Albatross Travel is unique, says Director of Operations Claire Duffield. She shows GT&T the wholesaler’s friendly, approachable way of working, and tells us about its relationships with clients
Coach tour operators are a different breed. In how many industries can you find a wealth of businesses that are small and family-run, but inherently professional?
The way coach tour operators deal with their customers and suppliers demands that those suppliers deal with the operators in the same way. Enter Albatross Travel, a wholesaler with 31 years of experience and a deeply personal ethos. The way it works with its customers reflects many a coach operator.
It's part of the Albatross Group, which carries six brands: Albatross Travel; Albatross Europa (the inbound side for Germany); Albatross Tours (the inbound side for Australia), Success Tours (wholesaler for the GTO market); Door2Tour (B2C marketing of coach tours); and Scenic & Continental Car Tours (self-drive touring holidays).
Based in Aylesford, Kent, the brands have been streamlined and enhanced over the last couple of years to offer the most efficient and most convenient services to customers. For example, the Albatross London and the London Hotel and Theatre Services brands have both been merged into Albatross Travel in that time.
“Both were offering the same service to the same customers,” says Director of Operations Claire Duffield. “Now, the customer only has to speak to one person for all their bookings – whereas before, if they wanted a tour to London and a tour to Scotland, they had to speak to two different people.”
However, the staff who deal behind-the-scenes with London suppliers, who hold the specialist knowledge of the capital, have been retained – so all that's changed for the customer is that they now only speak to one person. “It's the right thing for customers,” says Claire.
‘Have a good tour’
Claire heads up the operations teams across the Albatross Group, and that's another example of the business streamlining. When she took up the post in April 2016, the decision was made to unite the B2B ops teams, which means they're better able to share best practice, as well as support each other with holiday cover, for example.
“We had all those people doing the same jobs for different markets,” she says. “Now that we're all under one umbrella, we can share our wisdom, and what works and what doesn't.”
One example is Albatross's text service: A text goes out to the coach driver on the day of a departure, to wish them a happy tour, and remind them of Albatross's out-of-hours number in case something goes wrong. “If there is a problem, we want to know straight away so we can deal with it on the first night, and it doesn't ruin the tour,” says Claire. “That's the sort of thing we share. It's definitely made a difference.”
Customer feedback
In all their dealings with Albatross Travel, the aim is for a coach tour operator to speak to three people: Their account manager; a second salesperson if their account manager is out; then a member of the operations team.
Once an Albatross Travel tour is sold to a coach operator, the ops team will have regular contact with that operator to ensure that it's selling, to help them with marketing and promotional material, and extend deadlines if required, and to sort last-minute problems, rooming lists, etc. “We're aware that right now passenger bookings are coming in very late,” says Claire. “People are waiting until the last minute to book their holidays, so we have to be as flexible as we possibly can.”
And thanks to that regular contact, if a tour has to be cancelled because it hasn't sold well enough, Albatross will know. “It won't be a shock to our suppliers,” says Claire.
That communications role is one of the things that has seen Albatross Travel win numerous coach tourism awards, not least in the British Coach Tourism Awards 2017.
And it continues when a tour has returned: Claire describes how the team will call the operator for feedback, especially the driver's feedback. “It means we get a feel for how the tour really went, and it really helps us to keep on top of our standards and maintain quality.”
She adds that the tour is wholly the client's, rather than Albatross's, and Albatross is always stressing to its suppliers that the group on tour must be referred to by the operator's name. “It can't work any other way,” says Claire. “The operator's passengers don't know who Albatross are, and nor should they; they've booked with the operator.”
PRIDE values
Albatross is by all accounts a lovely company to work for, and it has a strong ethos running through it, using the initials PRIDE for its core values: People, Responsibility, Imagination, Desire and Excellence. “The people here live and breathe those values,” Claire says. “We make sure all the people we bring into the business are the right kind of people, and it makes a lovely atmosphere to work in. Everyone feels very engaged, we work hard and we have fun.”
Claire joined the company in 2006 on the operations team, with a background in coach tourism operations: Her parents ran a group travel business. She trained as a legal secretary, but when her parents roped her into helping them out on a day off, she “got the bug” and never left the industry.
She became operations manager at Albatross in 2012, and in people management she has found her calling. “I really love developing staff, and passing on my own knowledge,” she says.
“I love working here, and if you speak to anyone who works here, they'll say the same. We've got such a lovely group of people; it's special, how we are.”
Albatross's way of working closely means that loyalty is built up between the sales and ops teams and their clients.
Customers are offered the opportunity to join Albatross’s annual client fam trip – last year to Austria, this year to Ireland – which helps them to sell tours. “It's so much easier to sell somewhere you've been to yourself,” says Claire. “Our customers really appreciate it.”
Albatross also goes to the trade shows and coach tourism community events to catch up with its customers, and the sales team visit their clients.
At Albatross, change is gradual and happens when it needs to. One change mooted for the future is the availability of online booking for operators – but by no means will this mean the end of Albatross's close personal relationships, over the phone and in person.
“It’s so important that we keep building on the loyalty and trust between us and our clientele,” says Claire. “We want to offer choice, but nothing beats a nice voice on the end of the phone, someone who knows exactly what you want. That's so important to us.”
