Member Article

Award win positions young travel firm for take off

A Newcastle travel company has been recognised with a national award at an industry ceremony which took place in London last week.

Only seven months since the company started trading, Monstertravel.co.uk picked up a Marque of Excellence for Leading Small Call Centre at the Thomas Cook Group Awards ceremony. The honour reflects the young company’s commitment to personalised customer service through provision of over fifty dedicated call centre staff at its headquarters in Gosforth.

In addition to its web-based operations, Monster Travel aims to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market place by the strength of its call centre team and using intelligent telephony that returns callers to their usual agent whenever possible.

Managing Director, David Hawke, said: “It’s never easy to start a new company, especially one entering the highly competitive travel industry where costs of entry are high, but margins are tight.

“I anticipate that only 30-40% of our business will be taken over the web, so the contact centre and its experienced staff will continue to play a vital role in our strategy.”

Industry figures already show a reduced number of UK holidaymakers planning ahead for summer breaks next year. Such tough economic conditions have already impacted on consumer behaviour.

Mr Hawke said: “Our customers often call several times before deciding on a trip, and if we do not satisfy their needs at every stage we risk losing them.

“Greeting customers with ‘Hello again Mr Smith, how was your ski holiday in Courcheval?’ is much more personal way of doing business and it’s obviously bearing fruit for us already. After only seven months, it is quite an achievement to be winning national industry awards.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .