Soft skills
YOU can study many hours a day and gain several qualifications, but all your hard work will be fruitless if you are not a people person.
Being a good communicator, a good listener and a friendly contact are key elements of what are termed soft skills.
Those agents who are able to use these skills easily will find themselves more likely to clinch a sale over the counter, and more likely to get promoted within the company.
Chameleon Training and Consulting marketing manager Charlotte Fraser said: “At the end of the day, travel agents are all competing on selling a good product. What differentiates one from another has to be good customer service.
“The agent who is able to communicate on the telephone and show real listening skills when dealing with a customer’s needs or complaint, is the one who will go far.
“Customers will come back to someone who has shown great customer service.”
Chameleon offers a number of courses in soft skills. These include The Successful Sales Person, covering empathy skills, the power of words and self-motivation. This two-day course costs £650.
Issues such as dealing with complaints is dealt with in Business Communication of Tomorrow. This course costs £375.
company and we have had excellent feedback from new recruits.”
Thomas Cook has revamped its induction scheme into a formal 12-week on-the-job programme, teaming up each new member of staff with someone who has been in the company for a while who can act as a mentor.
With the advent of technology, some switched-on companies are turning to more high-tech training initiatives.
Holiday Hypermarkets, for example, has installed a video link to train its travel agency staff, meaning that tour operator representatives will no longer need to visit each shop individually to give product training sessions.
The last few months in particularly has seen a turnaround in attitudes to training in the business travel side of the industry.
This is because corporate agencies have found that, while there is no shortage of travel and tourism students expressing an interest in going into business travel, many are unprepared for the job.
A spokesman for the Guild of Business Travel Agents said: “Most travel and tourism courses are geared towards the leisure side of the industry, but the business travel profession requires different skills to leisure travel.
“Students at best just touch on these skills and sometimes do not learn about them at all.”
To get around this, many agencies offer work placements to travel and tourism students, while others give cross-over training in-house to people who have come from the leisure side of the industry.
Going Places Business Travel general manager Adam White recently introduced a training programme for college leavers who have already studied a two-year BTEC travel and tourism course at college.
Candidates spend a year working at a Going Places Business Travel house and study every aspect of the business. Completion of the course leads them to a National Vocational Qualification level 2.
The first group of students will finish the course this summer and those who pass and perform well at work will be offered full-time jobs.
It is not just in the area of new recruits to the industry where business travel companies are looking at improving training. Recently, a raft of training options for managers has been introduced. For example, the GBTA has just signed up with the Bristol Business School, part of the University of the West of England, to offer the first MBA specialising in business travel.
Business travel multiple BTI UK is to fund a training programme run by the Institute of Travel Management aimed at travel managers, and including modules on negotiating deals, contract management and implementing travel policy.
The course will lead to an ITM Professional Development Award Certificate.
MORE travel companies are beginning to recognise the importance of training in order to get the best out of – and keep hold of – their staff.
Companies such as Cresta Holidays and Thomas Cook, for example, are recognising the value in starting early and have introduced longer and more in-depth induction training.
Cresta deputy general manager Jacqui Woodward said: “We recently revamped our induction training programme so that new members of staff have a minimum of four weeks’ training to answer calls before they even go on the telephone. They then do placements with the different departments. It gives them a real feel for the company and we have had excellent feedback from new recruits.”
Thomas Cook has revamped its induction scheme into a formal 12-week on-the-job programme, teaming up each new member of staff with someone who has been in the company for a while who can act as a mentor.
With the advent of technology, some switched-on companies are turning to more high-tech training initiatives.
Holiday Hypermarkets, for example, has installed a video link to train its travel agency staff, meaning that tour operator representatives will no longer need to visit each shop individually to give product training sessions.
The last few months in particularly has seen a turnaround in attitudes to training in the business travel side of the industry.
This is because corporate agencies have found that, while there is no shortage of travel and tourism students expressing an interest in going into business travel, many are unprepared for the job.
A spokesman for the Guild of Business Travel Agents said: “Most travel and tourism courses are geared towards the leisure side of the industry, but the business travel profession requires different skills to leisure travel.
“Students at best just touch on these skills and sometimes do not learn about them at all.”
To get around this, many agencies offer work placements to travel and tourism students, while others give cross-over training in-house to people who have come from the leisure side of the industry.
Going Places Business Travel general manager Adam White recently introduced a training programme for college leavers who have already studied a two-year BTEC travel and tourism course at college.
Candidates spend a year working at a Going Places Business Travel house and study every aspect of the business. Completion of the course leads them to a National Vocational Qualification level 2.
The first group of students will finish the course this summer and those who pass and perform well at work will be offered full-time jobs.
It is not just in the area of new recruits to the industry where business travel companies are looking at improving training. Recently, a raft of training options for managers has been introduced. For example, the GBTA has just signed up with the Bristol Business School, part of the University of the West of England, to offer the first MBA specialising in business travel.
Business travel multiple BTI UK is to fund a training programme run by the Institute of Travel Management aimed at travel managers, and including modules on negotiating deals, contract management and implementing travel policy.
The course will lead to an ITM Professional Development Award Certificate.