Posted 16 August 2017
In our recent webinar, we were joined by Nick Hughes, Ticketing Executive, Nicola Shipston from our Credit Control team and Operations Manager, Sandie Fisher, to find out about the support you can expect to receive as a Business Travel Counsellor.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here, or keep reading to discover how you will be supported in the day to day running of your business.
The ticket is just the beginning
The Ticketing department issue over 500 flight tickets each and every day. But with Nick Hughes having 12 years of experience (and that’s the least of everyone in the team), it’s no surprise they can get through them all. What our Ticketing team don’t know, isn’t worth knowing, plus the whole team are competent GDS users and issue flight tickets for all our UK, Irish, Dutch and Belgian Travel Counsellors. So, when you book a flight, or Eurostar ticket, you can rest assured it will be in safe hands.
The majority of tickets are processed by an automatic system, but tickets can be issued manually for complex itineraries or specific corporate fares. And, if you ever need help with ticketing, the team are available 8am-7pm Monday to Friday, and 9am-5pm on Saturdays. For out-of-hours ticketing, we have a 24/7 Duty Office to help with basic enquiries, and an out-of-hours ticketing function for more complex needs.
Let’s talk money
Nicola Shipston is one-third of our Credit Control team, part of the much larger Accounts department. When you need help with issuing credit notes, receipts or invoices, the Credit Control team are there to guide you as much as you need until you are confident to do it yourself. We understand one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to business, so we can deliver bespoke invoices and Management Information reports, tailored to your clients’ requirements and we can sell in GBP, US Dollars and Euros so you can widen your client base to companies based overseas.
When it comes to setting up new accounts, whether they’re immediate payment or credit accounts, we make this process as easy as possible and the majority are set up within 24 hours, so you can start trading without delay. As a Travel Counsellor, you will be responsible for generating invoices and chasing overdue payments, after all, it is your client, but if you need help or want to pass this control over to us, you can do so. As Nicola says “Travel Counsellors want to get on with sales and servicing clients, not chasing money”.
Travellers don’t stop, and neither do we
In the webinar, Sandie Fisher, Operations Manager, says “The most important thing to me is looking after customers: treating people how I want to be treated and putting myself in the customer’s shoes”. This is something which every member the Operations team practice, so you can always expect a friendly, helping hand should you need it.
The general Helpdesk is open from 6am-10pm Monday-Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturdays. We understand you may not remember everything from your induction training, so Helpdesk will be your first port of call for the ‘How’s, where’s, why’s and who’s’. Aftersales will assist with amendments and cancellations to tickets, and they are all GDS users too. But should anything go wrong whilst your clients are travelling, the 24/7 Duty Office will be on hand.
Should your traveller fall ill whilst abroad, miss a flight, run into disruption due to weather, industry strike or any other kind of emergency, the Duty Office are constantly monitoring worldwide events and will notify you of any bookings you might have affected. In addition, all your customers’ documentation will have the Duty Office phone number on, so whilst you will likely be the point of contact in an emergency, your customer won’t be left alone in a foreign country. Tune into the webinar to hear a story from a Travel Counsellor about her experience of the Duty Office.
The take-home message
One point which everyone mentioned during the webinar was that the support offered by all of the Head Office team is there as much or as little as you need it. Nick Hughes said “We’re giving the power back to you to manage your own travel business in the most efficient way possible”, so if you want to have complete control over the running of business, that's what you will have.
However, help is available in many forms. Every department has a direct phone number and email address, Helpdesk also have a Live Chat function and a Help Centre where you can access quick and easy answers at your fingertips. We have a whole host of training materials and videos on COACH, our in-house e-learning system, which you can refer to at any time and we constantly monitor enquiries so we can create new resources to answer common questions.
One thing is for certain, as a Travel Counsellor, you will have control over your own travel business, but should you need help anywhere along the way, you will have the knowledge of over 350 Head Office staff to call upon.
