Agent Diary: Sponsorship of a local football team helped us hit the back of the net

Invest in the people who invest in you, says Hays Travel Gateshead’s Colin Burns

So, how has your summer been? Did you get that second peak you were promised?

Ours was a bit mixed as we narrowly missed our July target and were left wishing the month had been two days longer. Then August got off to a slow start and I found myself spending time reassuring the team that we weren’t all suddenly bad at our jobs, and that as long as we stayed positive and gave the best service possible, we would still come good.

I had situations where one of the team would say, ‘Ah man, I’ve only done one booking and it was only a single passenger worth £100’, and my reply would be: “That’s fine, how gutted would you be if you missed your target by that amount? Every booking counts!”

We didn’t panic, stayed focused and we came good in the end as the second half of August went crazy. In the end, we smashed our July and August combined profit target, but missed out on one of our passenger targets by a single person! Now, what was it I was saying about every single booking being crucial?

Getting shirty

Hays Travel has always been big on working with our communities and one thing that really helped us this summer was raising awareness of our shop in our local area by spending money from our Community Partnership Fund to help out a local football club, Leam Rangers.

The club not only offers the footballing facilities but can give support to the kids in their everyday lives too, with mentoring and counselling when they need it.

We donated a weekend hot-tub break and the club’s under-9s team sold tickets to win it. They managed to sell 100 at £20 a pop, raising a total of £2k, which they are going to spend on new kits with the Hays Travel logo. The money will also be used to subsidise travel costs so the whole team can attend a tournament in Filey later this year.

We are also sponsoring the senior team’s online highlights videos with a ‘Brought to you by Hays Travel Gateshead’ banner and our phone number. Our upturn in business coincided with the start of the football season and that isn’t just coincidence. Investing in the people who invest in you is the right thing to do.

Wait and see

Following the news that our customers are going to need an electronic visa to visit the EU from summer 2025, I expected a rush of questions and queries, but it appears to have flown under the radar. I suppose we will just wait and see what the logistics of the new requirement will be. I’m sure we will have some customers who will simply not be able to process their applications themselves.

Will we as the retailer have to add this to the list of ways we can help our customers, along with online check-in? Or will we need to steer clear to avoid possible problems? Watch this space…

Our second peak finally came in late August and it has continued into early September, so let’s hope it keeps going. Last-minute deals for summer 2024 and winter 24-25, along with advance bookings for summer 2025 and, pretty soon, summer 2026, will all help to maintain that momentum. We’re going to fill our boots while we can.

Beth’s barmy sarnie chat

We had a customer at the travel money desk a couple of weeks ago and after his transaction was finished, he randomly told Beth that he was ex-army. “Sorry, what?” asked Beth, prompting the customer to repeat: “I’m ex‑army.” Beth had still not quite heard, so again asked: “What?” For a third time, the customer said: “I’m ex-army.” Beth nodded politely, smiled and said: “Oh, that’s nice.” After the customer had left the shop, Beth came out of the bureau looking really puzzled and asked us: “What was he going on about his egg sarnie for? Does he think we’re Greggs?!” I blame the security glass…