Selling Power: Bringing Spires Travel back to life
Redundancy and shop closure couldn’t thwart Spires Travel’s owner-manager. Chloe Cann talks to Paul Knapper about running a college-based agency and how the students have given him a new lease of professional life.
Though there’s an age gap, Paul Knapper, owner-manager of Spires Travel in Worcester, doesn’t find it too hard to relate to the travel and tourism students that work in his shop, located within Heart of Worcestershire College. After all, he did the same course at a neighbouring sixth form college 17 years ago.
The agency has gone through several iterations in that time. “Originally, it was in an underground room, set up with just a desk and a phone,” he explains. “Various people have managed the shop and then gone on to do other things. Sarah Mason-Parker started Travel Gossip while she managed Spires.”
Sense of uncertainty
But the shop’s future hasn’t always been certain. In July last year, following the merger of two local colleges, a restructuring took place. “All staff got an email to say their jobs were under review,” he explains. “I got called into a meeting with two heads of department and HR. They said they were going to close the agency, even though we were doing really well.”
Once the shop had closed, Knapper went to work for Carrick Travel, where his wife is also employed. But he soon decided there was a missed opportunity. “I worked for Carrick for a month, and as I was doing that I realised I could’ve given Spires a go and restarted it as my own business.”
After submitting a business plan and attending a two-day business strategy course, Knapper was given the green light. And he hasn’t looked back since. “Being made redundant was probably the best thing that happened to me,” he says. “I’m part of Hays IG, but I’m my own boss now. I can work from home when I want and do the hours I want.”
Knapper has now been at the shop’s helm for almost five years. When he was employed by the college to run the agency, taking on students for work experience was part of the agreement. But now that it’s independent, he has more control over their involvement.
“We only have six of them in here now – it used to be 10,” he says. “I have two students in for three days a week, once a month, and that was done on my terms.” Knapper has also ramped up the selection process to ensure he’s getting the pick of the bunch.
“Generally, 20 second-year students apply every year and then I interview them,” he says.
Mutual benefits
Mutual benefits While training the students can eat into Knapper’s time, he says the programme has proven somewhat enlightening. “I didn’t think I’d enjoy that side of it,” he says. “But I find it really rewarding to see the students progress. I don’t get paid to train them, but I’ve become quite passionate about it. They want to pick your brain, to know everything.” And far from getting in the way, Knapper says the experience is mutually beneficial. “I don’t see the students as a hindrance,” he says. “It’s given me a fresh outlook and impetus. When you’re with the same staff for 20 years, you don’t get that.”
And beyond the new perspective, Knapper says the social media savvy of the digital native students that work there helps boost Spires’ marketing efforts. “They keep me up to date on social media,” he says. “When they’re in for the week, I get them to take responsibility for it. They’re always coming up with new ideas, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten Instagram or Snapchat [if it wasn’t for them].”
One particular form of social media that has really taken off for the agency is Facebook. “It’s massive for us,” Knapper notes. Having a page on the social network was initially about exposure, but the site is increasingly becoming a booking medium, he says. On average, Spires receives 20-25 enquiries and 15 bookings a week through Facebook Messenger, some worth up to £7,000. And the majority are clients Knapper has never met, or even spoken to on the phone before. “I’m very surprised people want to do that,” he remarks.
Knapper thinks it might be a result of the instant gratification mentality prevalent among millennials. “I work from home in the evenings and might get a message on there at 8.30pm,” he says. “When I reply straight away, they’re like: ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t expect you to reply until 9am tomorrow!’ They find it easy – especially the younger ones who don’t typically like talking on the phone. And the big high street shops are never going to reply at eight o’clock. They don’t have to do that, so why would they?”
Some 50% of his clients now book online or on the phone, and Knapper says he expects the number that books virtually to grow.
Marketing challenge
Though Knapper brought existing clients across from his previous stints at Going Places and other local independent agencies, he says overcoming the misconception that Spires only sells student holidays has been one of the biggest challenges in broadening his customer base. And as the agency is set inside the college, with minimal footfall, Knapper has had to take a proactive approach to marketing.
Shortly after reopening the shop last November Knapper spoke to 70 recently enrolled travel and tourism students to implement a new scheme. “I printed off loads of flyers and business cards for them to give all their friends and family and offered the students a £10 Love2shop voucher for any bookings made. To 16-year-olds a £10 Love2shop voucher is big and it’s a customer I never would’ve been able to get otherwise – some live 30 or 40 minutes away.”
Additionally, Knapper holds evening talks with suppliers and contacts local special interest groups such as walking and cycling clubs, the Women’s Institute and the U3A (University of the Third Age) to ask if they’d like to attend. And since he started flying solo, Knapper has also had the opportunity to implement some policies he felt were overdue, such as building a website.
“I’d been begging to get one for four years,” he says. “It was the first thing I did. It cost £350 to have a six-page website and only costs £30 a year to run. Since it launched in October, I’ve had £50,000 worth of bookings come through from it.”
His commitment to the cause appears to be paying dividends as business is booming. And as a result Knapper is even looking to offer an apprenticeship to the best of the six students he trains at the end of the 2017 academic year.
“I’m snowed under and we’re on course to hit double what I’d predicted,” he says. “It’s been amazing. I don’t need any new enquiries coming through – I’ve got them coming out of my ears!”
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