CTC, CTIE) averaged sales of $554,880/$42,953
- Travel Institute Destination & Niche Specialists averaged sales of $488,336/$37,534
- CLIA (CCC,ACC,MCC) agents averaged sales of $446,512/$33,534
- Supplier/other destinations & niche specialists earned sales of $403,775/$31,645
- Travel Institute TAP certification (Travel Agency Profienceincy) $265,541/$21,968
- No certification specialist training $215,114/$19,428
Your experienced agent comes with a lot of professional knowledge. What role should they undertake? Along with the agent advisor’s regular sales business, might they be able to step into a managerial or training role or helping out with back-office duties? Ongoing training should always be on the mind of every agency owner and agent. As the industry revolves around constant change, the agency should prioritize staying on top in this information age.
What training will be best for our experienced advisor? The more experienced agent should consider looking into the (CTC) Program to improve their overall travel career path skills if they had not already earned the certification. Even with a two-year college degree in intense “World Travel Management” instruction, I still found that continuing my education through being industry certified has been my most tremendous asset by laying the foundation for my travel career.
Our agency owner will want our experienced agent to continue their education and require our new intern to continue learning and grasping the travel and technical part of the job and customer service skills. For our newbie agent, even though there is no required exam to be called a travel advisor, a “Travel Counselor” survey suggests that 94% of 1000 counselors that industry education and training helped sell more travel. The agency owner might want to insist that the new agent continue their education through the Travel Institutes Certified Travel Associate (CTA) Certification program with a measure of compensation. This additional training with actual on-the-job training will enhance our new travel advisor’s knowledge and experience, along with gaining confidence.
With training ongoing, coaching/ development should be continuous as the agency owner should try and plan for as the business allows. With your new rookie travel advisor, the key should be to coach towards engaging in progressing at a rate of gaining confidence. Along with knowing and understanding the fundamentals of selling and booking travel, the agency owner will want and develop a sense of loyalty. A sizeable investment has been made into the new hire to bring the new agent up to good selling and booking skills. But now, you want and need to keep them if the result of your training and guidance is successful.
Independent contractors, according to the law, are technically running their own business. They should be encouraged to continue or complete refresher training in the specialties they are knowledgeable in or would like to learn or currently specialize in. IC’s could opt-in for additional training offered in IT applications, trade events, or even familiarisation trips (FAM) but with a stipulation that they are not required to attend. It is optional and at their own expense. Independent contractors (IC’s) have the same opportunity as full or part-time employee travel advisors to earn industry certifications and accreditations.
As stated early in this research, IC’s are becoming a significant part of the travel industry and can be some of your best agents. They should be encouraged as they are members of your team.
Coaching might be an excellent time to evaluate your newbie and experienced new employee or even offering your independent contractors if they would like to take the DISC Assessment. The DISC Assessment measures behavior and personality to improve communication in productivity, sales, teamwork, and leadership traits. As each character is unique, the assessment characteristics are four different DISC types: Dominant, Inspiring, Supportive, and Cauitioues. I have taken the evaluation twice. Once at a rapid pace and another time at a more casual rate. I scored differently with each assessment. Even though the review suggests no right or wrong answers, assessing each question without rushing through honestly gave me a better and more accurate reading of who I am. Even with this being a fun activity, the assessment might open a lot of thought to motivating and bringing out the best in your new employees or independent contractors. It will also offer the best direction to taking in training your new advisors.
How should you coach your experienced agent? DISC assessment might be able to help you understand the employee and what they are capable of doing. An owner needs to carefully assess their employee to see if they are coachable and at what stage. Is the employee just an average advisor? They will still need commendation for the work that they do but offer plenty of direction. Challenge your employee to move forward by adding new reasonability and possibly moving forward in a different office role. These agents do not need a lot of supervision, but key advisors shouldn’t be ignored or abandoned altogether.
Thinking ahead, is your new experienced agent hire going to possibly be a key agent or someone you could eventually offer your business’s reigns to in your absence? Or maybe assist in back-office management or marketing? The idea here is to challenge your key agents to move their strengths forward to better themselves.
According to ej4, LLC, coaching a new apprentice agent suggests most do not have the skillset or knowledge to do the job comfortably. Most new agents have some formal education in the travel industry. They understand tools are available but need to learn what they are and how to do a job best. And as they are learning, encourage them to reach out with questions. Coaching new agents will need to know what to do “give them enough information,” but “Don’t give them too much information, too fast.” In coaching, “Stay patient” as “they want to become empowered,” but “they need the time to become skilled.” And find the opportunities to let your new advisor know they are progressing well. Most importantly, please treat them with respect, and the agency will reap the rewards of sales and professionalism.
Your independent contractor (ICs), on the other hand, will still need coaching if requesting it on their own and at their cost, if any. Most independent contractors operate under a contract, and dependent on the IC’s sales performance, may or may not see a renewal in their future contract. With all agreements, there is an expectation of performance.
Development
Without a doubt, as travel agency owners, we know our segment of the travel business, whether it be the cruise lines, destinations, or all of those niches they come with, we love to promote and sell. But all too often, do we know how to manage it properly to run a successful agency? We presumed at the beginning that our agency owner had already shown that they were a successful manager and seller of travel and demonstrated the proper steps in the planning process. But as the agency’s employees continue on their training in becoming better equipped to the appropriate service and sales skills, the agency owner should continue to plan for the agency’s ultimate success through the continuance of successful development in preparing for the future.
References
Mary Stein, “Travel Agent Employees: Income Report, 2020”, Host Agency Reviews January 29, 2021. https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agent-employee-income-2020
Bureau of Labor and Statistics press release on December 17, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/newd.release/pdf/ecec.pdf
Travel Institute CTC Elective “Training and Development in the Travel Workplace” Employment Training and Development – May 2003
Dawn Rosenberg McKay, “What Does a Travel Agent Do?” The Balance Careers –June 25, 2019, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/travel-agent-526076
The Travel Institute – “How Independent Contractors re Changing the Face of the Retail Travel Industry” – May 7, 2018. https://www.thetravelinstitute.com/2018/05/07/how-independent-contractors-are-changing-the-face-of-the-retail-travel-industry/
Matthew Chulaw – Interview Penquin.com, “Travel Agent Interview Questions and Answers” – July 8, 2020. https://interviewpenguin.com/travel-agent-interview
Disc Profile – “What Is Disc?” – https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc
The Travel Institute – “Survey Shows Close Ties Between Certification and Financial Success” – Online survey conducted between November 30 – December 9, 2017, representing some 1,808 travel advisors. https://www.thetravelinstitute.com/2018/06/04/survey-shows-close-ties-between-certification-and-financial-success/
Travel Institute CTC Elective “Training and Development in the Travel Workplace” Employment Training and Development – May 2003
Travel Institute CITE Training – ej4 DISC Training “Coaching Skills: The Rookies.”
