It’s time for travel agents to shine

Advantage Travel Partnership head of commercial John Sullivan said some members had reallocated staff to sort changes, but said staffing levels were an issue.

“The Covid hangover means there’s a shortage of staff, even overseas, and people want help and advice.” 

Sullivan said many new travel brands were proved to be over-reliant on technology when Covid happened.

“Not having that public face or headcount has been a real barrier to them. Covid has put the focus back on agents and put us in a good place, but the people who stayed in travel are still feeling pain; we have to ensure they remember how much fun it is.”

HUMAN APPROACH

Newmarket Holidays chief executive Niel Alobaidi acknowledged some customers “were still angry with us”, but felt the setbacks were temporary. “We have to accept this is something we will need to work hard at for the next three or four months. I’m very hopeful things will start to get controllable. For every negative story, we have five, maybe 10 positive ones.”

However, dnata Travel Group chief executive Ailsa Pollard cautioned: “Travel is more emotional, so when you mess up, the mental health of the customer is affected. The industry as a whole must sort out customer service. I don’t want to work in an industry where customer confidence is at an all-time low.” 

Inspiretec chief executive Simon Powell agreed staffing was a big issue, but said technology had a role to play. “I think you can automate a certain amount of the problems we face,” he said.

He added: “We’re interconnected cogs. From a tech perspective, there’s a lot you can do to make sure you get the message across before the airline tells the client [about a delay]. The industry has never focused on it, but there’s never been a better time to try and address some of these issues.” 

Steve Morrish, group managing director, Imagine Cruising, added: “Technology can definitely be a bridge to the future of understanding how the customer wants to be treated.” 

He said technology had to be firmly in the background, not detracting from the human approach. “It’s a supporting mechanism, but it has to be something the customer is not aware of.”

Powell added: “It’s really important to take advantage of the situation in a positive way. Twenty years ago, you were a transactional business or a relationship business. That’s not the case today, it’s almost like a reset point. Clients want to be dealt with in the way they wish – not how we wish to deal with them.”