Titan Travel’s new trade distribution director, Shane Lewis-Riley, aims to make online bookings easier for agents, while also improving the operator’s Cape Town call centre.
Currently about 20% of bookings are online but he told a Travel Weekly webcast that he hopes that will increase to 50% by the end of this year.
Lewis-Riley joined Titan in October, pledging to “accelerate” the escorted touring brand and work with more travel agents than ever before.
“It has been a busy three months – spending time listening to the trade, listening to what they expect from a market-leading tour operator, where we perhaps need to improve, and where we’re winning already,” he told the webcast.
As part of his research, he visited the trade call centre in Cape Town.
“That quite often is a contentious issue in the trade, as it had a rough start, let’s be honest,” he admitted.
“When the call centre opened, it had a bit of a bit of a hiccup, but it has now started to bed in.”
During his visit, he talked to the team about his direction and strategy “so they feel part of that” – and to understand how processes can be improved for agent calls.
“There is a big investment in the Cape Town call centre; there are two trainers down there right now, so we’re continuing to improve,” he said.
“Over the last few weeks in January, we’ve had lots of really nice positive feedback coming through about members of the team.”
As well as investing in the Cape Town call centre, Titan is improving its online booking portal.
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“There is a continuous improvement plan to make it even easier to book online,” he said.
“I want it to be at least 50% online booking by the end of this year.
“We need to give the trade the confidence that it is able to do what they want it to do.”
He also undertook a major survey among travel agents in partnership with Travel Weekly to gather feedback.
“I wanted to get under the skin of what’s getting in the way…and to gather that feedback quickly,” he said.
“That led us to five key areas of focus: booking support; ease of booking; booking flexibility; incentives and training; and access to the sales team.”
He announced at Travel Weekly’s Globe Travel Awards last week that Titan is expanding its trade team and will improve other aspects of its service to agents.
“We need to do better at the story that we are telling, so the trade can be confident that not only is the product amazing, but their ability to sell should be easier,” he said.
“We need to make sure [there is] somebody local so they can pick up the phone to have that guidance…so that’s why expanding the sales team will be a key part of that measure of driving online business.”
Titan Travel also gave away tickets to the Brit Awards to five winning agents during the Globes as part of its drive to improve its service to agents.
“We provide our customers with once-in-a-lifetime moments every day. So how do we give more to our agent partners?” he said.
“When I joined, I knew the product was incredible, and I thought if we can make it easier for our trade partners to sell, then we’ll be onto a winner.
“We have got a very clear plan…so I hope our trade partners can see the difference already, and I hope they will look back in a year’s time, and go, wow, Titan has come a long way and we want to be part of it.”