If Only staff will hold video conferences with travel agents and their customers in a bid to boost bookings.
Gordon McCreadie, the general manager of the luxury operator, spoke about the plans during a Travel Weekly webcast on Tuesday, May 9.
The video meetings will allow agents to get their questions answered more quickly, according to McCreadie.
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He added: “We want to make sure it’s the right type of service and right offering for agents. But the agents we’ve asked for feedback from all think it’s a great idea and they can all see the value in it.”
McCreadie said the service, set to launch in June, would involve agents emailing a basic enquiry to If Only, which would then prompt the operator’s staff to start preparing the details.
Once those details have been sent back to the agent, a video meeting will be held involving the If Only seller, the agent and the customer.
McCreadie said: “We know how hard it is for agents to get bookings over the line at the moment – customers are a little bit reluctant to commit with all the noise in the background around the economy or whatever – so anything we can do to help them secure more of those high-value bookings, the better.”
The finer details of the approach are still being worked on, McCreadie said, but early feedback has been positive.
“Travel agents are our only customer, so if we don’t get it right for them then we’re running about being busy fools, really,” said McCreadie.
“We always make sure that we engage with our agents before we do anything – everything is about them. Everything is about how we can make their job easier, simpler, better, so we always ask for feedback.”
McCreadie added that the idea was triggered by the most recent Leaders of Luxury event organised by Travel Weekly’s sister title Aspire.