| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 24/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 13 |
| Copyright: Other |
Agents have found the seminars on service fees extremely helpful. We know they are nervous about the change but we must all adapt to the constantly moving business world
TIFFANY HALL
I was disappointed by Travel Weekly’s front page story ‘Walking the Dog’ on July 10. It gives a misleading impression of the contents of the service fee seminars run by Nolan Burris and the overwhelmingly positive response to them.Over 1,000 business and leisure agents have attended the 12 service fee seminars that have been held over the past four months. Here are some facts.
British Airways is sponsoring the service fee seminars run by Nolan Burris because agents asked us for more information on service fees.
Of the four sessions we held with ABTA, 100% of agents who filled in the evaluation questionnaire found them to be beneficial. Some 78% found the topics covered to be very useful. A further 21% found the topics useful and 71% found the presentations very useful. A further 28% found the presentations useful.
We also received more than 100 spontaneous letters and e-mails with positive comments about the business seminars.
We have had so many calls from agents for more seminars that we are in the process of setting up four more on October 10, 11, 12 and 13.
We do appreciate that the agents remuneration scheme, which takes effect on January 1, next year, is a fundamental change to the way we do business. We are aware that many agents are nervous and we are doing as much as we can to make the transition smooth.
But we must not forget that it is new technology and changing customer needs that are driving the changes and we all need to adapt to the new world.
The focus by the trade press on trivial items deflects from the key business issues which affect the livelihood of agents. People look to the trade press for guidance and we would welcome a more responsible and informative stance.
I know there is a lot of concern in the industry that we will not be ready to go ahead in January. A reason for this is, for the first time, we have been consulting with key agents and trade bodies on the systems changes to ensure we understand all the issues now.
We are currently finalising the detailed systems specifications and are working very closely with the computer reservation system companies and Bank Settlement Plan to ensure the required functionality is in place for January 1 next year.
There are still some issues, that need to be resolvedbut I have been assured by those involved they are doing everything they can to meet the deadlines and I am confident that the timescales areachievable.
“We have had so many calls for moreseminars that we are setting up four more”