FRONTLINE


colin burns branch manager, Hays Travel, Gateshead


It may be mid-January already, but it’s not


too late to say Happy New Year to each and every one of you! So here we are in the middle


of our first “proper peaks” since before the pandemic and things are going well. At the start of the month, the team and I were discussing our action plans and the subject of online competition arose, so I set about finding ways to overcome this and even use it to our advantage. One such example came from an unlikely source. Mrs B and I had visitors over the Christmas holidays and one of them politely pointed out that our 1995 chintz three-piece suite was looking a bit tired and didn’t match the checked wallpaper, so we decided to invest in a replacement.


SOFA, SO GOOD We visited a few furniture company websites and chose what we thought would be perfect. But just before ordering, we decided to visit a local branch to test out the comfort of the sofa ourselves and see the colour in real life. We got chatting to one of the salespeople, who asked why we had chosen this range. He then began to talk us through other options that might work better in our space and, once we had agreed to his excellent suggestions, he went on to tell us the items were in the sale, which ended that day, so we signed the order. Although what we purchased was more expensive than what we


28 12 JANUARY 2023 AGENT


I’ve just bought a new three-piece suite and it’s inspired the way we serve and sell to our customers


had seen online, that bit of expert human input left us feeling so much more confident that we had done the right thing. The experience prompted me to tell the team that any customer who contacted our branch was speaking to us for a reason and it was up to us to make sure they left having booked what was right for them, and with the assurance that we would look after them post-booking. We soon took a call from a customer who asked if we could price-match a holiday they had found on an operator’s site. I told her we would take a look, but then asked her what she wanted from her


holiday and why she had chosen this one. She had picked it purely on the per person price, but the resort did not match any of the family’s needs. After a little more searching I came up with a holiday that ticked all their boxes and, while the per person price was higher, there were two free child places, so the total cost was more than £1,000 less.


SELLING ADD-ONS Of course, this won’t always be the case and some customers will have found the ideal holiday, so we may need to give away some profit to secure their bookings.


In these cases, we can look to book holiday insurance and trips to enhance the customer’s holiday experience and claw back some of that profit. After all, who goes to Iceland and doesn’t visit the Blue Lagoon or search for the northern lights? How many families go to Tenerife and don’t take the kids to Siam Park? You get my drift. So, my team and I continue to work together, interacting and creating that positive buzz that you don’t get from a computer screen, and doing our best to make every enquiry count. And when it’s home time, I can sit on my worn-out sofa, counting down the 17 weeks until the delivery of our comfy new couch.


THERE’S NO ONE LIKE GRANDMA


We all have those momentary lapses in concentration that lead us to do or say the wrong thing, right? Well, we were in the shop the other day and Janelle was telling us a tale about her grandma when the shop phone rang. Janelle answered it and quickly dealt with the query before ending the call with a cheery, “Thanks grandma, love you!” She looked a bit shellshocked as soon as she put the phone down, and we discovered that was because it wasn’t her grandma who’d been on the phone, it was a customer! Janelle still had her grandma in mind, which led to the unfortunate mishap. We all had a good laugh at Janelle’s expense, and we’re sure that customer will now be feeling particularly important.


Caption travelweekly.co.uk


SharonDavidKimHelen Clare diary diary


SharonDavidKimHelen Clare


Colin


Colin


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Infinity Dev


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64