FRONTLINE Agents


Ellie Fowler and Alan Howells DIRECTOR & MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE TRAVEL BUSINESS Newport, Wales


Alan’s career in travel began when he worked for his parents who had a coach tour operation. He opened a travel agency shop in 1989. His daughter, Ellie, joined the business four


years ago and it was rebranded The Travel Business. It has one shop with two staff and four agents working from home. Alan describes the business as a “Jack of


all trades”, selling cruises, villas, hotels and business travel. “You name it, we’ll have a go at it,” he says. “The past 20 months have been tough, but hopefully we can start getting bookings in now and make some profit for next year. “I think this year is going to be a write-off profit- wise, but I’ve got good vibes for next year.” Alan says the agency has used CRMs in the past,


and switched provider before Covid, but the systems have not been used to their full capabilities. “I’m a great lover of technology. I always tried to keep up with things,” he says. “What Inspiretec has built is well worth looking at. We’d like it to bring a bit of uniformity across all travel channels. We’ve got homeworkers working on the web and people coming in part-time to help with administration. So it’s trying to expand that and grow the business across all platforms.”


We’d like the Inspiretec system


to bring a bit of uniformity to our business across all travel channels


Liam Brophy COMMERCIAL MANAGER, THE FLIGHTS GURU London and Delhi


The Flights Guru has an office in central London for corporate clients and high-end leisure and a call centre in Delhi with 35 sales staff. In total, it employs 65 people specialising in long-haul flights and tailor-made package holidays. Pre-pandemic, 45% of bookings were for the US and it also did good business to the Caribbean. Since the pandemic, it has focused mainly on the visiting friends and relations market, selling flights to India, Pakistan, Africa and “anywhere that remained open”. Liam has worked in travel for 22 years for the likes


of Travel 2 and DialAFlight and moved to The Flights Guru after being asked to help run it by the founder.


He says the company has a technology booking


system but that CRM is one area it is lacking. “For us it’s about having that booking history visible when a customer calls,” he explains. “Ideally, if a customer has booked with


us before, they should deal with the same person. Sometimes that’s tricky – we’ve got quite a lot of staff – and you’ve got to enter their details manually, whereas ideally the system should pull up all those details to


offer a more personalised service. It’s all about tying everything up so you can see the full customer journey. “With everything that’s gone on with Covid, it’s especially important to give clients good service.”


For us it’s about having that booking history visible when a customer calls travelweekly.co.uk 25 NOVEMBER 2021 27


INSPIRETEC AND


TRAVOLUTION WHITE PAPER


Putting the Relationships into CRM


To mark the launch of T


Agents campaign, our sister title T


ravel Weekly’s Inspiring ravolution has


partnered with Inspiretec on an introduction to customer relationship


management. The paper explains what CRM systems are and how they are capable of elevating the performance of all sales staff by nurturing more-meaningful customer relationships.


It also includes tips on how to choose and successfully implement a


CRM into your business. › The white paper is available to download for free at travelweekly.co.uk/ inspiringagents


In association with


PICTURES: Shutterstock/Jo Karen; Sarah Lucy Brown


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