Three travel agents have recorded their branch’s best-ever sales month since reuniting after seven years apart.
Perfect Getaways’ Branch Manager Emma Quinn brought in former colleagues Karen Miller and Barry Jenkinson to join her when she was appointed to run the new Widnes shop last August.
Since then, the branch’s sales have steadily grown, with the three-person team achieving their best month in June.
The shop currently ranks sixth among Perfect Getaways’ 10 business accounts, despite the team being one person down after apprentice Lucy Owens joined Ryanair last month.
The trio first met in 1998 when Karen was working for Travelworld and Emma and Barry were at MyTravel-owned Going Places.
MyTravel then bought Travelworld, bringing the three together.
But they were split up in 2015 when Karen moved to the US for three years and Emma left travel to have a baby.
However, when Emma returned to the industry in 2020 to join Perfect Getaways, she immediately offered Karen the Assistant Manager role and asked Barry to join as a Sales Consultant.
Barry said: “Emma approached Karen and me with the opportunity to work at Perfect Getaways’ Widnes store last year and that brought us back together.
“We’ve always stayed in touch with one another over the years.
“I can’t think of many people like us who started out in travel together and then started to work together again after time apart.”
Asked how often Perfect Getaways’ Branch Managers recruit staff, Emma said: “I would say that it’s not normal for Branch Managers to recruit. Normally, head office will send new recruits.
“I emailed [Perfect Getaways Director] Dave Palmer and told him I had some ex-colleagues who might be interested in working for Perfect Getaways.
“Barry was working for Designer Travel as a homeworker but then he messaged me in November after initially turning down the job and asked if it was still available.”
She added: “We work well together. We each bring something different to the table. Barry is a cruise specialist – all the customers call him ‘Captain Barry’.
“Karen specialises in long-haul, mainly Thailand and Dubai. I specialise in Florida, Turkey and other short-haul destinations.
“If a customer walks through that door, we know we’re getting a booking.”
Dave said Emma recruited the team without any help from Perfect Getaways management team, adding: “She sourced, interviewed, and trained the team. That makes such a massive difference to us as a business.
“What we’re finding more and more is it’s difficult to recruit whereas before the pandemic we would find the shop and then build the team ourselves.
“Now we need to find someone to do that for us – like Emma.”
Dave said the store’s existing customer percentage was 42% this month, meaning that nearly half of all sales were from returning customers.
“We only opened the shop in August, so they are not even at the 12-month mark, and they’ve got a lot of people booking two, three or four holidays,” he added.
Pictured (from left): Karen Miller, Barry Jenkinson and Emma Quinn at the Hilton hotel in Manchester this year.
Read more: Agent joins Millionaires’ Club after making record sales
The post Agent trio reunited after seven years celebrate best sales month appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
Perfect Getaways’ Branch Manager Emma Quinn brought in former colleagues Karen Miller and Barry Jenkinson to join her when she was appointed to run the new Widnes shop last August.
Since then, the branch’s sales have steadily grown, with the three-person team achieving their best month in June.
The shop currently ranks sixth among Perfect Getaways’ 10 business accounts, despite the team being one person down after apprentice Lucy Owens joined Ryanair last month.
The trio first met in 1998 when Karen was working for Travelworld and Emma and Barry were at MyTravel-owned Going Places.
MyTravel then bought Travelworld, bringing the three together.
But they were split up in 2015 when Karen moved to the US for three years and Emma left travel to have a baby.
However, when Emma returned to the industry in 2020 to join Perfect Getaways, she immediately offered Karen the Assistant Manager role and asked Barry to join as a Sales Consultant.
Barry said: “Emma approached Karen and me with the opportunity to work at Perfect Getaways’ Widnes store last year and that brought us back together.
“We’ve always stayed in touch with one another over the years.
“I can’t think of many people like us who started out in travel together and then started to work together again after time apart.”
Asked how often Perfect Getaways’ Branch Managers recruit staff, Emma said: “I would say that it’s not normal for Branch Managers to recruit. Normally, head office will send new recruits.
“I emailed [Perfect Getaways Director] Dave Palmer and told him I had some ex-colleagues who might be interested in working for Perfect Getaways.
“Barry was working for Designer Travel as a homeworker but then he messaged me in November after initially turning down the job and asked if it was still available.”
She added: “We work well together. We each bring something different to the table. Barry is a cruise specialist – all the customers call him ‘Captain Barry’.
“Karen specialises in long-haul, mainly Thailand and Dubai. I specialise in Florida, Turkey and other short-haul destinations.
“If a customer walks through that door, we know we’re getting a booking.”
Dave said Emma recruited the team without any help from Perfect Getaways management team, adding: “She sourced, interviewed, and trained the team. That makes such a massive difference to us as a business.
“What we’re finding more and more is it’s difficult to recruit whereas before the pandemic we would find the shop and then build the team ourselves.
“Now we need to find someone to do that for us – like Emma.”
Dave said the store’s existing customer percentage was 42% this month, meaning that nearly half of all sales were from returning customers.
“We only opened the shop in August, so they are not even at the 12-month mark, and they’ve got a lot of people booking two, three or four holidays,” he added.
Pictured (from left): Karen Miller, Barry Jenkinson and Emma Quinn at the Hilton hotel in Manchester this year.
Read more: Agent joins Millionaires’ Club after making record sales
The post Agent trio reunited after seven years celebrate best sales month appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
