ALL ABOUT YOU — READERS’ LIVES
The Sheriff of York, John Kenny, and the Sheriff’s Lady, Jill, open Quartz Travel, with Paul Smith (third left)
THIS WEEK
Paul Smith founder
Quartz Travel, York Owner celebrates 10 years with agency makeover
Paul Smith doesn’t do things by halves. When he decided to refurbish his York travel agency on its 10th anniversary, he wasn’t just thinking of a lick of paint. “We wanted to move with the times and to provide the ultimate customer service and something unique to our clients. You have to keep reinventing yourself,” says Paul, whose long-term vision is to open 10 agencies in the Yorkshire region. With feedback from customers that the offices felt small, Smith opted to gut the agency and install an open plan design, with new furniture including chairs made from Spitfire metal and umbrellas for clients with leather handles, both specially commissioned for Quartz Travel. The pièce de résistance? As customers walk into the shop, it is as if they are on an airline runway. Lights run down the sides of the carpet ‘runway’ with a large 3D image at the end. “It’s like they are about to take off,” says Paul, “and people just say ‘wow’ when they see it, it feels like they are going on holiday.” To promote the changes, he not only enlisted the Sheriff of York and the Sheriff’s Lady to cut the ribbon at a grand opening, but also invited a local radio station to broadcast live from the shop for two hours, with holiday vouchers of up to £1,000 up for grabs. “We had a queue round the corner of people wanting to get into the shop, we were
heaving,” says Paul, whose mantra is never to refuse a customer booking and TO go the extra mile wherever possible on customer service. “We opened 70 bottles of champagne and we had people booking who had never
booked with us before,” he adds. Paul’s approach appears to be working. The agency’s sales to date this year are 125% up on last year.
Paul’s CV
●2004 to date: founder, owner/director, Quartz Travel, York
●2002-04: Going Places, store manager, Castleford and York
●1988-2002: cabin crew, British Airways
●1996-98: telesales supervisor, Apollo Travel, Rotherham
Meanwhile, the search to acquire new agencies to expand Quartz Travel continues. “I am
constantly looking but nothing excites me at the moment,” admits Paul, who also runs tour operation Colombia Experience. Watch this space.
Would you like to be profiled on Readers’ Lives? Tell us why it should be you! Email:
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
42 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 9 October 2014 PAUL’S SALES TIPS
✪Provide top-quality customer service: If you don’t offer that, do something about it. You need to have good customer retention rates – 87% of our customers are repeat clients.
✪Motivate your staff: Spend quality time with your employees, even if it’s just once a month. Find out what is going on in their lives and empower them.
✪Never say no to a customer: We are in the 21st century, not 1964. We get the weirdest enquiries – just say “let me find out”, even if it is a silly question.
✪Welcome your customers: Make it a pleasurable experience for clients from the moment they arrive.
READERS’ LIVES
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