Case Studies
Issue No. 18 - August/September 2004
Jetset Norwood
Have training, will travel
Customer service basics are quite well known: prompt and lucid communication with clients and suppliers, good product knowledge, courtesy, etc. But where do they come from?
Do readers recall how they gained the skills that have got them where they are today?
An eastern suburbs travel agency founded only a few years ago has climbed to the top of its sector on the strength of supercharging the training process.
While the travel industry generally has been in the doldrums thanks to international travel apprehensions, Jetset Norwood, owned by Michael Pound and Neil Moreton, has quadrupled in staff size since it was founded. Spokesman Michael knows this is because his people are simply more capable than customers expect them to be.
Training is so important in Michael‘s scheme of things it has an explicit place in the company‘s mission statement, as the means to provide ultimate customer service.
Michael worked at AMP in admin roles. When AMP centralised operations in 1993 he studied tourism on a full-time basis, then travelled in Europe before accepting a job at Elizabeth Travel.
"That year I won AFTA Student Of The Year," he recalls. "I worked at Elizabeth Travel for almost two years before leaving to work at Satisfac Travel. I worked there from early 1995 to August 2001 when I decided to open Jetset Norwood with Neil Moreton."
You‘d expect a new business to hire experience in the first instance, to help the owners while they learned the ropes of management. On the contrary, Michael and Neil looked for people like themselves: newcomers to the industry who were looking to make a mark, albeit at a different level.
They found that the graduate consultants they hired were keen - keen enough to study at night to broaden their skills, and work hard to build up their own client bases.
Jetset Norwood pays attention to awards programs - particularly training programs. Employees have topped their development...
