Co-op homeworkers celebrate record peak bookings
Co-operative Travel’s homeworking business achieved sales of £10 million in the six weeks after Christmas, making it the best ever peak booking period in its seven-year history.
The Personal Travel Agents saw a 5% increase in sales over the same period of 2018.
The homeworking division, which has 160 agents based around the UK, also reached £50 million of sales for the 2018-19 fiscal year on January 23.
Head of The Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel Sheena Whittle said: "We’re thrilled to have achieved £50 million sales – a major milestone in our business’ young history. We’re also delighted with how our homeworkers have performed during a challenging peak period that’s been dominated by political headlines which have caused uncertainty amongst some consumers.
"We worked hard in the run up to the peak booking period to ensure our homeworkers were prepared and had a strategy in place and we are pleased to see a rise of five per cent compared with the 2018 peak."
Whittle said sales generated via social media were up 20% during the peak period after the company focused on improving agents’ digital communcation skills.
"We paid particular attention to nurturing the digital communication skills of our Personal Travel Agents, with a training module called ‘Typers not Talkers’. Handling enquiries that come via digital live chat, for example from Facebook messages, requires a different skill set from traditional phone and face-to-face conversations and we wanted to ensure our homeworkers were ready to maximise on the opportunity that social media sales presents," she added.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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