His plea for courage came amid an ITT conference address on how transparency and collaboration would be key to building a better travel industry post-Covid.
"We’ve had our own challenges – our tech did not run backwards as fast as it should have," said Applebaum, referring to the need to refund en masse during the early stages of the pandemic.
To illustrate how Gold Medal had become more transparent, Applebaum touched on the trade-only operator’s decision to share its call wait times, something he admitted makes him nervous – particularly after they hit historic highs during the pandemic.
"Putting them out there is uncomfortable, you feel vulnerable," he said. "But we own that and embrace working with partners to solve problems."
Applebaum said Gold Medal’s decision to be more transparent allowed the business to justify decisions by senior figures within the business to intervene, and even cut off, calls from trade partners who do not treat the operator’s staff with respect.
"We’ve never been more divided," he said. "We are not all in this together. I’m having to cut off customers because they are not talking to my staff withe due respect. These are professional people. We need to take a moment to think about that. These people are part of the wider travel industry. If you scare them off, it hurts all of us."
For context, Applebaum – who succeeded Lisa McAuley as Gold Medal managing director last November – revealed the Gold Medal team had taken 433,000 calls over the past two years, dealt with 750,000 schedule changes and received 250,000 refund requests, while Gold Medal has gone through 23 versions of its Covid "playbook".
He said this amounted to placing "unprecedented demand" on a team that was not built to deal with such volumes. However, in light of the recruitment challenges the industry currently faces, Applebaum warned the trend towards doing more with less resource was unlikely to be reversed imminently, particularly with businesses competing not just for customers, but staff as well.
"That adds another layer of rivalry," said Applebaum. "We are a less attractive industry than we were three years ago. We are not as well placed to attract the talent we need to attract. We need to replenish the supply of young people. We are all going to have to get used to more work with less people."
