As a travel professional, is your work with your clients transactional?
Travel is personal.
Emotional.
Individual.
It’s all about the relationships we form with ourselves, with others, and with the world and people around us.
In this article, I’m highlighting the importance of active listening, effective communication, and the power of human connection – which are all huge themes in travel.
This is exactly the kind of work we do in the Travel Coach Network.
About the Author: Sahara Rose DeVore
Hi, I’m Sahara Rose DeVore
I’m a world traveler turned entrepreneur, and the founder of The Travel Coach Network and the first ICF-accredited Travel Coach Certification Program™.
After solo traveling to 84+ countries and building a purpose-driven travel business, I now empower fellow wanderers and wanderlusters to turn their passion for travel into meaningful, impactful careers.
My work has been featured in 175+ media outlets including Forbes, CNN Travel, and Condé Nast Traveller.
Learn more about me and The Travel Coach Network when you click here.
Free Economy Class TCN Membership: Learn About Travel Coaching
Don’t have enough time to read this whole article?
Click here to get access to the FREE TCN Membership!
The Economy Class Membership for the Travel Coach Network includes:
– Travel Coaching 101 Masterclass
– Travel Coach Workbook
– Downloadable Beginner’s Guide to Travel Coaching
We Need to Move Beyond Transactional Relationships With Clients
Clients want to feel and know that you are truly hearing what they have to say.
is your responsibility as the travel coach to focus completely on what your client is and isn’t saying.
This is important because in order to provide proper and effective advice and guidance, you need to fully understand your client’s desires, self-expression, goals, fears, values, beliefs, and idea of possibilities.
As a travel coach, empowerment and personalization are key ingredients to your services which is why it is important that you encourage, accept, explore, and reinforce your client’s unique perceptions, feelings, worries, beliefs, wellbeing, learning style, and ideas/suggestions.
Then, with those ideas and suggestions of your client, build upon them and integrate them into how you see them moving forward and excelling towards their goals.
Asking the right questions is crucial.
Go beneath the surface than the traditional logistics of a trip or a client’s past travel decisions and preferences.
Remember, we are all different people each time that we go on a trip.
Sometimes we are overworked and stressed out, the next we may be celebrating with our friends, another time could be coping with grief, and then next we may be looking for time alone.
Ask questions that spark self-discovery, insight, commitment, or action-taking such as questions that challenge your client’s assumptions or thought process.
The best way to display understanding and ensure clarity of what your client is saying is to summarize, paraphrase, and repeat back to them what they said.
One of greatest attributes of travel is human connection.
Many of us travel for the benefits of human connection as we seek social interaction, a sense of belonging, feeling understood and accepted, hearing stories and creating our own stories, spending quality time with loved ones, building relationships, and strengthening bonds.
Working with clients is another form of human connection.
Help your clients gain a better understanding of their need for human connection and how they can make confident decisions on how to include or improve human connection in their life.
This could be helping them make an empowered decision on who to travel with, how to engage with people while traveling or in transport, the importance of immersing into other cultures, and how to implement and put that human connection into their personal needs and goals.
Listen to the Travel Coach Network Podcast
If you love listening to, learning about, and discussing topics like these in the travel industry, then you’ll love this show!
You can find it on any major podcast player.
Free Resources for Future Travel Coaches
Check out these other free resources for aspiring travel coaches:
- Listen to the Travel Coach Network Podcast
This is the perfect way to learn all about travel coaching, no matter where you are in your business journey. - Access the FREE, Economy Class of the TCN Membership
This includes a free masterclass and workbook to help you learn more about travel coaching! - Join the FREE Travel Coach Community Facebook Group
Be around inspiring and aspiring travel coaches who are just as passionate about travel as you. - Connect with the Travel Coach Network on Instagram
Have a quick question? Send us a DM! You’ll hear from me or a member of my team quickly.
