3 New agents join the Travel Counsellor family

Not even Covid-19 was going to stop these agents from following their passion and dream to becoming business owners. September brings a change of seasons in our weather and it also brought a physical change for these three agents.

Covid-19 has brought change to all people and industries. Despite the hardship, despite the loss it has also presented opportunities for many travel agents as they reflect and consider their future. Many agents who recently joined us said that they don’t want to go back to the way things have always been. Many agents said that their values and priorities have changed over this time and so have made some big changes in their lives.

Three agents have decided that the time is right for them to start their own travel business. Justin (Johannesburg), Robyn (Table View) and Marilize (Cape Town CBD) will complete their 2-week induction training on Friday the 18th of September.

The induction process has been easy. Their laptops were prepped with all the Microsoft Office software and all our TC systems where loaded. This was couriered to their home. All they needed to do was to plug it in and then play. It was really that easy.

An invitation via Microsoft teams allowed the inductees to join the TC virtual classroom from the comfort of their home. Then members from the TC head office trained them throughout the 2-week period. The morning sessions was all training. The afternoon sessions gave agents time to practically apply what they had learnt. The head office support team were all the time, only ever a skype call away, so if they got stuck then they were able to make a call – share their screen and the head office support team were able to show them what they needed to do.

Our induction training covered many modules. From all things Tech, to Marketing, to Sales, to how to get to know your customers and to understand what they need. There was system training modules on our Contact Centre (Customer Relationship Management System), the intranet, Phenix (our Quote and Book system) and the myTC app (our customer facing travel app) ... All things pertaining to Corporate Travel including Key Accounts Management, Reports, SLAs and so much more... Managing finances, fraud prevention, Operations and so much more...

On their final day of training each inductee officially launched their travel business. Each TC franchisee is given their own personal leisure website as well as their own business travel website and this was all live too. During this time they had also set up social media accounts to promote their travel business. Whoop Whoop! It is so exciting for them. They can then use the marketing tools provided to let their customers know that they are open for business. In a few weeks’ time these Travel Counsellors will join a 10 week New-Starter programme.

Look what Marilize had to say, “Wow, where do I start? From the initial chat with Bianca till the last day of induction left me with a smile and Goosebumps. Everyone’s support, patience and kindness is overwhelming. I had heard that the systems are amazing, well… mind blowing is a better word to describe it. Being part of the TC family makes me feel safe and excited to reach new heights in my career.”

This is what Justin had to say, "I found the Induction experience to be very informative. The different Modules where correctly spaced and I had the afternoons to practise what I had learnt for the day. From the start I was made to feel like I was part of a large happy family and everyone was so helpful and friendly. I have leaned on most departments almost daily to ask questions and to be set up and everyone has been most helpful in this regard."

Is travel your passion? Do you dream about starting your own travel business? Could this be your time to pause - reflect and reset? If you would like to explore this opportunity, then why not get in touch with us and we can arrange to show you a demo online.