Every day it seems that we are moving closer and closer to an endemic status with COVID. And this is a great thing. More people are vaccinated. People have built up immunity. The drug companies seem to be on top of things. New variants seem less and less severe. All great news! One of my favorite songs is The End by The Doors. But I do not see our business in quite as fatalistic of a light! Now is the time to get those clients in the door and keep them. But…

In the past, I’ve written articles about how travel professionals can learn from really good companies and industries. An incident over the past week, however, reminds me of how much we have to learn from companies whose sense of customer satisfaction was apparently developed in a vacuum. On a positive note, because most consumers have to deal frequently with these bungled attempts at customer service, the cosmic bar has been lowered and good customer service is a very welcomed change you can deliver on with surprising ease. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to briefly study some good examples of bad examples:

This could be totally related to age, and there is a good chance many of you reading today’s article will not identify with what I am about to say. I am going to give it a shot anyway.

I am not calling them liars, but when I hear somebody say they have no regrets in their lives, I can’t help but think they are in the minority. I am fast to admit that I have had a memorable ride for the past 72-years, but I still have a boatload of situations where I would have played my cards differently. Full disclosure: I often wake up in the middle of the night asking myself, “what was I thinking!”

The truth of the matter is that the past cannot…