CTA Vocab Flashcards
Profession
An occupation requiring a specialized body of knowledge.
Professional
People who earn living by practicing some skill or engaging in some activity that requires expertise.
Professionalism
People who have the willingness to give those standards and the client’s intresest priority over personal considerations, and who possess the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs with expertise.
Card Mills
Organizations that sell travel agent identification cards to the general public under the guise of bona fide employment in the travel industry.
Hidden-city Ticketing
An unethical ticketing practice, in which a client wants to go to city Y buys a ticket for a flight from city X to city Z with a connection at city Y because the fare for a ticket from city X to city Z is less than the fare from city X to city Y. The client actually ends the trip when the plane lands at city Y.
Doublebooking
Booking two reservations for and individual at the same time. This is unethical.
Excellence in Service
Ensuring clients have our best efforts and customized products of the highest quality before, during and after a transaction.
Honesty and Integrity
To exhibit ethical, truthful, and honorable behavior and to exercise good judgement.
Passion
To love what we do and to inspire excitement in our clients.
Commitment
To be loyal, dedicated, and devoted to our clients, the organization, the community, and the profession.
Individual Responsibility
To hold ourselves accountable, to deliver what we promise, and to own up to our mistakes.
Efficiency and Accuracy
To do things correctly the first time and without wasting time, effort or resources.
Communication
To respond quickly, accurately, and honestly to clients, vendors, suppliers, supervisors and coworkers.
Currency and Knowledge
To constantly research current trends, methods, and destinations to best serve the client and the organization.
ASTA
American Society of Travel Agents
NTA
National Tour Association
Time Log
A record of what you do and how long it takes you to do it.
A-B-C Method
Label System -
A - Needs your attention now and must be done by the end of the day.
B - Items that an Be Done Later, if need be. Can be postponed, but not for too long.
C - Can wait without creating too much adversity.
Tickler Files
Files that remind you to do something. They help you stay alert and on top of things.
IATA
International Air Transport Association
Back-to-Back Ticketing
An unethical ticketing practice in which clients buy two round-trip discount tickets for less than the cost of one round-trip ticket at full fare, thus circumventing certain restrictions on the discount tickets by rearranging departures and returns.
Ethics
Moral principles of right conduct.
Informal Research
Any type of fact gathering short of a formal, controlled survey.
5 Cs of Effective Business Writing
Conciseness Clarity Completeness Courtesy Correctness
Conciseness
Principle of business writing that means writing the message in as few words as possible.
Clarity
The ability to write clearly. Clarity can be improved with effective use of language and presentation.
Completeness
Presenting all the facts your reader will need to understand and respond to your message.
Courtesy
Principle of business writing that means including remarks in your writing, showing consideration of your reader’s interests and feelings.
Correctness
Ensuring that what you’ve written is accurate.
Editing
Cutting or rearranging of the text, for final presentation.
Proofreading
The process of checking what you’ve written for changes or corrections that need to be made.
Netiquette
Etiquette rules concerning the proper, professional, and polite way to communicate with people online.
Emoticons
Ways to inject emotion or personality into your online messages. Used to express feelings.
Electronic mail, has become the most common mode of professional communication.
Report
An orderly, objective message to assist in decision-making or problem-solving. Preparing a short report is generally a five-step process.
Direct Order
A report written that begins with the most important information - usually the conclusion and perhaps a recommendation.
Executive Summary
A special kind of short report that condenses a complex or lengthy subject into one concise page that may be attached to the complete report.
Request for proposal
The RFP describes a problem to be solved and invites respondents to present their proposed solution.
News Release
An organized method to disseminate news about your business.
Inverted Pyramid
A style of writing in which key facts are up front, generally in the first paragraph, and sometimes in the lead sentence; supporting details follow in decreasing order of importance.
Hook
Catchy leads in articles to pull the reader into the story.
Copy
The written component of various marketing communications, such as brochures and advertisements.
Tone
The attitude you convey about your written message.
Core Service
The products or services that you offer your customers. Core service is your reason for being in business.
External Customer
The person from outside the business who comes to the business to buy the products or services offered.
Focus Group
A small group of customers gathered together with a trained moderator to discuss a particular issue.
Internal Customer
Anyone inside the organization who depends on you in order to get their job done.
Moments of Truth
Brief opportunities that occur during a customer encounter when you have a chance to leave a lasting impression with that customer.
Upselling
Upgrading or converting the client to a more expensive or inclusive version of a product or service, for example, an outside rather than an inside cruise stateroom.
Value-added Service
Service that exceeds the expectations of your customer and enhances the perceived value of doing business with you or the company you represent.
Acknowledge
Listening technique used to show customers that you value what they are saying.
Benefits
The positive results provided by travel products, as perceived by the customer.
Clarify
Listening technique used to get more information about your customers’ needs.
Close the sale
Successfully lead a customer to a buying decision.
Closed questions
Questions that invite precise, brief answers, usually in the form of “Yes” or “No,” such as “Have you been to this destination before?”
Confirm
Listening technique used to check your understanding of the customer’s needs.
Cross-selling
Offering extra products and services that go beyond a core product, such as a rental car with an air ticket.
Customer-focused selling
The sales approach in which salespeople act as consultants whose knowledge, skill, and motivation will lead buyers to purchase decisions that best suit their needs.
Features
The inherent characteristics of a travel product.
Jargon
Specialized terminology used by people who share a similar profession, such as travel.
Lead
The initial point of contact that directs you to new prospects.
Open questions
Questions that encourage people to talk, such as “What did you have in mind?” or “How have you enjoyed traveling in the past?”
Preferred Suppliers
Travel providers that have negotiated extra commission rates with your agency based on attainment of sales objectives.
Probing
Asking questions to delve deeper for more information.
Prospecting
The process of finding new customers or identifying prospective purchasers.
Qualifying
The process of asking thoughtful questions and listening for key responses to determine the customer’s travel needs.
Sales cycle
A series of inter-related steps that describes the sales process.
Situational Selling
The sales technique that requires skilled sales professionals to adapt the steps of the sales cycle appropriately to both satisfy the customer’s needs and keep the process moving toward a buying decision.
Trial Closing
The technique of asking questions like “How does that sound?” or “Will that work for you?” throughout the sales process in an attempt to gain your customers’ agreement and moving them closer to the close of the sale.
Value
The relationship between price paid and performance received or benefits perceived.
Value-added
Additional services or products that support or enhance the travel experience to make it more convenient for the customer.
Active Listening
The level of listening that requires our highest degree of involvement; listening to help others by using verbal and nonverbal responses to express empathy for the speaker; listening for feelings and emotions.
Ambushers
Ineffective listeners who cannot wait to jump into the conversation to disagree with the speaker.
Amiable
A communication style characterized by friendliness, cooperation, and patience.
Analytic
A communication style characterized by seriousness, logic, and precision.
Body Language
Nonverbal body actions such as gestures, body movements, facial expressions, eye behavior, and posture.
Bypassing
A communication error that occurs when people interpret words or phrases differently.
Closed Questions
Questions that limit the role of the person answering by seeking a brief answer such as “yes” or “no.”
Connotative
Meaning that is subjective and emotional, like the definitions that exist in the perceptions of our listeners.
Defensive Listeners
Ineffective listeners who take practically everything someone else says as a personal attack.
Denotative
Meaning that is objective and abstract, like the definitions that exist in the dictionary.
Driver
A communication style characterized by independence, efficiency, and decisiveness.
Empathy
The ability to imagine another person’s point of view, to project yourself into another person’s situation in an effort to understand his or her thoughts and feelings.
Evaluating
The third stage in the listening process, in which we weigh the content of the message, sort fact from opinion, and render a judgment of the value of the message.
Expressive
A communication style characterized by enthusiasm, humor, and liveliness.
Feedback
All the verbal and nonverbal messages that we send out in response to our partners’ communication; any message, intentional or unintentional, sent by the listener to the speaker.
Hearing
A purely physical phenomenon in which sound waves are received by the eardrum.
Insensitive Listeners
Ineffective listeners who take everything they hear literally and ignore the tone of voice used by the speaker.
Insulated Listeners
Ineffective listeners who hear only those messages that are pleasant, while blocking out messages that are negative or unpleasant.
Interpersonal Communication
The exchange of messages and meaning between two people.
Interpreting
The second stage in the listening process, in which we assign meaning and importance to the sounds that we hear.
Intimate Distancing
A speaker-to-receiver zone from 0 to 18 inches that is typically reserved for those whom we know well.
Jargon
Specialized vocabulary used by people who share a similar profession.
Listening
A deliberate, mental process in which the physical messages are interpreted and understood by the person who receives them; psychological process in which meaning is assigned to what is heard.
Netiquette
Rules governing the proper, professional, and polite way to communicate with people online.
Nonverbal Communication
All the kinds of human responses not expressed in words.
Open Questions
Questions that attempt to evoke a complex response that draws on the knowledge and experience of the person answering.
Paraphrasing
Restating for the speaker what you believe is the essence of what has just been said; to reword the meaning of what was said.
Perception
The way in which objective data are interpreted by individuals.
Personal Distance
A speaker-to-receiver zone of 18 inches to 4 feet that represents the most common distance for communication in the workplace.
Public Distance
A speaker-to-receiver zone of 12 feet to limit of sight that is appropriate for public speaking situations.
Responding
The fourth stage in the listening process, in which we take action as a result of the message.
Selective Listeners
Ineffective listeners who hear remarks only of obvious interest to them and filter out those messages that are not of instant relevance.
Selective Perception
The process of seeing what we want to see and hearing what we want to hear.
Sensing
The first stage in the listening process, which occurs when sound waves reach our ears and we become aware that someone is trying to communicate with us.
Social Distance
A speaker-to-receiver zone of 4 to 12 feet that is usually used for impersonal message exchange.
Uptalking
Occurs when we end our sentences in a higher pitch, as if we are asking a question.
Verbal Communication
Human responses expressed in words.
Verbal Disrupter
Words or phrases tacked on to the end of statements that disrupt the flow from one thought to the next.
Verbalized Pause
Occurs when you fill the natural pauses in your speech patterns with sound.
Conflict
A set of divergent aims, methods, and behaviors.
Effective
Describes a person who is doing the right things.
Efficient
Describes a person who is doing things right.
Goals
Statements of specific, measurable results to be achieved in accomplishing the objectives.
Leader
One who influences others to achieve a vision.
Mission
The reason or purpose why an organization, department, or project team exists.
Network
A supportive system of sharing information and services among people and groups with common interests.
Nominal Voting Technique
A structured approach, without much discussion, that narrows a list of options, resulting in the selection of one or more choices.
Objectives
Broad statements of a desired future condition based on what needs to be achieved.
Pareto Chart
An analysis tool used for separating the few significant factors from the insignificant many.
Strategies
Descriptions of specific tasks required to accomplish goals.
Synergy
The interaction of two or more people or teams so that their combined results are greater than the sum of their individual efforts.
Tasks
Work assigned or taken on as part of one’s responsibilities.
Team
Any group that is committed and organized to work together to achieve a common purpose.
Trend
The general direction in which something tends to move.
Values
A deeply held set of beliefs that guide organizational behavior.
Behaviors
The way people act.
Discretionary Time
Time that is under your control and is needed to work on important goals.
Functions of management
Planning, organizing, directing, and following up.
Good communication
Occurs when the sender and receiver of a message have a common understanding of the message sent.
Pareto Principle
States that 80 percent of the work gets done in 20 percent of the time.
Parkinson’s Law
States that work expands to fill the time available for its accomplishment.
Planning
A predetermined course of action.
Scheduling
Deciding when to do things.
Summarizing
Playing back, in your own words, all the major points that have been covered.
Acquiring bank
The bank with the relationship with the merchant. The bank acquires—or accumulates—the credit card purchase slips for processing into the payment system.
Address Verification System (AVS)
An additional security feature that indicates that the person presenting the card also knows personal information about the cardholder, such as the home billing address for that card.
Approved-to-travel list
A list provided by a company detailing the employees who are approved to travel using the company’s payment arrangements.
Auditor’s coupon
The last copy of an airline ticket.
Authorization code
The indication from the credit card company that the card is in good standing and has not been reported stolen and that the amount is not over the credit limit.
Card validation code
A three-digit security number in italics is imprinted in the signature panel for MasterCard, VISA and Discover. The American Express card number is printed on the face of the card and contains four digits. It is generated with a mathematical algorithm to match only the account number of that card. When someone is able to give this number, it proves that he or she has the card in hand.
Chargeback
An amount that is charged back through the system to the merchant. Generally, the bank notifies the merchant with a debit memo, which deducts the amount of the transaction from the merchant’s account.
Computer reservation system (CRS)
The computer system used to make reservations; either the general system used for airlines or a particular system used by the agency.
Credit card
A plastic card issued by a bank or credit card company to its client with an account number specific to that client. The bank or credit card company promises to pay for the purchases made by the client with that card, provided the merchant verifies that the card is in good standing.
Credit card associations
Associations (such as MasterCard and VISA) comprising all member banks (both acquiring and issuing banks). The association authorizes, clears, and settles credit card transactions. The association also is responsible for supporting the card trademarks, including legal, marketing, security, technical, and administrative efforts.
Credit voucher
A document that reverses a charge made by a client.
EMV
A global standard in which credit cards carry computer chips that cut down on counterfeiting.
Fraud
An act or statement that attempts to deceive, trick, or cheat.
Issuing bank
The bank with the relationship with the customer. It “fronts” money for purchases immediately back to the acquiring bank and then to the merchant, and subsequently collects the money from the customer.
Member banks
The acquiring and issuing banks involved in credit card associations.
Personal Identification Number (PIN)
A number punched into the system when a debit card is presented for payment to prove that the person using the card is the rightful cardholder.
Point-of-sale terminal (POS)
An electronic terminal connected via modem to the credit card association; used most often in retail establishments to obtain authorizations.
Rightful cardholder
The person listed on the account as allowed to make purchases with that credit card.
Sales report
A report made to the credit card companies, generally weekly, about that week’s credit card transactions.
Sales slip
A hard-copy paper charge form detailing the sale.
Security character
A special small character on the front of a credit card, stylized to show that the card belongs to the issuing company.
