Relationships that last - Making it work

HE talked about trust, mutual understanding, being a good provider and keeping the other person happy. Hugo Torres has been in it with his wife for many years.

He wasn’t referring to one of the Holy Sacraments but he couldn’t have chosen a better analogy to describe the factors that contribute to a long-lasting relationship between an agent and his client.

“It is just like being in a marriage,” said Torres, managing director of EcoAndes Travel in Lima, which he set up with his wife, Mireya, 20 years ago.

“It is not a secret. They want a good tour operator who knows how to handle clients. As in any business, you will see that they will stay for a long time.”

Price and quality are part of and parcel of the package as well although he stressed that quality is more important.

EcoAndes is one of the biggest tour operators in Peru and has about a hundred employees. It also has offices in Ecuador, Galapagos and Bolivia. Torres referred to it as a “hands-on small company” where he still busies himself in the front line. To him it is just a day’s work but some of the people he works with see it differently. He narrated how one new client was pleasantly surprised with the personal touch. The latter said that the tour operator he used to deal with was so big and impersonal that in all the many years he stayed with them, never once did he see the big boss.

The potency of establishing a personal relationship with the client is something that Joseph Lo swears by. Lo is director of PoloAir Travel Limited, a consolidator in Hong Kong. He said that once the trust and confidence of the clients are earned, the relationship is for keeps. In addition to delivering as he has promised, he goes out with his clients after-office hours. Prior to joining PoloAir in 2002, he was with Alitalia’s Hong Kong office for 25 years until it closed in 2001. He said that the clients he had over there are still the same ones “helping” him today.

Needless to stress, forging relationships with clients entails maximum effort and not happen overnight. But sometimes it just happens. Just like how it happened to Michael Chan, GM of Lastminute.com in Hong Kong. All he ever wanted to do was to help him.

In 1980, Chan was on a flight to the US. He was on the emergency exit row, which had a view of the washroom. From the corner of his eye, he saw a man enter the washroom and then fall down, his face hitting the door before blacking out. He jumped out of his seat to help the man and called the attention of the flight attendant. The man had broken his chin. Before the day ended, he had requested the airline to arrange an ambulance for him, calmed him down and allayed his fears over the projected medical expenses before accompanying him to the hospital.

“This guy now is one of my biggest customers,” he summed up.