As a travel agent, you have traveled many places, experienced hundreds of destinations and have a world of value sitting right in your head. But, how often do you give yourself credit for the things you REALLY know well?

Here’s a great story I would like to share, that just occurred for us at Hills of Africa, yesterday. A travel agent contacted us about assisting with a potential journey for clients interested in traveling to Tanzania.

The clients didn’t contact the travel agent first.  Instead, they started searching on the internet and found a small tour operator, based in Tanzania, that offered itineraries with prices that appealed to the client (on the low end). The clients e-mailed the tour operator and requested a quote.  A day later, the tour operator presented the clients with a proposed itinerary.  Since the clients had never heard of the tour operator, and they were considering dropping thousands of dollars on a vacation to a destination they may never travel to again, they decided to seek an opinion.  This is when they got in contact with their travel agent.

So, the travel agent contacted Hills of Africa to see if we could provide a quote for her clients, hoping to get the business. We put the agent in touch with Mark Homann, our fabulous East Africa specialist.  The agent forwarded Mark the proposed itinerary for a look, opinion and also requested that he put together an itinerary and quote.

Mark is from Zimbabwe, but it’s possible, he knows the safari terrain in Kenya and Tanzania, better than the back of his hand. Mark is an East Africa specialist because he has years of experience as a private safari guide in the area.  He also spent time as the head safari guide at one of the most luxurious lodges in Tanzania.

Mark is not one to seek attention – but his reaction to the itinerary sought mine. He flatly told me it was the worst planned itinerary he has ever laid eyes upon.

In his lovely Zimbabwean accent (albeit softened by several years living in the USA), he said to me “the clients are traveling in February and at that time of year, the migration is close to the Crater. They are going to drive past the migration, all the way to the other side of the Serengeti.  The whole point of being in the Serengeti is being close to the migration so that you can spend time with it.  One of their transfers is going to be 7 hours long and this is 7 hours of driving AWAY from the best animal concentrations at this time of year.”

For Mark, it was as clear as day that this itinerary was all wrong. But the clients had no idea.  They were focused on price.  They found an itinerary whose price matched what they were “willing” to pay.  The quote Mark created had a price tag almost double the original itinerary, and it remains to be seen if the clients book our itinerary.  Even if they don’t book our itinerary, Mark’s expertise just saved the client thousands of dollars.

The lesson I want you to take from this story is that what is plain as day to you, thanks to your experience and expertise, is often not on the radar screen for your clients. Take a moment to really appreciate the value of your expertise.  When you value your expertise, your clients will too!