Having read the recent article by ABTA’s Chief Executive Mark Tanzer in the travel press, in which he discusses his views on financial protection within the industry, I strongly feel his plea for more wide-ranging financial protection should be seen as a cynical ploy to protect ABTA’s tour operator members and does little to advance financial protection from the customer’s point of view.

In 2006 ABTA decided not to protect customers if an ABTA agent went bust. They hung their agent members out to dry by disenfranchising them and taking away the agents’ customer advantage. The axis of power in ABTA moved to protect the interests of its larger tour operator members rather than its agent members. ABTA’s amalgamation with the Federation of Tour Operators rubber stamped this change, it also dumped the cost of the FTO onto ABTA agents. ABTA’s thrust for more protection does not reflect the interests of the agent or the customer, but is a clear agenda of its larger members who want to reduce the choice that agent ‘dynamic packaging’ gives the customer and include airlines who sell ‘click-through’ accommodation. Any customer booking through a low cost carrier and then clicking through to an associate site for accommodation is regarded as not booking a ‘package’ and will not be financially protected under the current proposals.

Whilst ABTA are outraged they are quite willing to accept the even more bemusing issue that agents who dynamically package are held to account, but the airlines that form part of that package escape. A cynical soul would find that odd, but given the ABTA agenda of promoting the interests of their operator members to the disadvantage of their agent members, its par for the course. But this issue is more important than the vested political interests of trade Associations.

The cynical move by these operators to move their charter flights, that offered financial protection, to scheduled airlines that don’t, is a retrograde step for the customer, and adds to the lack of clarity that Tanzer extols. Tanzer only wants a level playing field for some of his members rather than a clear way forward for customer protection. All airlines and every travel purchase should come within the scope of any financial protection, as all purchases can be subject to the customer paying well in advance.

The real reason why financial protection is more important for travel purchases more so than any other industry is that it is the norm to pay huge amounts of money well in advance of the actual purchase being delivered.

When buying a car, a relatively small deposit is taken and the balance is paid on collection. In travel the norm with major operators is to collect more than three months in advance. From the operators point of view it is cheap money, but it is tempting to use that money to buy commitment and travel stock that, if not sold, will jeopardise the plans of other customers.

So it is essential that financial protection is fundamental to the industry. The other alternative is for the customer not to pay but that is just not possible or tenable. Travel Counsellors operate a Trust overseen daily by Barclays. But I believe that all payments should be paid into a travel bank and held until the customer completes their travel. The suppliers could not lose the money and would have to be more prudent in risk taking. They would have to seek bank loans to fund their businesses with the necessary checks and balances. On the plus side it would get rid of all bonding, it would give customers a clear and simple message that everything is financially protected. Suppliers could still receive interest from money paid into the travel bank. Hoteliers and end suppliers would have the security of knowing they will be paid.

But the industry has been brought up to feel an entitlement to customer money in advance of delivering what has been paid for. Companies have gorged on customer money and continue to do so, in many cases surviving falsely on what is not rightly theirs.

Until we, as an industry, realise that customers are our lifeblood and we need to deal with them with integrity and in the same manner that we would want to be treated, then customers will suffer at the hands of those who have a vested interest not to offer clarity. We should all be protective of our reputation, of the industry’s reputation, for in the future it will not be the skill of how we find a holiday – it will be if we are trusted.

I recently read a really interesting article in Forbes, which claimed that the growth jobs of the future are forecasted to be in social care, personal care and sales retailing.

This follows a theme set out by Daniel Pink, in his thought provoking book ‘A Whole New Mind’(1), in which he writes:

“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a different kind of mind – creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, story tellers, care givers, consolers and big picture thinkers – will reap society’s richest rewards and share their greatest joys.” These emotional qualities are the preserve of the ‘right hand’ side of the brain, whereas the left hand side looks after the logical, rational and analytical traits.

Little surprise than that Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, reported in his latest blog that ‘Creative’ came out as LinkedIn’s ‘top overused buzzword’ people used to describe themselves last year in Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, the UK and the US. The year before, it didn’t even make the U.S top ten.

With the advancement of technology, the future belongs to those that can relate and show they care and empathise with other people and make their lives better. Jim Stengel, previously Global Marketing Head for Procter and Gamble has identified 50 companies that have exponentially improved their profits by improving the lives of customers. His top 50 companies have generated a ROI of 400% better than the Standard and Poor index average (2).

This month 200 of our individual Travel Counsellors achieved their best ever sales month. Each and every one of the 40,000 customers so far this year that chose to book their holiday or arrange their corporate travel trip with their personal Travel Counsellor could have done it themselves on-line. The only differentiator and reason why they chose to book with us is because of the care that our Travel Counsellors show their customers by making them feel special. But to show that care, you need people with the inherent ‘right hand’ side of the brain qualities that can and want to relate to other people. The future belongs to them.

(1) Daniel Pink, 2006, A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule in Future, Riverhead Books.
(2) Jim Stengel, 2012, Grow: How Ideals Power Growth & Profit at the World’s 50 Greatest Companies, Virgin Books.

Great brands that people are loyal to, especially now in the social media age, live by their stories. To quote the late Steve Jobs:

“I get asked a lot why Apple’s customers are so loyal. It’s not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That’s ridiculous”.

The quote reminded me of a great blog story that Paul Speakman our IT Director picked up about Apple below:

“[Apple's] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/18/ipad-2-wife-says-no-but-apple-says-yes/

Our Travel Counsellors build their business through referral and that is based on stories. Each customer will have a story of how their Travel Counsellor has done something or made them feel special, and they tell their family and friends. Travel Counsellors’ high Net Promoter Score is evidence of the level of customer satisfaction the company has, which means that over 90% of our customers would recommend us to their friends and colleagues. More importantly it shows how our agents are interested and passionate about creating long term relationships with their customers.

We celebrate the stories of our customers and individual Travel Counsellor’s in a series of books. The first three editions are called ‘Our Little Book of Success’, and feature a host of tales that tell of how our agents have gone the extra mile for their customers.

We have now also produced a book entitled The World of Travel Counsellors for our customers to have the opportunity to find out what makes the company so special, through the eyes of fellow customers, travel partners, Travel Counsellor’s and their families.

We provide the books free of charge as we think the collation of these stories says more about us than any formal, corporate mission statement. They are real, jam-packed with emotion and they also provide great recognition for the individuals who took the time to tell us their story. In this day and age people do want to thank and recognise those that go the extra mile to look after them.

If you’d like a copy of one of the books please contact us or your Travel Counsellor. If you’ve got stories of great customer service from our Travel Counsellors why not share them with us at mystory@travelcounsellors.com as they may feature in the next book!

Friday 13th did prove to be an eventful day at Travel Counsellors, but not for sinister or fateful reasons. We celebrated the best sales day in the TC family’s 16 year history.

The success of our Travel Counsellors so far this year is not unique and there are others in the services and retail sectors doing amazing things. Their stories and ours do though illustrate a wider point. On Friday, over two thousand individual customers chose to book their holiday or arrange their corporate travel trip with their personal Travel Counsellor. They didn’t have to; in the same way a customer does not need to shop in one supermarket to another. As a customer, you have a wide range of choice in travel and indeed that choice has never been greater – you can go to other agents, book with an on-line agent or do it yourself, either on-line or over the phone by contacting hotels and airlines directly. There has never been an age when the customer has been so empowered not to have to use an agent.

But on Friday 13th, 2,000 customers of different backgrounds and with different needs chose to book with their Travel Counsellor. In some cases, it will have been because of price and whilst we do ensure that we offer choices to suit all budgets, price will not have been the main reason. On a day when many customers could have chosen to do it themselves or book on-ine, our customers didn’t and the reasons for that appear to be twofold;

1. great sales people need to be experts; and
2. they are not just experts in travel, but more importantly in ‘emotion’ and ‘emotional intelligence’.

So what on earth does that mean?! In its simplest and most human form, they are nice people, who get to understand their customers, empathise with them and show them that they care.

With all of the great advancements in technology, there is not a computer in the world that can make a person feel as special; or read the emotion in someone’s face; or share stories that people can relate to. It cannot express gratitude in a way that can be achieved by a person and that shows in a genuine way that they care and what they offer and do is ‘just for you’. And that is what our Travel Counsellors and other great agents and companies do.

As Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks says, it pays to “care more than others think wise”. So Friday 13th shows the future belongs to those that can build relationships and show they care.

What do you think? If you’ve got a story to tell us about booking with your Travel Counsellor last week, we’d love to hear from you. Just send your story to mystory@travelcounsellors.com. You never know it might appear in our next collection of stories that we collate in our customer stories books. More on these to follow.

At the company’s head office in Bolton we have a team of over 200 people dedicated to supporting our individual Travel Counsellor’s, ensuring they have everything they need to provide the very best travel service possible for their customers. As part of the vast range of accommodation, flights, car rental choices and everything else in between we make available for our agents, we also have our own Tour Operation, Suitcase, which means we can have direct relationships with a host of lovely, luxury hotels across the globe.

A host of travel suppliers exhibiting at the Travel Counsellors' Annual Conference (pictured above)

As Travel Counsellors’ Product Manager my job is to ensure the quality of the properties we have in our Suitcase portfolio meet our high standards, so they have to care for our customers as much as we do. This means I have to do a lot of travelling at times – it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it!

Towards the end of last year I spent some time in Barbados to visit a collection of five hotels on the island owned by Elegant Hotels, each with its own unique style and
each offering a range of luxury options for family, romance, activity and culinary experiences.

I stayed at the Tamarind (pictured above), which perfectly blends traditional Caribbean flavour with contemporary style. A day here begins with complimentary breakfast each morning, and then perhaps you might like to take a dip in one of the three on-site pools, indulge with a massage at the spa or try your hand at a variety of complimentary water sports. By the way, there’s a great Roti Den across the road from the Tamarind. Don’t miss out and treat yourself to a Chicken Roti for lunch!

Whilst this all sounds quite idyllic, I was in Barbados to work (I promise) and spent time visiting the other hotels in the Elegant Hotels’ portfolio. First on my schedule was a timeless retreat restored from a former Colonial Club, the Colony Club. With hotel shops and two on-site restaurants and bars, you’ll never have to leave the hotel, although it’s just two minutes to Holetown where there are more beachfront eateries and lively jazz bars to delve into.

The House (pictured above), an adults-only resort on the world-renowned platinum West coast of Barbados, was next on my list. Like its namesake, The House is expertly designed to make guests feel like they are staying in a luxurious home from home amidst beautiful boutique surroundings, and features the acclaimed Daphne’s restaurant, ranked among the top 10 Most Popular Restaurants by the Best of Barbados Zagat Guide. For a premium all-inclusive experience the Crystal Cove and Turtle Beach resorts offer great value for families and couples alike too.

Away from the hotels I recommend any first-time visitor to Barbados takes the time to experience an island safari. This is a great way to explore, and the drivers are great fun and make it a truly memorable experience. And if you are lucky enough to find yourself in Barbados, ensure you leave a Friday night free for Oistins famous Fish Fry. I didn’t have chance to go this time, but perhaps that offers the perfect excuse to go back soon! I look forward to telling you all about it when I do.

The New Year at Travel Counsellors started with a bang, well a fizz at least (!) with a visit from the Queensland Tourist Board. As all our agents are home based, TV (we call it TCTV) is an essential part of how we communicate. We have our own TV studio at our head offices in Bolton and broadcast daily to our global network of Travel Counsellors. It’s a great way to let everyone know about the latest developments both internally and within the tourism industry as a whole. And when tourist boards are able to pop in, it’s extra special. What drives everyone at Travel Counsellors is their passion for travel, so learning more about holiday destinations is a topic we never tire of!

Normally however, tourist delegations are limited to one or two people so when over a dozen Queenslanders turned up it was quite an event for our studio to cope with! Our studio manager, Alex, rose admirably to the challenge despite the numerous microphone changes needed throughout the show each time another guest joined the set. Tourism Queensland were admirably prepared however. Many of the delegation were attired in logo-ed t-shirts promoting their destination and they all arrived an hour early for a full “dress rehearsal” before entering the set. Their slick script gave each of their representatives a strictly timed 90 second slot. One of their delegation hung on the sidelines miming ‘cut’ in a Hollywood style if anyone overran.

Although with so much to impart, they could be forgiven for waxing lyrical (in our view at least!); this Australian state is packed with contrasts. Seven times larger than the UK, it boasts world famous beaches, the oldest rainforest in the world and the legendary Great Barrier Reef. Home to both the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, there’s plenty of that idyllic coastal living the Aussies are renowned for in a place that can promise around 300 days of sunshine a year. Unsurprising, throughout the state there are wonderful wildlife encounters to be had; from snorkelling to spotting a myriad of tropical fish, turtles and dugongs to whale watching and much more!

There’s city living, too, in Brisbane which also boasts its own natural wonders. Just 25kms from the city, the second and third largest sand islands in the world, Moreton and Stradbroke Islands, offer sand tobogganing, diving and surfing. Plus limpid lagoons where you can even hand feed dolphins.

Or you could get away from it all with a trip out the Whitsundays. A string of 74 islands set amongst the coral reefs and crystalline waters of the Great Barrier Reef, a highlight is Heart Reef. You know, the picture of the island shaped like a heart, it actually does exist! Many of these are actually uninhabited such as Whitsunday Island, where you’ll find one of the best beaches in the world a 7km stretch of pristine white powder sands at Whitehaven Beach. Others are home to luxurious private island resorts such as Hayman Island, a long standing member of The Leading Hotels of the World chain. And the Whitsundays is not the only place you’ll find luxurious hotels.

Aside from its jaw dropping beaches, the Gold Coast has another claim to fame in the form of the Palazzo Versace hotel. Where the “I’m a celebrity…” evictees get to hang out a stay here is certainly worth getting voted off for!

The state is so vast that at its northerly tip you reach the tropics. The only area on earth where two World Heritage Areas meet in the form of the world’s most ancient rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef amazing wildlife adventures abound in Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef region! Not forgetting the state’s interior of course, where intrepid Gap Year students get to find out about a real day’s work in the form of a stint of work experience on an outback farm. Parents of teenagers take note….

We might not have booked our air tickets yet, but Queensland is definitely at the top of our New Year’s wishlist!

Earlier this month I received the regular newsletter from Dubai Tourism.  Such is the pace of innovation in Dubai and breadth of experiences available it pays to stay updated. Our Travel Counsellors do a great job on that so they have all of the latest information on Dubai at their fingertips. 

It really is a fantastic and unique destination and now clearly established as both a hub for commerce and a superb holiday experience.

I was in Dubai only recently as we do lots of business there, having also been there in June for our Gold weekend, when we celebrated the success of our Gold Travel Counsellors at the fantastic Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina.  The Westin is a great place for a family holiday.  If you go to Dubai you MUST do the famous Bubblicious Friday Brunch at the Westin. It us unbelievable!

I travelled on Etihad into Abu Dhabi.  As well as lots of choices to fly into Dubai directly, Abu Dhabi offers a great alternative to Dubai, with the airport being quieter and only an hour’s transfer to Dubai and the service on Etihad was excellent. Thoroughly recommend it.

I was fortunate to stay at the superb Address Hotel, downtown which is conveniently located to the Dubai Mall – don’t go for a brief shop as you’ll either get physically lost it is that big – but with loads of information points to help you find your favourite brand – or you’ll get so consumed in shopping you’ll forget what day/time it is – it is that big!

The Address Downtown is situated opposite the Burj Khalifa; currently the World’s tallest building (right).   The skyline of Dubai is varied, but the overall ambiance is so futuristic.  Pristine, superb levels of service, a wide range of hotels to suit all budgets, shopping, gold souks, beach, the desert, skiing, and theme parks, I could go on.  

The range of excursions that can be added to your holiday are extensive from Dhow cruise, Acquaventure for the kids; desert safari; to insights into the culture, heritage, art and local cuisine.  It certainly pays to get out of the hotel! (These are not the things I did by the way, I was working!)

I did however, squeeze into the Rugby Sevens which England went on to win.  A brilliant day out for all ages and if you can ever get to Dubai when the 7s are in I thoroughly recommend it. The weather was perfect in the mid 20’s, but obviously I didn’t see much of it!

Dubai really does have it all with loads of flight options from London and most regional airports.  Our Travel Counsellors can provide a tailor made holiday to Dubai and also connecting destinations. If you’ve not been, I strongly recommend you put it on your to-do list; you won’t be disappointed!

In his biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s writes that the blue print for Apple’s marketing was based on 3 principles – empathy (emotionally connect with the customer), focus (disregard the things that are not important) and impute (i.e. people do judge a book by its cover so presentation is all).

Steve Jobs understood perhaps more than most the power of the sentiment behind by Oscar Wilde’s quote:
“It is only shallow people who do not judge the world by appearances.”

In the 1950’s Dale Carnegie, wrote that our own personal brand boils down to:
• What you say;
• How you say it;
• What you do; and
• How you look.

The power of all of these is of course that they all impact on our ability to connect with people emotionally. The more you connect emotionally the better you will do whatever the context, and the greater loyalty you will build.

Steve Jobs’ gut feeling about what was important is based on science, given that two thirds of the stimuli reaching the brain are visual – more colloquially we reflect that when we say ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’.

The most immediate, easiest and powerful way to connect emotionally person to person is by smiling. A smile says ‘I like you, I feel happy, and you make feel happy’. If that is done genuinely, then we are ‘wired’ to provide a positive, happy response. It’s in our genes.

So if you work in sales it may be helpful to be mindful of the ancient Chinese proverb that ‘a man without a smiling face, must not open a shop’!

Today Thomas Cook announced their decision to close loss-making shops, claiming this is related to the growth in e-commerce – or customers booking it on-line.

There is no doubt that across a number of retail sectors there is a growth in on-line business. What is not clear is to what extent that growth is governed by the customers genuinely preferring to shop on-line and the experience being good for them, or to what extent it is also influenced by the fact that the customer experience in shops – and I talk here in general about the high street not just travel – does not live up to the customers’ expectations.

If you ever bought something from Amazon and then had to send it back, compare how painless that is to buying and returning goods in a shop, or maybe some shops.

The risk is that the announcement by Thomas Cook and the surrounding media coverage only serves to re-inforce that whilst the high street is a declining model, the only other choice customers have is to book on-line.  

Clearly that isn’t the case. You simply can’t replicate on-line what our Travel Counsellors do for their customers and the impartiality they offer. That is why over 90% of their customers would recommend them to their family and friends. Therefore, booking on-line is not necessarily what a customer would choose if they were given the opportunity for a better experience and an independent validation that the holiday is right for that customer, which is what our Travel Counsellors offer.

In the same vein, what is clear is that the customer experience and needs on-line have moved on. It’s no longer just about e-commerce, but about ‘experience’ and connecting people. 

Historically, technology on-line was about the ‘transactional’ left hand side of the brain stuff rather than emotion.  That is in stark contrast though to brands like e-bay that use technology to change people’s lives, connect people and build a community, which is what we do at Travel Counsellors.

On e-bay, community members are invited to rate each other after each transaction and this is shared with other members.  As e-bay founder Pierre Omidyar is quoted as saying he “wanted his corner of cyberspace to be a place where people made real connections with each other, and where a social contract prevailed”.

Amazon has also been built on great experience. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has said; “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that”.

Our Travel Counsellors will use their professionalism, independence and inherent care to get the right holiday for their customer or arrange everything so that a corporate client’s business trip is just right. So the place that companies may initially connect with customers may change, but the reasons why people will come back to them, has not.

The online discounting campaign launched by Thomas Cook last week is not surprising given the need to boost short term bookings and cash flow, but the management at Cook’s will understand that discounting to get more direct business is not going to fix its woes.

Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi wrote recently that 80% of customers decide to buy based on ‘emotion’.  Great brands enable customers to feel good about their relationship with the person/brand they are engaging with.

To enable a customer to feel good about you and to want to promote you to your family and friends, customers will want to feel they can trust you and that you will care about the person they are referring to you.

Care is a fluffy word and it is not part of the line on a balance sheet, so how do businesses enact care such that it is reflected in the ‘financials’.  By practising the Golden Rule i.e. treat others the way that you would want to be treated. It sounds terribly pious and difficult to live up to as we are imperfect.  Yet it is written into the values of the some of the world’s leading brands such as E-bay and Four Seasons, whose founder and CEO Isadore Sharp wrote that “all of our success boils down to following the Golden Rule”. 

Follow the Golden Rule with customers and not only will they come back you, but they will refer you reducing the reliance on advertising and other techniques to get more new business.  Little surprise then that at a recent presentation to the Institute of Travel and Tourism, Sir Terry Leahy, the ex CEO of Tesco said that the UK travel industry should:

“Spend more time looking after and incentivising the customers they already have than chasing the ones they don’t have.”

At Travel Counsellors, we use Net Promoter Score to measure customer loyalty.  With an NPS of over 90%, our travel counsellors have one of the highest NPS’s in the world and each Travel Counsellor knows their personal NPS score.

Aggressive pricing strategies or disposals or acquisitions can give a short term boost, but whether we can make customers smile and make them feel we care about them, or by offering something different will have more of a lasting impact on our long term success.