With only months to go before 2000, non-executive chairman of the Travel Training Company Ken Gaylard has a stark message for travel companies: “Get training or you won’t survive in the new millennium.”
“Companies that do not provide the appropriate level of training will lose business and ultimately fail.
“It is a question of how the public perceives you. Untrained staff do not behave professionally and customers will go elsewhere if they sense that. They want to be served by someone they feel knows their job properly,” said Gaylard.
He believes travel firms often compare badly with companies in other sectors when it comes to customer service as a result of lack of training.
“Customers expect travel agencies to provide the quality of service that they would get in a bank or supermarket but there are plenty of agencies that aren’t delivering that.” he said.
“Follow-up service, for example, is often very poor. People are still walking into branches, picking up a handful of brochures and walking out again with no follow-up call.”
Training has also become an increasingly important tool in the recruitment and retention of employees, according to Gaylard. He believes that staff who are not properly trained will look elsewhere for employment.
A recent survey conducted by Travel Weekly supports this view. It showed that for two-thirds of cases, travel employees found the offer of training from a prospective employer influenced their decision to move jobs. The same survey also showed that only 17% of employees in the industry are very satisfied with the training they receive.
So why are firms still neglecting this vital aspect of management? Gaylard puts it down to the fact that employers are reluctant to spend money on something that may not give instant results.
“Holidays are a low margin product. This has a knock-on effect on the amount spent on staff in terms of pay and other benefits. Training is seen as a high cost rather than a long-term investment with long-term benefits,” said Gaylard.
But it is not just companies that are responsible for training. The TTC is working hard to encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own development with the introduction of series of CD-ROM-based self-study courses.
The first pack, launched at the ABTAConvention last year, is a geography course covering major cities, climates, currencies and other basic facts.
“We will be introducing more self-study courses on subjects such as transport systems,” said Gaylard.
He is also managing director of Hoseasons where training is placed high on the list of company priorities.
As well as running regular training sessions in telesales and customer service, Hoseasons operates a monitoring system whereby calls are taped and replayed by a manager who observes each employee’s product knowledge and telesales manner and suggests improvements.
It may sound as if managers are constantly looking over the shoulders of employees, but Gaylard insists this is not the case. “It is much more of a counselling role,” he said.
This year Hoseasons is investing ú140,000 in training, compared with ú90,000 in 1998. The extra money will be spent on sending call-centre staff on educationals, computer training and a new in-house training video. Gaylard is in no doubt that the investment will pay off.
Hoseasons scored 90% in a mystery shopper exercise conducted by a marketing company at the end of 1998 – it was such a high score that it cancelled the follow-up test on the basis that it was unnecessary.