Travel Counsellors relies on third party suppliers for just 10% of its business, chairman David Speakman told the ITT Conference in Malta.
He told delegates that he believes in disintermediation and that the firm, which employs over 1,300 home-based agents in eight countries, had its own in-house tech to help them build relationships.
It was the first ITT conference Speakman has attended since Oman in 2006, when the agency was a sponsor.
“We believe in disintermediation, we believe in tailor-made. What we are doing is putting relationships in the system.
“We have 31 ‘golden habits’ and we get our Travel Counsellors to do them all. Travel agents have to build trusted relationships and you do not do that by being transactional or sending email.
“You pick up the phone. You are no longer selling product, you are selling you. We sell people, we sell trust and reassurance, we sell care. That’s what we charge for.”
Travel Counsellors has its own technology, overseen by 52 IT staff, built to enable its agents to follow the ‘golden habits’, some of which are automated.
At the heart of Travel Counsellors’ trust message is its 100% financial protection trust-based scheme which Speakman said means no customer of his has ever lost a penny.
He admitted he had been worried about leaving Abta, which we did due to his belief that the industry was offering flawed financial protection, but that his approach deleted the effect of the Association logo.
“I wanted to leave Abta because I thought the financial protection was flawed, but it’s non-existent now.
“We needed to move from Abta and stand alone. Whoever has gone bust, none of my customers have ever lost a penny. That is what we live by.
“We can say to a customer ‘book with Travel Counsellors and you won’t lose a penny’. Atol does not do that, the CAA does not cover that. There are so many exceptions.”
Speakman said he originally set up Travel Counsellors above a retail store in Atherton called David Speakman Travel because he could not afford rents for shops.
The firm was established after he had lost all his money in a failed restaurant venture having previously run a successful restaurant and off licence/grocers.
“I wanted to attract the best [agents] and build this company. Money was never a driver for me – it was survival,” he said.
“I developed a business where people were self employed and therefore self motivated.”
Speakman said the travel industry has changed dramatically in 20 years due to everything being available to book online by customers themselves.
But he said this has created a trust issue and that this was the differentiator between firms which are either transactional or super-relational.
“We may touch customers 20 or 30 times a year. We become trusted friends. The problem with the internet is the customer has got massive choice.
“They can see the world, but that’s the flaw; they do not know who to trust. That’s where we position ourselves as a business.”
Asked about his exit strategy, Speakman said: “I love what I do, I’ve got great people around me. I will probably go on for years.
“I’m passionate, it’s not about the money. I think we have been the catalyst to change people’s lives. I’m more proud of that and fulfilled by it. Why should I look for an exit?”