Service comes in many forms - Comment by Jeremy Skidmore

The debate rumbles on about how agents will be paid in future. Will they live on what they earn instead of receiving a salary from their bosses? Can they get away with charging service fees to the consumer? Can Internet travel sites charge consumers? The big retail chains say they won’t stop paying their staff a salary. But that’s now – wait and see them change their minds in a few years time. I can certainly imagine travel agents being paid little or no salary as the pressure to cut costs gets ever more intense. Then they’ll have to rely on the service fees they charge customers. Tour operators and airlines certainly won’t be paying their mortgages. Before that happens, many agents will either have to raise their game or go to the wall. At the moment, not enough can justify a fee to their clients and while that may be just about acceptable now, it’s a recipe for disaster in the future. But it should be remembered that service can come in many forms. Just being the cheapest can be a great service for people who are looking for a deal. Some industry experts say Internet travel sites are only good for point-to-point travel and cannot cope with complicated itineraries. They say this, coupled with the fact that they don’t offer human contact, means they won’t be able to charge fees. That’s rubbish. If they’re offering a good deal, it makes sense for the consumer to pay a fee if his total outlay is still less than the amount he would pay elsewhere. Service is not just about looking after people, massaging their egos and ringing them up to make sure they’ve got their tickets or had a nice holiday. But whichever way you cut it, every agent has got to offer some form of service in the future that customers feel is worth paying for. If not, they’ll be doing something else for a living within a few years.