Welcome to the October edition of Mandy’s online diary, your insight into what is going on in the world of Bales! |
Mandy Nickerson (nee Bales)
Managing Director |
October- Diary Entry 1
A job in travel (or, in my case, a lifetime in travel) is generally seen as a pretty glamorous career choice – and it very often is. It’s a very gregarious, sociable industry and, of course, we get to go to some of the world’s most wonderful destinations where we are welcomed with open arms (and we have the cheek to call it “work”!) However, as I have to keep reminding friends and colleagues, I am managing director of a company, with more than 50 staff, and companies – whatever the nature of the business – don’t run themselves.
Of course, I do have a fantastic team working with me, and although I’m sure they often wish I would get out of the office and leave them to get on with their jobs, it is a real pleasure to be “stuck” behind a desk.
It’s part of our company ethos that our people can only give their best if we communicate effectively and frequently. We inform, they perform – it’s as simple as that.
Consequently, over and above the regular day-to-day briefings, we also hold quarterly updates where I and the rest of the senior management team sit down with all our staff, tell them how the company is performing, highlight any issues or challenges that might lie ahead, and invite suggestions as to how we can all do even better.
It was as a result of one of these gatherings that we introduced a policy of answering every phone call within three rings. We try to make this standard practice throughout the organisation – whoever is on the line, they’re important to us.
At our most recent meeting, we talked about consistency of service delivery. That’s not to say that we want our people reading from some sort of script. Everyone at Bales is an individual, with his or her own distinct personality, and we want that to come across, but we are constantly striving to make sure that we provide customers – and suppliers, and the media, and anyone else who makes contact – with consistent, quality information that meets and exceeds their needs and expectations.
Of course, this extends far beyond the way we answer our phones. We are constantly looking at ways to improve the service we offer after a booking has been made. Is the documentation we send out clear and “user-friendly”? Are we offering enough support and advice? Is it the right kind of support and advice?
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October- Diary Entry 2
At Bales, we are well aware that it is our clients who are paying our salaries – without out them, the bills wouldn’t get paid. One useful tip I picked up recently was to tell the team to imagine what their parents would want – if this was your mum and dad on the phone, what would you do to help them get the most out of their holiday? And it is always crucial to recognise that although we are very, very good, we are not perfect. We will make mistakes, and there will be times when, for whatever reason, we don’t live up to expectations; the important thing is to learn from those experiences, right the wrongs, and ensure that we perform better next time.
If you’ve got any suggestions or comments, do please get in touch. As we never tire of saying: “If you’re unhappy, tell us; if you’re happy, tell your friends!”
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October - Diary Entry 3
Delivering consistent, quality service is absolutely vital in a business such as ours – indeed, it’s vital in any business – but we also have to ensure that we are also offering the very highest quality product, and that means working very closely with our key overseas suppliers and partners.
Over the past few days, I’ve had a number of opportunities to catch up with a few of them, and talk through ways in which we can improve our products, not only to our clients’ advantage but also to our mutual advantage.
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October - Diary Entry 4
More than almost any other industry I can think of, the world of travel is in a state of constant change. There is so much going on, in so many places, all the time, that it is impossible for any one person to keep up to speed. However, events within the industry allow us to share our knowledge and also do some “networking’’.
A case in point is a function I attended a few days ago, staged by Oberoi Hotels and Resorts. As most people know, Oberoi have some truly amazing properties to offer, and runs some absolutely glorious luxury cruises – they’re a great favourite with Bales’ customers, and a very important partner for us.
I’ve known Atef Goubran, Sales Director of Oberoi and Egypt, for years, and our two companies have worked together, and continue to work together, very successfully indeed. Do I really need to turn out to their events? Indeed, do they need to invite me in the first place? After all, they were paying! The answer, of course, is “yes”. Atef was able to bring my attention to the latest developments at Oberoi, I was able to chat about some of the developments here at Bales and – and this is the most important bit – we can bring other people in on the conversation, and listen to their views and experiences.
One-to-one, we could have had a phone conversation, but the real value of functions such as these is that they provide the opportunity to pick lots of people’s brains at the same time.
I might come away with a firm view on a particular issue, or I might just come away with a chance remark which, when I research it in greater detail later, turns out to be a non-starter – but I always come away with something. It’s very convivial, but underneath it all there is a real point and purpose to these occasions.
And I am not always the guest – I play hostess too sometimes. Bales employs a very good ground handling agent in Costa Rica, and when their sales director Rolando Campos was over in London recently, I insisted on taking him out for the evening.
We had our aperitifs at the Absolut Ice Bar, which is built out of ice – a real hit with someone from a country where it is so hot that even an ice-cube is something of a miracle – and then on to Rules, London’s oldest restaurant, serving very traditional English food.
Again, it was a very enjoyable evening out, but there was a serious point to it. As I say, Rolando runs a very good ground handling agent, and we want to keep him “on our side”, thank him for his past efforts, and discuss ways in which we can work together more closely and more effectively in the future. Sure, I picked up the tab – but it was money very well spent.
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October - Diary Entry 5
Another “must-attend” function on my agenda this week was the Wanderlust Guide Awards evening, where tour guides from all over the world are honoured.
It always strikes me as odd that, in an industry which is seemingly obsessed with awards ceremonies, tour guides come in for so little recognition. At Bales, we would like to do a lot more to promote these awards, and the people whose work they acknowledge.
It’s no easy task being a guide; obviously, you have to be immensely knowledgeable, across a broad range of topics and it’s almost a given that if you’re the world’s leading expert on the butterflies of Borneo, then someone will ask a complicated question about trees; if you know about trees, the question is bound to be about shopping!
But it’s not enough to know your stuff, you have to be personable enough to build an instant rapport with a group of complete strangers, all with very different interests and tastes. And, of course, English may not be your first language.
A good tour guide can make a huge difference to a holiday, adding immeasurably to the whole experience. We want our tours to be relaxing, but we also want them to be rewarding.
If you’ve got any “good guide” stories, do share them with us!
October - Diary Entry 6
Another week and another set of challenges! Whilst I guess most jobs have some repetition, I think that for many of us we have ‘unpredictable days’ where our ‘to do’ list gets cast aside and re-prioritising has to happen.
In my case, this would be the situation should something happen that may affect our clients and needs a solution. Of course we live in a completely unpredictable world, where there is often no reason or logic. Take for instance, the fact that fifty people were on a flight to South America via Madrid; the flight from the UK landed late in Madrid and so clients were left stranded as the onward flight departed at the scheduled time. Without two passengers, one might understand, without 50 is another matter! Of the 50 there were two passengers (who were on their honeymoon), who were travelling with us, and so were able to immediately call our 24 hour emergency number for assistance, which my colleague Sarah, ably handled. I did wonder if the other 48 would have been able to call on such a reliable system of support?
October - Diary Entry 7
I have said before, that world events and media coverage have a huge impact on our business and it is vital for us to keep up-to-date with world news so that we are always ‘au fait’ with the situation. This coverage can provide us with a surge of calls; sometimes with people eager to book, and other times with people simply wanting the reassurance and advice that we can offer. I cannot stress enough, how we always empathise with clients, by putting ourselves in their position of a particular issue and making a considered judgement.
October - Diary Entry 8
The business/social side remains busy… On Monday night I went to an entrepreneurs evening, that was organised by the Association of Women Travel Executives and sponsored by a company that specialises in funding and supporting female led ventures. I am by no means sexist, but I do feel in an industry such as Travel, where it is pre-dominantly dominated by females at a lower level and weighted with men at the top end, that it is important to raise the bar for women that are committed and able enough to be high achievers. Especially when we live in a society such as ours, whereby women can, and do, contribute as much as many males to the overall success of the business. At this evening, I met some amazing women there, and it is always a breath of fresh air to meet women from a range of professions.
I discover that regardless of how different the industries we come from are, the shared view of what is very high on our agendas is resourcing, getting the right team in place and branding…. Nothing that you need to be academic for, just common sense and commercial intelligence..
October - Diary Entry 9
Tuesday night saw a special 50th year dinner for The Institute of Travel and Tourism- who continually strive to achieve excellence within our industry. Boris Johnson was guest speaker and regardless of politics, I think that he should be a candidate for PM- not least because he would inject a huge sense of humour into politics (forgive me if you are a politician), as I do know that there are serious debates and issues to cover, but really, we do need many politicians to show a more human side and display more personable traits. We must always remember how laughter in the right avenue is a real lift for all of us.
October - Diary Entry 10
Thursday night saw us hosting the editorial team of a travel trade paper. Face to face contact continues to play an important role in the dynamics of relationship building with the press, and hopefully enables us to stay at the forefront of their minds’ for a while, which can then be built upon, by working more closely, together. This relationship benefits both parties; they have the confidence of the depth and breadth of our knowledge, and we get more coverage in their paper- thus reminding many travel agents that sell Bales, of the wide network of countries that we operate to.
October - Diary Entry 11
The weekend arrives, I go with ‘the boys’ (being my husband and sons), to my first experience of watching a football match. How refrained I had to be, as we sat on the benches of the opposing team! What a fantastic afternoon’s entertainment.. and that was just the audience…. The game was good too!
October - Diary Entry 12
Whilst it is vitally important to keep up with the business on a day to day basis and ensure that we are always offering high levels of service, I am mindful that we have an excellent management team and that at times you need to remove yourself from the day to day to basically ‘think’. That sounds obvious, the management team are constantly thinking of ways we can improve our service levels further. On that subject, thinking time gets increasingly difficult. The text books all suggest senior management spend an hour a day just thinking. Talking to my peers everyone seems to have their best thinking time - often outside the confines of the office and outside the working hours where the day to day takes over. I am going to try a thinking walk everyday.
Having talked about this to some of my peers it does seem for many of us that we find it extremely difficult to give over an hour or so from our desk to explore new avenues and most need to go away from their working environment to really be able to concentrate on blue sky thinking.
When talking to successful business people about some ideas and where they came up with it, there are those that came up with it in the bath, in the middle of the night, whilst exchanging with people and indeed whilst walking.
It would be wonderful if you could confine thinking about business into certain hours and many can do this, but for me it does come at odd times (mostly though out of the office), and this I believe is because for many of us we concentrate so much on the day to day that that is what you can become busy with.
Just as an aside this morning, I have spent time discussing Chile. It is a fantastic destination - just look at www.chiletouristboard.ch. It is know for its’ mountains, deserts and fjords, such diverse scenery. It is one of the many countries we know very well and we have been discussing how to grow the number of travellers we take. This afternoon is being taken up by new systems timetables and deadlines so we can work with the new systems which will help to further improve our efficiencies and services. My walk will have to wait today….
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