| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 21/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 74 |
| Copyright: Other |
It’s all about keeping good people
BAKERS Dolphin managing director Kevin Abbey stirred up a hornet’s nest when he questioned the level of service offered by young people in travel agencies.“What value to the customer is an 18-year-old who hasn’t travelled to any real degree and knows less about the product than the customer?” he said.
Zoe Scott from Going Places in Reading retorted:”I have two very capable 18-year-olds working in my branch who always offer the best customer service they can and, with help and development on product knowledge, will continue to offer an excellent service.”
The industry has to attract people of all ages but the main challenge is hiring good people and then keeping them.
Travel agencies have large turnovers, often losing good sales people to other industries which pay far more money.
It’s a problem we’ll never solve until wages in the industry improve. Looking at the massive discounts in shop windows, it’s hard to see how that will happen.
Perhaps the threat of the Germans taking over the industry and trying to eradicate discounting is not so bad after all.