Home Based Travel Agent - June 2008 - (Page 18)

Technology Tips for Saving Time and Money Here’s how to get even more out of technology to improve and organize your business There can be no doubt that technology is constantly changing the travel industry. Beyond the obvious convenience of how e-mailing has cut down on your calls and the manner in which e-tickets have saved your absentminded clients, there are many technology tips that could improve the efficiency of your business. Save Yourself Let’s look at the most common travel technological gadget: email. Although you might be a speedster at sending them off, it’s not necessarily so smart to delete them as quickly. By keeping the “save as” button checked, you may be making yourself money for years to come. First, by keeping all e-mails you have written documentation, which counts as legal documentation in case a client tries to go back on a deal. Second, if you think of a client for a trip who somehow isn’t in your database, e-mail will have their information—just type the name into the search function. Finally, if you read something about a trip that you think could be helpful, you can cut and paste the text into an e-mail. And, by putting the vital information in a subject line, you can later recall the e-mail as you need it. Next, we come to the scanner. By coupling one of these 18 NEW with Adobe Acrobat Professional software, you instantly have every important piece of paper at your fingertips. Get rid of that overflowing file cabinet and simply scan every document you need and, again, e-mail it to yourself under a subject line you’re bound to remember. And what of that bulky fax machine? With your scanner and e-mail fax services, such as RapidFax (www.rapidfax.net), you can scan and fax everything through your computer. Simply scan the pages you want, click on “cre- ate PDF” in Adobe, attach the file into an email, send and now you’re done faxing. Faxes also can come to you from anywhere with no printing costs and no worries that your fax machine has to be on (RapidFax starts at $9.95 a month and has a 30-day trial). Audrey Kennedy, co-owner of Tarzana, CA-based agency OnThe Map, communicates often with her St. Louis, MO-based partner, Anne MacIntyre, via computer. But what really changed her business was her partner’s decision to switch computers from a PC to a Mac. That’s her top technology Saving documents on a computer can give your overflowing file cabinet a rest tip, which she’s deciding to heed herself. “I’m getting ready to join her after using a PC for years,” Kennedy says. “I was concerned about ‘unlearning’ everything I know on a PC, but she was offered a package from Mac where she can come in to the store and get 52 hours of training for $99—one lesson a week for a year. And it can be on any topic she wants. All of a sudden, she’s turning into a master of Excel and it’s all because of the service Mac provides. I want to know that whatever computer software or technique I want to learn for my business, I can ask someone without feeling embarrassed.” If you don’t have time to go into a store, there are many tutorials online. Microsoft, for example, has an Excel Home-BasedTravelAgent JUNE 2 0 0 8 http://www.rapidfax.net

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Home Based Travel Agent - June 2008 Contents Editor's Note Publisher's Note Your Lifeline Agent Spotlight New Technology Industry News Hot Deals Indentifying Agents Delivering Documents Culinary Vacations Pacific Northwest Cover Story: Cruising Scandinavia Agent Access New Products

Home Based Travel Agent - June 2008

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