bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Having grown up in Queenstown, New Zealand I was exposed quite a bit to the tourism industry and how it works.

The cornerstone of it locally is the information centres.  There are a handful of them all vying for your attention.  As if they can get you in the door they can take 10% commission of all your bookings.

They are tremendous due to the competition they have realised the only way to compete is superior customer service, ensuring people will maximise their spending with you.

I’d like to see online information centres, you can browse in, talk (or chat) to a live help, then they redirect you to a service that will solve your problem.  If you end up doing business they take a commission.

This wouldn’t work mass market but certainly within certain high value niches.

Just a thought, there are millions struggling with one problem or another out there.

(Google is kind of doing this with search + adwords but there is room for the personal approach).