TravelMole Secret Agent – handling a holiday request for a disabled client

Well as you may have guessed….l never made it to the easyCruise fam trip, and not through my own doing. 

Trip cancelled, due to a Greek labour strike and the boat, sorry ship not being ready in time!  So l am still none the wiser to whether l would have been dreaming in Orange.

Fam trip being cancelled was a bit of a blessing in disguise, as l have been so busy. 

Phones have not stopped, which is absolute heaven after the bad start to the year. I have had a real 50/50 split of new calls and old customers/recommendations. 

It is lovely to get old customers and recommendations as it is confirmation that l do my job well, and no one tells you that when you work for yourself.  Everyone likes praise, and l receive my praise through old customers, and that makes me happy.

I have had a  range of enquiries over the last couple of weeks.  From the simple one night in a hotel in Chester to the very last minute and complicated honeymoon, which l am still working on.

I also received a call last week which as soon as l heard the request my heart just sunk. 

Wrongly so, but as soon as l heard the words ‘we have a severely disabled daughter’ my head was spinning – who’s going to help me, are the operators going to have the right information?

Is it only me that panics with such an enquiry? I have had so many problems in the past with just not being able to get the right information from operators on suitability of properties, ramps at hotels, access to common areas etc. 

But my customers were a well travelled family and very easy going, and best thing of all she had already picked two properties that she thought might suit. 

Lucky for me they were both with Olympic Holidays. So l braced myself and picked up the phone to reservations. 

Oh my god, l actually spoke to someone that was interested and went out of his way to get me all the answers.  Olympic obviously has a full report on each property they feature, and this also details suitability for disabled customers.  There were a few questions that he could not answer, so he picked up the phone and rang the owner.  The answers were all positive and we booked. 

Customer was over the moon at such a quick response and she booked immediately. 

My customer later divulged that she had been into her regular travel agent (Thomas Cook), who she had booked with for years, days ago with the same request. As yet she had still not heard back from them !

There loss is my gain, as the next day her daughter also booked with me.  I hopefully now have them both as a regulars of mine.

I was so impressed with the reservations clerk at Olympic, l actually took the time to email his supervisor to make sure he was aware of the good service l had received. 

I think its important to give praise where praise is due,  We are always quick to criticise but not to commend.

So, all my fears now of receiving a disabled call are completely forgotten. I need not have worried – if you pick the right operator it’s easy.

I am off on my own holiday next week, to recharge my batteries for a bumper booking season.

No phones, no customers, no housework……BLISS.

Will let you know of my adventure when l return, although it will mainly consist of which books l read, food and alcohol !