"I love a challenge, a complicated booking or trying something new"

Travel Counsellor Sarah McCarthy joined us in 2006 and has since become one of our top selling leisure Travel Counsellors in Ireland. For Sarah, her family was her core focus and ensuring she was there to support them when they needed her most. Whether that be dropping or collecting them from school or being there to cheer them on in one of their games.

Sarah admitted to loving a challenge and taking the leap with Travel Counsellors has allowed her to grow and develop a successful business with a loyal customer base.

Hear from Sarah in her own words on the business she has built.

Why did you become a TC?

Primarily because I had a growing family, and I wanted the flexibility of working remotely and choosing my own hours. Travel Counsellors gave me the opportunity to balance my work with looking after my family. It allowed me to not miss out special moments in their life, and with that my kids have grown up with TC.

What’s been your focus for the past year?

With a challenging couple of months, it was important to me to remain in constant contact with my clients. Whether it was with advice on future travel or just to check in. I had to familiarise myself with all the Covid-19 travel regulations between various countries around the world. This was a challenge, but I am a dab hand at it now and thankfully they are lifting more and more travel restrictions every day.

I am lucky that I have a lovely and loyal customer following so the continuing connection was very important to me. My business has primarily been built over the years through referrals and it is down to my loyal customer base who still to this day refer me to their friends and families.

I love a challenge, either a complicated booking or trying something new. With Travel Counsellors it was important to me to keep up to date with the digital improvements the company makes to further advance our systems like Phenix, MyTC, Discover and TCWorld. After being with TC for 16 years they are still finding ways to make our life easier with how we work. We are given endless resources like the Knowledge Base where you can browse articles, raise TC Support requests, and track your recent enquiries.

How did the pandemic affect your customers?

Thankfully, not one of my clients whose holidays were cancelled were financially out of pocket. They were very grateful to have me fighting their corner throughout the cancellation and refund process.

They are eager than ever to get back out there traveling again and I couldn’t be happier to help them on their way. Since travel has resumed, I have organised many “reunions” in the last few months. I have two families just back from Iceland, two brothers, one of which is based in France, and they had not seen each other in nearly two years, how special is that!

What are your customers telling you now?

They are grateful that I was there at the end of the phone throughout the pandemic. Many of my customers are continuing to travel as far and as wide as possible, which is great to see once again. The office was never closed, and the business now is certainly benefitting from this. They are more appreciative of the service I can provide them. Increasingly my clients are referring friends and family to me which leads me to think that those travellers who always booked on-line are no longer comfortable doing this and want the reassurance of a travel consultant.

Customers want to treat themselves. Those clients of mine who only ever flew economy want to upgrade and experience business class on flights. They’ve had 2 years of thinking about their travel “Bucket List”, or their “Once in a Lifetime” and I’m delighted to help them every step of the way.

What are the top 3 things you love about Travel Counsellors?

I have the flexibility now to work my own hours, but if my customers need me, they know I’m only a phone call away. You are your own boss. You make the decisions when you work, how you work, and where you work. I am fortunate to say with TC I was able to buy a holiday home in Kerry where I can spend the summer months with my family, while still running a successful business.

Despite being self-employed, you never feel alone, you have endless support from head office and other TC’s from around the globe to support you. It is a real community, and we all love what we do.