NEWS event at the Trump Turnberry hotel. Amie Keeley reports from Ayrshire
Jet2’s Alan Cross with Barrhead’s Julie Taylor (left) and Caroline Donaldson
Business speed- dating session
Online profiles ‘will propel agents up Google results’
B
arrhead Travel agents are to have their own online profiles, featuring reviews, videos and blogs,
to help generate sales leads from Google searches. The Agent Profiler technology
has been used by Barrhead owners Travel Leaders Group since 2013, and is credited with helping its agent booking conversion rate increase by 25% in one year. Store managers are being asked to
submit their biographies in time for launch in January. Profiles can also include photos from fam trips, travel qualifications and specialisms. Paul Whitters, head of leisure
marketing and e-commerce, has been leading the project. “Agents can add themselves to
the directory and highlight their key skills,” he said. “It will be available on the Barrhead website and Google will
travelweekly.co.uk Agents can add
themselves to the directory and highlight their key skills
love it because there will be a lot of rich content.” He added: “It helped Travel
Leaders get their agents to the top of Google search results.” Whitters said agents would be able
to ask customers to leave reviews, which he said would “strengthen relationships and make them more likely to come back in future”. The technology will also be made
available to Barrhead’s homeworking and Managed Service Travel Partner division, Brilliant Travel. Barrhead’s main website is also being “modernised and simplified”,
with a new homepage to launch in January. TripAdvisor reviews will be
integrated and searches will be faster and more accurate, Whitters said. It follows a relaunch of Barrhead’s
two cruise agency websites in the past two months. Whitters said both sites – The Cruise Specialists and Cruise Direct – had seen “massive upturns in performance”, with booking conversion rates doubling since their relaunch. Whitters said both brands had
spoken to customers to find out what they wanted from the new sites. “The key pillars are giving the
user an amazing experience, making it easy to use and navigate and delivering the actions that they’re looking for,” he said. “The most important thing is
speed and I think the websites deliver all of that.”
28 NOVEMBER 2019 15
Barrhead sets up wellbeing programme
Barrhead Travel has set up a wellness programme for its staff and appointed its first wellbeing first-aiders to deal with a range of issues including mental health. The 11 staff went through
an interview process and training to become a first- aider. The idea stemmed from a member of staff in its corporate division. President Jacqueline
Dobson said: “One of our staff in our corporate division came to the management team with an idea and put a business case together – not that we needed one – and they moved it forward, so she’s really championed this project along with another manager in the business.”
PICTURES: Malcolm Cochrane
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 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
