Friday, 20 April 2018
We have just had 3 Travel Counsellors join the TC family in South Africa; Ursula from Cape Town and Natasha and Jackie from Gauteng.
Ursula has a wealth of experience in the travel industry with more than 20 years having worked in various sectors of the industry from leisure, corporate, wholesale and as an ITC previously.
We spoke to Ursula about her reason for being a TC, why she chose Travel Counsellors and what her findings have been so far. This is what she had to say
My personal circumstances had changed, and I found more and more that I was needing more flexibility in my life. As a family - travel is in our blood, and we love to travel but I found that it was getting tricky putting in for leave and being confined to an 8 – 5 office job.
I knew that I needed some flexibility and freedom in my life, had a passion for travel and offering my clients exceptional customer service. I decided to put all my travel experience to good use and I decided to start my own travel business working as an ITC.
Having been an ITC previously I knew what it entailed and I started the research process exploring all the ITC models to see what each company had to offer.
When it came to the Travel Counsellors model, I was absolutely blown away by what they offered. I knew that they offered a lot, but I had no idea just how much…
Phenix was what sold it for me. There is no other company in travel where you get a dashboard of where you are, showing me;
- which bookings of mine are urgent
- which bookings are pending
- which booking are urgent
- which clients are away
- which clients are coming back
- reminders for what I still need to invoice
- Reminders for what you need to follow up on etc.
When I met up with Bianca to learn more about the Travel Counsellors model she showed me so much and it was this was the very reason why I chose to partner with Travel Counsellors. So I signed a franchise agreement with Travel Counsellors and attended a 5-day induction course at the Cape Town Head Office. I was even more impressed because in every session over the 5 days I discovered even more tools that were at my disposal to both me and my clients.
I absolutely loved the training, I loved the other Travel Counsellors who were on the induction course with me and the training covered was excellent.
What really stood out to me was that when I completed my induction on the Friday I left with
* A brand-new laptop that was fully loaded with all the Microsoft programmes
* My emails were set up and running as well as my email signature
* My leisure website was live and all the content is done for me, yet I have the ability to add my own customer testimonials, to write blogs and to write my own web page etc.
* My business travel website was also live
* During the induction, I had sent out my welcome letter to my clients through our customer relationship management and from this, my clients could click onto my web site.
* During the marketing session we were practically shown how to set up our Facebook page for my business, I had access to content, TC branded images and a range of content and videos.
* I had access to a TC travel app that I could offer to my clients immediately
Everything was so professional and makes me and my business look so professional.
Had I joined another ITC company I would have had to approach a web developer and a social media expert to get them to create a website for me. This would have cost me both time and money, and it would have diverted my attention away from building my business, which is what I signed up to do.
It gives me great comfort to have joined a franchise that invests in the tools, that makes me and my business more efficient and it makes me look slick. If you choose a travel franchise that invests in you then you can have the confidence knowing that you have the best start possible to exceed.
