Hello WorldVia Travel Network Family,
Phil Hayford is one of the most influential people in my life. He’s not a TED talk thought leader, not a billionaire entrepreneur, and not a motivational guru… though I’m fairly confident he could have been any of those. Phil Hayford is a high school football coach. He’s the winningest coach in Pinellas County, Florida, history, actually, and still coaching in his 70s, after several un-retirements.
Phil taught me a lot of things about a lot of things. One of those things was never to read too much into your own press clippings. No matter how good other people said you were, the thing to focus on was not the success, but the next challenge, the next opportunity to improve. We could win a game 70-0 and the focus on Monday morning was what we could improve.
Won the game? Good for us. Who do we play next?
A+ on the test? Great job. When's the next quiz?
Made the sale? Excellent, how do you make sure they are thrilled?
And so on…
The mentality of seeing past the praise to keep laser-focused on the next hurdle has stuck with me (sometimes to my team’s chagrin, not to mention my children). It doesn’t mean you don’t celebrate a win, but you cannot dwell on it for very long, or it just may be your last win.
So, why am I sharing this?
A few weeks back, I was talking with one of our advisors here at WorldVia Travel Network about her client feedback. Every response was glowing. “Best trip we’ve ever taken.” “Couldn’t have done it without you.” “We’re already talking about next year.”
She said something I haven’t been able to shake: “Jason, why does this feel like a problem?”
She wasn’t being humble. She was being honest and recognized what many don’t.
Her referral count was flat
Her repeat booking rate was slightly down year over year
Her revenue had plateaued
And yet, every client was telling her she was incredible! That gap between what clients say and what clients do is the gap where complacency lives.
The Praise Paradox
Praise feels like success, but it isn’t. Praise makes you feel like you’ve won the race, but you haven’t. Praise is a data point, and usually an incomplete one. Understanding and responding to a complaint is much easier than interpreting a compliment.
Here’s what travel advisors often have to internalize: a happy client is the bare minimum. The advisors who keep growing year after year don’t just collect compliments and move on. They analyze them, probe them, and act on them.
Why Compliments Can Kill
Compliments come with two huge blind spots:
Survivorship bias. The clients who didn’t love everything? Well, they probably didn’t tell you. They just quietly booked direct next time. They stopped replying to check-ins. They sent their sister to someone else. An inbox of “thank you” notes is full of people who liked you enough to write back. But what about the people who didn’t write to you? You’re missing the data from the people who didn’t love everything.
The polite ceiling. Most clients won’t tell advisors what almost ruined their trip. They’ll send the highlight reel. The little frustrations, the moments they’d change, the things they wish you’d offered all stay locked in their heads. They like you too much to mention it, or they don’t want the awkward conversation.
So, what to do? Waiting for clients to volunteer the gaps means never find them. You have to go get them.
The Three Audits
Here's an easy framework you can apply to every piece of glowing client feedback you receive:
1. The Specificity Audit (What did they actually say?)
Vague praise is thin praise. “It was amazing” says nothing. “The villa in Tuscany was perfect, especially the cooking class you arranged on day three” tells exactly what to replicate, sell, and double down on.
Advisors, pull up your last ten pieces of client feedback and count how many contain a specific detail you can act on. If most of them are some flavor of “everything was great, thank you,” you have the opportunity to ask better follow-up questions.
Try this the next time a client says it was wonderful:
“I love hearing that, it really makes my day. Can I ask one favor? Can you tell me the single best moment of the trip? Maybe the one that surprised you or just your absolute favorite part? I’m trying to get better at building those moments on purpose, and your answer helps me do that.”
That question does two things. It surfaces the gold you can act on and tells clients that you’re a craftsperson, not an order-taker.
2. The Silence Audit (What did they NOT mention?)
This one is harder, and it’s where the growth lives. Pull up a recent piece of glowing feedback. Now ask: what did I work hard on that they didn’t mention at all?
Maybe that means arranging a special private transfer in a classic car that took forty-five minutes to coordinate, and they didn’t say a word about it. Maybe it means building a custom dining list they apparently never used. Or, negotiating a room upgrade that went unnoticed.
Silence isn’t automatically failure, but it is information. It tells you where your effort isn’t landing. And if your effort isn’t landing, you have a choice: stop doing it (because nobody values it) or sell it harder upfront so clients know to look for it.
Being ruthless about cutting silent effort is much better than being quietly proud of all the work nobody notices.
Want to accelerate this idea? Advisors, pick three of your best clients from the last year and send each of them a specific question:
"Looking back, what's the one thing you wish I'd done differently?" or "If you were going to send me a client this year, what would you want me to do for them that I didn't quite nail for you?"
Their answers are the silent feedback you never asked for.
3. The Behavior Audit (What are they actually doing?)
Warning: this is the one that may hurt. Words are cheap, and what the client does is the real review.
For every client who said they “loved it” in the last year, here are three questions I recommend advisors ask:
Did they rebook with me, or are they perhaps planning their next trip with someone else or on their own?
Did they refer me to a specific person, by name, with an introduction?
Did they leave a public review without being asked?
The Behavior Audit doesn’t tell you what to change. It tells you whether the feedback is real.
Channeling Praise Into Confidence, Not Complacency
I don’t want this message to leave anyone feeling deflated. Positive feedback is valuable. The point isn’t to discount it, but to use it correctly.
Here’s how you can productively use the praise you’re given:
Use praise as proof in the next sales conversation. Any compliment is great content. Get permission, anonymize if needed, and put it in front of that next inquiry. “Here’s what a recent client said about their experience after a trip like the one you’re asking about…”
Send the praise upstream. When a client raves about the hotel, the guide, the driver, or the chef, forward it! To the BDM, to the GM, by name. Everyone likes to hear praise and it costs nothing while strengthening your relationships.
Feel good about compliments. Enjoy them in the moment, and revisit them when you're feeling unsure, but don't become complacent. Complacency shows up disguised as a really nice email from a really happy client.
To get where you’re going, though, you have to read past the praise and find the next thing to build.
Best Success,
Jason