Creating positives out of a pandemic

As Zoom meetings surged, Haslemere Travel not only took its clients’ evenings online but also on location. The events, begun in the “cold hard months of lockdown”, progressed to a combined live and video presentation from Kirker Holidays in Rome last autumn. Kirker did the same with other agencies, including Thornbury’s C The World.

Though Haslemere Travel will bring back monthly drinks evenings when clients are ready, it would like Zoom sessions filmed from abroad to remain in the mix. “Suppliers’ pockets are not as deep as they used to be, so doing things in-resort, and where we can see the lovely sunshine, I think there’s huge value in those,” says owner Gemma Antrobus. “I would love to have one from a shrine in Japan.”

A QUESTION OF GOODWILL

Meanwhile, Off Broadway Travel in Welwyn started online quizzes for clients, with up to 30 households joining each lockdown Facebook session. Now it plans to scale these up into pub quizzes that could draw in new business.

Joint owner Paul Rice explains the agency’s motivations for starting the online quizzes: “It was to keep clients occupied and [encourage] them to think of us when they were able to travel. We got some really good feedback. We have talked about it and we’d like to bring the virtual quiz night to life.”

The move would build on Off Broadway’s community goodwill, with it having already won several local best business awards. When time permits, the quiz will launch in a local pub, with some of the rounds likely to be travel-themed. “We haven’t worked out the logistics,” says Rice, “but it could maybe be one street versus another.”

At Hays Travel, a virtual contact centre had been one of founder John Hays’ aspirations. Mid-pandemic, with remote working becoming the norm, the time seemed right to accelerate the plan.

Sales-motivated Hays agents facing redundancy were invited to apply to join a team handling calls and online live chat enquiries from home.

Besides its retail shops and homeworkers, the agency group previously had only a small Sunderland-based call centre, which handled leads from Hays’ Facebook page. The new Virtual Contact Centre initially helped convert potential pandemic cancellations to mass rebookings. Now, the 30-strong team handles leads from across Hays’ website and social media channels, while head of contact centres Claire Cranfield is recruiting to get the staff up to 100.

“It has been a real success. We’ve smashed all our targets and we’ve hit all our KPIs,” she says, adding that the remote working set-up is proving popular. “It really works for a lot of people. They can take breaks and pick their children up from school. It also attracts homeworkers who had a lot of cancellations and lost their confidence a bit, as we provide all the leads and it is salaried.”

Operating a hybrid system also makes Hays more flexible. “Our contact centre can call people after hours when it suits them. It’s better for customers and it enables us to market more,” Cranfield explains.

Overall, Hays returned to profit within three months of the Virtual Contact Centre’s formation. The remote team celebrated its first birthday on 1 March with a Zoom party.

SUCCESSFUL SIDELINES

An ancillary product line dreamt up during a pandemic car journey became a handy source of second income for Whitby-based Advantage member Getaway Travel.

After the first lockdown, travel advisor Michelle Stead, whose parents own the agency, hit on the idea of creating a hamper company while brainstorming moneymaking ideas with her partner. Whitby Hampers launched in July 2020 as a pop-up within the agency, with products like soap, biscuits, coffee, chocolate, beer and gin sourced from local producers.

“We knew that staycations were going to be quite big, so our initial idea was providing the hampers for holiday lets. Then we got more requests for gift hampers, so we got an alcohol licence,” Stead explains.

 “It was nice having it in the office at the time… a distraction from the constantly changing requirements and aggravation. It was good to be able to tell people about holidays and hopefully, if they were an internet buyer before, we thought they might remember us as a quirky office and come to us in future,” says Stead.

Last year, the hamper company’s profits helped to pay Getaway Travel’s rent and electricity bills. It also gave Stead an income while she went without her wages to help the family agency survive. “We had a heart-breaking last year. I worked for love. We didn’t want to lose 40 years’ worth of business,” she says.

This January, Whitby Hampers moved into a vacant shop opposite, signing a five-year lease. It’s run by Stead’s sister, and by her partner, when he’s home from his offshore rig job.

Able to access Getaway’s systems remotely, the agent also pops across if the shop needs minding. “It has proved a good venture. It’s only just coming into its own now,” she says. “We want to push more for getting into big holiday lets just as they’re signing contracts again with homeowners.”

Mentions in The Yorkshire Post and social media plugs by popular suppliers like Whitby Gin have helped with publicity. Stead’s next step is to produce leaflets advertising Getaway Travel that can be included with the hampers. She says: “From now forward, both businesses should flourish.”