A Day in the Life Of… Geoff – Branch Manager, Clevedon

The working day would normally start at around wake up time as it’s always a quick check on the phone for the emails to see if anything urgent has come through since the last time I checked it, probably just before the head hit the pillow. But the first thing to be done upon arriving into the office before anything else is……..get the kettle on!

Then while the kettle is a boiling it’s time to set up the desk ready for the day ahead.

Once we have the first cup of tea of the day, it’s a time to check my own work diary to see what actions are needed to be done on customer files. Usually this will consist of any cruise line checking in and printing of customers cruise tickets and other information, at least one Easyjet customer booking for checking in and printing of their boarding cards, and then emailing hotels to advise of any customer requests that I may have on my customers travel arrangements.

Hopefully by now the other staff will have arrived, and it is going over anything that we need to action today as an office.

Throughout the day it is then a mix of administration on clients bookings, be that their travel confirmations or travel tickets, any amended updates that we may have been advised of or flight changes that we need to query to make sure there is no other option for our clients.

During this time there is also the need to put the kettle on again as by now the cup has run empty and that just can’t be allowed to happen.

The main focus of the day is dealing with the customers enquires that we receive both personally into the shop and by telephone and increasingly by email.

We don’t have a bookable website and that is because the internet will never be able to beat what myself and my colleagues can give and that is to excite, inspire and enthuse you with knowledge passion and an aim to make sure what we deliver is what you have requested from us. We will use the web to put the arrangements together but we do so with our knowledge as opposed to a computer programme just listing the options.

Throughout the day there may be a couple of curve balls to deal with such as Monarch Airlines/Holidays collapsing or the odd hurricane affecting some of our clients travel plans, but throughout the day I will always try to tackle each enquiry, issue with the same passion as the last, because as a travel agent that is what we commit to do for our clients. These incidents are far and few but being an independent travel agent, we are here for you every step of the way, saving you time and worry.

There is no typical day in our office as everyday gives us the opportunity to do something different from yesterday. That’s why I love my job working in travel and for Global Independent Travel.