Assignment week 4

D-reizen use a system, where they can see if someone has returned from their holiday. We use “Items on the agenda” but in the system it’s in Dutch “agenderingen”. It says that you have to do a aftersale. First you have to check when they got back from holiday. Wait at least 1 day depending on the time they got back. For example when they get home at midnight, you don’t call them that same day. Call them the next day. Ask the customers how their holiday was and went everything as planned?

People are very satisfied about D-reizen. They say that the employees are very helpful, customer-friendly and thinking along. My tip is to hold on to this service and keep up the good work.

D-reizen also does presales. They call the customers between 4-5 months after they got back from their holiday. They ask the customers if they are planning a new holiday and that we are always available to help people with their next holiday.

The service and good help is why people are coming back. They also find it better to book their holiday at a travel agency, because D-reizen does almost everything for their customers. From booking their holiday till making reservations for their plane seats and booking luggage till insurances.

We also offer assistance at the airport for people who are in a wheelchair or people who have a disability. We also help people with their visa and give them advice about taking vaccinations.

Most of the bookings are including transfers from the hotel to the airport. People will get informed at the hotel when they get picked up. If they are in need or there is something wrong they can always call  our emergency number.

 

Top 5 of most frequently reported complaints.

1: FTI bankruptcy

2: Flight changes

3: Delay

4: Price differences

5: Extorting money from people

 

1: A couple of weeks ago a German tour operator FTI went bankrupt. That cause a lot of trouble in the travel industry. There were a lot of holidays cancelled. So our job was to help these people with a new vacation. A lot of people weren’t satisfied, but that’s understandable.

2: Sometimes it happens that a flight changes, but it’s never a guarantee that that doesn’t happen. So always keep in mind that your flight can change.

3: Flight delays are also something that can happen. If a flight is seriously delayed, you can sometimes get compensation.

4: People are using multiple sites to check a hotel for example, but the prices are different on each site.

5:  I read this complain on Trustpilot. There was this review about that D-reizen is extorting money from people. The review says that we offer people expensive holidays on purpose to make more money.

 

Ranking top 5 from easiest to solve to least easy to solve.

1: Price differences

2: Delays:

3: Extorting money from people

4: Flight changes

5: FTI bankruptcy

 

The easiest way to solve most of these problems is to call the customers and explain how it is.

 

Incentive means to encourage your customers or colleagues. To give them a little push in the right direction. We encourage each other to make great bookings, working together, being respectful to each other and help the customers as good as possible.

We encourage each other by talking a lot and keep each other updated about what’s going on in the travel industry. And we also look if someone hasn’t brought in a lot of bookings. So that we can give the colleague with the fewest bookings also the change to make a great booking.

 

Assignment week 5

Moment to reflect

I’ve done so many things the last 4 weeks. Here are the tasks I did the last weeks: Getting to know the systems they work with, booking flight tickets, sending e-mails to hotels with preferences, booking luggage’s, making seat reservations, checking people in (and sending their boarding passes), booking city trips, booking tours, selling insurances, aftersales, answering phone calls, tasks in agendas (agenderingen), make the travel papers complete and I’ve booked holidays and rental cars for customers by myself to different countries.

 

These first weeks was really to get to know the systems, because D-reizen use different systems and it takes time to get to know them. My role was to see how my colleagues did their sale conversation with customers. And picking up the phone was one of my first tasks. That was also to feel comfortable if one my colleagues can’t pick up the phone. The expectations towards me was to sit with the sale conversations and see how my colleagues sell holidays, insurances and rental cars for customers. I wanted to achieve that I could do my own bookings after 2 weeks in the first 4 weeks.

 

The main question I asked my colleagues was which destinations did they like the most and why? So I could use their stories and opinions to sell and give information about the destinations they have been to other customers. I have an open and friendly attitude towards our guests. I try to help them as good as possible.

 

Picking up the phone was easy for me, because for my parttime job I do that the whole day. I also find aftersales easy to do, because I also do that for my parttime job. I work at the ANWB, where I answer calls from customers whose car broke down. I also do aftersales at the ANWB. For example if the customers call us at first and we see that their car still have brand guarantee we send them to a different company and they have to help the customers. 1,5 hours later you call the customer again and ask whether they have been helped yet and whether everything has been successful. I didn’t found anything “difficult” it was that I didn’t know the systems so that took some time to get to know them.

 

I listened to the feedback, I evaluate, reflect and I respond. So that I can learn and grow. Having an open attitude to your colleagues also helps them to give me feedback. I haven’t given my colleagues feedback so far. Well it’s not really feedback, but more tips. Like great places to go at destinations I have been to for example.

 

I’ve learned so much about destinations, because of my colleagues and customers. I’ve also learned how the travel industry works and how some things are complicated for example with bankrupt.

 

I really like to do appointments, because that gives me the most energy. Finding holidays and give people information about different countries is what I like the most. The variety of customers is also very fun to work with. Some people are looking for holidays, but we also have guests who are just looking for flight tickets.

 

I learned that this evaluation report helps me to show myself what I already did that last couple of weeks and what my progress is. It motivates me to keep on going and learn more about the travel industry and how to help people making decisions with their holiday.

 

 

Conclusion

My internship supervisor from D-reizen says that I’m a quick learner, enthusiastic and an advanced student. We would like to see me grow and that I also do complaints. Eventually I need to do my own sales conversation and I want to improve my knowledge to a higher level.

 

Assignment week 9

 

 

The second moment to reflect: Week 9

A = Points of attention

2 underage customers of D-reizen were on holiday to Mallorca, after 1 night staying at the hotel. They got kicked out, because they were underage. It was a very weird situation. The hotel already knew that they were underage at the time they checked in and a colleague of mine called the hotel in advance and at that time they also said that the girls were allowed at the hotel, but they still kicked them out. So the 2 girls were on the street at Mallorca without hotel. I helped my colleague finding a hotel for the 2 girls. I looked on different websites if I could find something for the girls. My intention was to find them a hotel and not spend the night on the streets. I really wanted to calm down the parents with a solution for the girls, because they were really concerned about their daughters. It was very nerve wrecking, because a lot of hotels were fully booked or didn’t allow underage teens in the hotel. We worked as a team with different branches. Everyone did their best. We gladly found a hotel for the girls, after a long day of searching.

 

B = Meaning

It’s says that I have a good heart, want to help people and want to have the best for them. What important was for me was that the parents were calmed down and that the girls had a hotel where they could stay in. My expectations was that we should work as a team and that we could help the girls. Maybe if we asked the hotel to write a email to us with the confirmation that the girls were allowed at the hotel. That was perhaps a solution.

 

C = Consequence

For the next time if we book a holiday with underage customers we need to be 100% sure that they are allowed in some hotels and ask the hotel to write an email to precaution to prevent this problem. It means that if a colleague or I ever have to deal with this situation again, we can prevent problems and draw attention to each other that you have to pay attention to it. An alternative was to bring back the girls and find them a other hotel somewhere else at our costs.

 

D = To Do

I will do the first step when I have underage customers. For now I can’t really do anything, because the problem was already solved. If I ever get underage customers I want to prevent problems and first call the hotel and ask for an email. I would be very satisfied if our underage customers can stay at a hotel and celebrate their holiday without any problem. And I can do this if I can make sure that the hotel allow underage people.

 

Conclusion: Ilse and I worked on this case together, along with other colleagues. I explained everything very clear in this reflection. The most important was that we found a new hotel for the girls and that we helped them. It’s was a great and a nerve wrecking situation at the same time that we can learn a lot from.

 

Assignment week 14

STARRT METHOD

 

Situation:

It happened 2 weeks ago. I was working at D-reizen in Meppel and I had 2 customers, a mom with her son. They were looking for a city trip to Athens or Rome. But their preference was Athens, because they have never been to Athens. But I didn’t know anything about the city so that was a challenge.

 

Task:

Well my task and role was to find something and convince the customer to go to that destination. I didn’t know much about Athens, so I searched for some information about the city before the customers came. I also did this together with the customers, to show them what Athens has to offer and to give them a better perspective. My goal was to convince the customers to book the city trip. I showed them a lot of highlights and immediately they were excited.

 

Action:

First I greeted the customers and offered them Thea, coffee or water. Then they took place at my desk. I could already see what they were looking for in our agenda so I asked if they wanted to compare Athens with Rome, but the woman immediately said “well let’s just look at Athens”. So Rome fell straight away so that we could focus on Athens. She changed her mind about Rome, because she already has been to Rome and wanted to see a new city. So I used the website of Sunair they are specialized in city trips and offers the best hotels on the best locations. We found 1 great hotel which overlooked the amazing Acropolis. The customers were excited about the hotel. They said that the view was great and the hotel looked very clean and modern. So I knew this was the right hotel for them. Beside that you also have to look at plane tickets. Amsterdam Schiphol had the perfect flight times, so that made the choice easy. The customers were really satisfied with everything and wanted to book the city trip.

 

Result:

Because I helped the customers well and because I did a lot of research, the outcome was that they started booking with me. After I had entered their names and dates of birth in the system, I could complete the booking and pay the deposit with them and then give them the booking confirmation. Then we have to wait until 2 weeks before the leave for the travel papers. In the meantime, they  must complete the rest of the payment. And if the customers asks if we could check them in then we ask for service costs. Then we will check the customers 24-30 hours in before departure. The customers were really satisfied with everything and they were looking forward to got to Athens.

 

 

Reflect:

I think I did a great job, because I almost did know nothing about Athens, except for the Acropolis. I was really satisfied with how the conversation went and that I did some research. That helped me a lot with convincing the customers booking the city trip. It shows that I’m interested in the wishes of the costumers and that I’m willing to put effort in the sales conversation.

 

Transfer:

For the next time if I don’t know much about a destination or city, I will ask my colleagues if they have been to that destination or city. If not, then I will do my research and find as much as possible information about the destination or city.

 

 

Conclusion:
Nick did not know much about the destination, but took a good interest in the customers needs.
This is very important to come across well to the customers.
In the end he was able to make a nice booking, they were satisfied customers and he learned something about a (for him) new/unknown destination.