The Midcounties Co-operative Personal Travel Agents

The homeworking operation was created by Sheena Darby, who had previously managed Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors prior to the Cook merger, and she still continues to run it.

Midcounties has built up its homeworking operation to include 130 Personal Travel Advisors based from Jersey in Channel Islands to Scotland, who brought in a total of £42 million in sales last year.

The group has concentrated on creating a “real family feel with good quality people” rather than just growing the number of advisors as quickly as possible. Having said this, Midcounties still expects the number of advisors to reach 160 by the end of this year.

The brand is heavily focused on providing the tools to help its homeworkers to offer a “personalised” service to their customers

The agents have a big say in what kind of services Midcounties provides through a board of five elected homeworkers which meets four times per year.

Midcounties’ team of business development managers based at its head office in Walsall help homeworkers to create business plans and support their marketing efforts.

On the technology side, a CRM (customer relationship management) system helps agents build their own client databases and they also have individual websites where they can promote their own offers. Weekly e-shots of holiday offers are also sent to the homeworker’s own customer base.

A new initiative is Honeyfund where homeworkers can set up webpages for couples that allow their family and friends to contribute towards the cost of their honeymoon.

Midcounties has also created a referral system where customers are prompted to recommend their Personal Travel Advisor to family and friends, particularly through the use of social media.

The agency says it wants to “behave in a co-operative way” and homeworkers are encouraged to get involved in their local communities by doing four hours of voluntary work per year.

• midcounties.coop