annual test for TA

China Highlights has been working on a TA (Travel Advisor) Tests since this Monday. Every afternoon, Victor, the Director, professional marketing expert, Brian, and sales supervisor, Angela, would host a test for 3 to 5 TAs in the meeting room.

It was finally my turn this afternoon. Angela firstly gave me five envelopes to draw one piece of paper from each envelope, and after 5 minutes preparation, I stepped into the meeting room, a bit nervous! They were sitting there and smiling at me, I started to answer my questions one by one and here are the questions I had:

1. What are the special notes for Tibet and the Silk Road?
2. What should you do if customers lose their luggage?
3. How long can you get a visa for?
4. Offer a humanities culture itinerary.
5. Handle a complaint case.

The special notes for Tibet tours are: customers with heart attacks and hypertension should not go to Tibet; if you get a cold, you should not go to Tibet; necessary medicines should be prepared to help one get used to high altitude; sunscreen and sunglasses should be brought to protect skin and eyes; do not touch anything in a monastery; do not take pictures without permission; do not each fish with Tibetan people and others.

For question 2, Angela acted as a customer who could not find one piece of her luggage in the airport, my suggestion for her is that she gave her boarding pass to the guide. The guide would then help her track down the missing luggage with the airline company, after taking her back to the hotel. If the luggage is re-located, it would be sent to the hotel without delay. If it needed more time or it proved to be gone, basic necessities are suggested to be bought in the city. If the customer had bought insurance to cover missing luggage, she should get a certificate from the airline company and work on getting compensation immediately.

Usually for getting a visa, take a Hong Kong agency as an example, it takes about 4 working days to get a visa, but the agency offers emergency and same day rush services at extra expense.

A Humanities culture itinerary should include home and market visits for the customers to get closer to the local people. Some special programs would be interesting, e.g. making dumplings with a Hutong family, hanging around in an antique Sunday market or paying a visit to a village where local people paint simple but nice paintings. Victor tried to make it more “off-the-beaten-track”. I suggest a trip into the minority villages in Guizhou province, but surely not many customers have the courage to try very basic toilets along the way, most hotels are less comfortable than the ones in big cities and some hotels are not star-rated, but definitely the landscapes along the way are rewarding!

Last, but not least, Brian “ring ring” called and pretended to complain about his pervious stop in Guilin, he complained that the guide was missing when he and his wife were ready to get ashore (from a Li River cruise). They had to get to the hotel on their own and finally found that the guide was waiting for them there. What made the experience worse was that the show that night was cancelled! I expressed my heartfelt apologies for the unpleasant experience that happened to him, and promised that I will get back to him with a workable solution when I had confirmed everything with the guide. Finally, he decided he would still like to use our service to arrange two half day trips in Hong Kong during his stay.

Though it is a palm-sweating experience to take a test, it is very good to practice “at-the-scene” situations to solve possible problems for customers. My thanks for Victor, Brian and Angela’s hard work!