Hays Travel’s in-house tour operation has pledged to be the company’s retail staff’s “tour operator of choice” after admitting service levels needed to improve from where they were.
In October 2021, answer rates within the Hays Tour Operating sales team were 66%, but in the past 12 months they have risen to 96% (9,613 handled calls).
Kathleen Molloy, head of sales at Hays Tour Operating, stressed that by working together with frontline sales staff, Hays’ tour operation would get better overall.
Speaking at the Hays Travel annual conference in Bodrum, Turkey on Wednesday, she said: “We know that service levels have not been great. Together we will get there. Your kindness has not been unnoticed.
“We want to be the tour operator of choice – not the tour operator of obligation.”
Addressing branch managers, Molloy, who spent more than 16 years at Travel2, which merged with Gold Medal in 2020, said: “You have to stick with us. We want to provide better service levels for you.
“There’s so much choice out there so we never take for granted the bookings that you give us.”
Hays Tour Operating is also set to roll out a new telephone system which has a call-back function, meaning agents can wait in a virtual queue without remaining on the phone line.
Molloy (pictured) highlighted how the division was now fully staffed, adding: “We’re now armed and ready. We’re working hard to upscale in terms of getting ready for January.”
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