OTA Blue Bay Travel trains up homeworking agents ahead of January peaks

The agency is working in partnership with outsourcing firm Personal Travel Consultants

The Personal Travel Consultants in Partnership with Blue Bay Travel (PTCs) has launched a series of training sessions to prepare its 40 homeworking agents for the January peak booking period.

The sessions have been created by Blue Bay Travel’s learning and development manager, Beth Trueman, who has been with the business for five years.

They have been designed to support both experienced and new homeworkers.

Special sessions introduce the homeworkers to various teams within the PTCs division and the wider Blue Bay Travel business who will support them during peaks.

Trueman said: “Travel really is a people business and, in our experience, the better the rapport within the team, the greater the success.

“The Power up to Peaks training sessions provide a lovely opportunity for the agents to expand their internal network within Blue Bay and undoubtedly this will help facilitate better sales for 2023 and beyond.”

The training also includes marketing workshops videos, covering topics such social media, brand awareness, and search optimisation.

A sales training session enables PTCs to share tips and advice about converting leads into bookings and how to meet client expectations, while short ‘destination focus’ refreshers focus on the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Far East.

Supplier knowledge and tour operator training sessions are further developing destination knowledge, with sessions hosted by Uniworld, tourism boards and independent hotel groups.

Trueman added: “We’re using Power up to Peaks to individually sit down and work on projected forecasts and individual goals and objectives for 2023, which is also proving useful for the senior leadership team.”

Abbie Heaton, PTC sales manager, commented: ‘Often we go from a relatively quiet December to our busiest time of year with high demand for travel and a frenzy of last-minute opportunities, so we want our consultants to be as prepared as possible.

“In addition to some of the training opportunities we’ve touched on, these quieter periods are also prime time to reach out to existing clients, prepare and recoup.

“January is always a very busy time involving co-ordinating multiple client trips so getting ahead on the preparation is key and Beth has worked really hard for us this year to ensure our PTCs are primed and ready to maximise on all the selling opportunities that the new year will bring.”