Tailor Made Travel, Blackwood: Wales's Top Agency

Its welcoming interior features inspirational destination images, as well as a large variety of brochures for waiting customers to browse. A special area at the back of the store also provides a separate area for those booking special breaks or wanting more privacy.

Despite the store being new, its seven staff have more than 100 years of knowledge between them, while training and keeping on top of supplier and destination updates remains key. Suppliers regularly visit the shop, while any employees attending external training events routinely hold team talks to pass learnings on to colleagues. Educational trips are also taken regularly to boost product knowledge, with staff writing detailed reports to share with their colleagues.

Themed “Disney days” held in-store have helped attract new clients, particularly families, while the shop is also savvy about changing its window offers every Friday evening to advertise party destinations, in order to attract younger residents in
the town.

It is customer service, though, where Tailor Made Travel Blackwood really excels. Staff adhere to store manager Elaine Watkins’ ethos of “treating customers how you would want to be treated” – whether booking a £99 domestic holiday or a round-the-world cruise – and clients are made to feel more like friends than customers.

Hand-delivered tickets and welcome-home phone calls are par for the course, as is the shop’s annual “mince pie day” to celebrate Christmas with customers. There are also countless other examples of ways in which the team has gone above and beyond to help their clients.

In one case, consultant Nia called an airport check-in desk to keep it open for a hen party that had been delayed by bad traffic. Meanwhile, consultant Kate arranged new flights and hotel accommodation free of charge for a customer who had broken down on the way to the airport and missed their flight.

The shop also has strong ties with the local community, from sponsoring the local rugby club to supporting local charity initiatives.

No wonder then that the agency has an 80% repeat booking rate, while 30% of all bookings are from referrals, leading to a significant increase in revenues in 2018 for this impressive and driven business.