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Midcounties Co-operative hopes to reopen all 78 travel shops

The Midcounties Co-operative hopes to reopen all of its 78 branches when Covid-19 rules allow non-essential retailers to welcome back customers on April 12.

As well as 78 shops, the group has websites, the Co-op Holidays tour operation, 165 Personal Travel Agents (PTAs) and more than 140 members of the Co-operative Travel Consortium.

While the shops have been closed, agents have been working from home as a virtual contact centre – taking phone calls, video calls and web chat enquiries.

Sara Dunham, chief officer of travel and leisure services, told a Travel Weekly webcast: “We’re working through scenarios at the moment.

“Our aspiration is that as soon as non-essential retail can open, we’ll open all branches in some format. We’re just working through the details.”

She said the virtual contact centres will remain as part of the group’s “omnichannel plan”.

Phil Ponsonby, group chief executive at The Midcounties Co-operative, said more than 90% of calls to the virtual contact centre are from people with existing bookings, as they want advice and information.

Furthermore, about 99% of the calls are answered first time, he added.

Last year, some travel staff were able to move to other divisions in the Midcounties group, such as food retailing, while others were furloughed.

Most of those who shifted to other divisions have now returned to travel as they gear up for the reopening of shops, but Ponsonby had been pleased with their flexibility.

“It was great to see the willingness of some of our travel colleagues to turn their hand at food retailing and other activities,” he said.

“Some of them told some great stories about how much they enjoyed it.

“In the future, maybe we’ll have a more flexible approach to our people overall.”

Dunham said there is “definitely a desire” among agents to return to work but added there is “some cautiousness” about what the experience will be like.

“From a wellbeing point of view for our retail colleagues, some of them have been off for a year,” she said.

“We’re doing a lot of work to think about how we support them coming back into the business.

“Equally, I’ve met some of the consortium members and PTAs and they’re all in the same boat: cautiously optimistic about what the summer might look like but keen to be getting back into the routine and helping customers.”

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