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In this video you’ll hear from Titan Travel trade success manager Chris Woodcock and TTG’s content writer Charlotte Cullinan.

Video transcript 

Charlotte: Welcome to our second In The Spotlight video with Titan Travel. Chris, could you introduce your trade team to us? 

Chris: Yes, first of all, thanks so much for having me, Charlotte. My name is Chris Woodcock and I'm the trade sales success manager here at Titan Travel.

Although the brand has been around for over 40 years now, we're a kind of newly formed team that has come together with a new set of aims. And so starting at the top, you've got Shane Lewis-Riley, who's our director of sales. We've got myself, on the more engagement side. We also have Andrea Jones, who is senior sales manager. Adam Deane, who's a sales manager. And then we also have Natasha Oram, who's our account manager that looks after key accounts for us. And then below me you've got currently two BDMs. So we've got Erin Taylor and Trisha Doe covering Central and North.

And then we're looking for a third BDM in the South. We're looking for you! And we'll soon be a lovely team of three on the road, which I'm really excited for.

Charlotte: Fantastic. Thank you. And I know you streamlined your trade support function, so tell us about that and the impact that it's having. 

Chris: So one of my roles when I came in was to look at processes, understand the functions and what works well and what doesn't. And so one of the things I did identify from the start is the way that we talk to the trade, and our email function was, multifaceted, let's say. You might email in from one angle and then we'll email you back from another, or the reverse of that, and that might be a different team in Cape Town answering. And this one over here might be UK-based. 

And putting my travel agent hat on – I used to be a tour operator for many years myself as well – I thought, how is it for me when I touch base with that supplier that I might work with occasionally? And so, one route in, one route out is the way that we resolved that behind the scenes.

We are working two teams together actually, but you wouldn't hopefully see that, and that'll be nice and seamless. And so, we get the support of our Cape Town folks that run the trade contact centre. And that's more booking related, and then in terms of account management, commission queries, that kind of thing, that's the UK team.

So my team triage everything. We find out where it needs to go and look after you from that perspective. And then it's down to the relevant team to email you back from that same inbox. That's the important bit. So you always email in to tradesupport@titantravel.co.uk and we'll email you back from tradesupport@titantravel.co.uk as well.

Charlotte: Brilliant. Thank you. And you have some strong partnerships too. What do agents need to know there? 

Chris: So that was another thing that we identified as I came into the business. We work with multiple suppliers across the world to produce our tours. And so identifying those that maybe known to the trade already that we could partner with on various activations and engagements was very key to me.

And so early on, having come from a bit of a red background myself, I identified that Virgin Atlantic was a great partner for us to work with. And what I liked about them is that their story is similar to ours, although we look after you from A-to-Z with our tour, one of the key selling points for us is our chauffeur service that we do door-to-door. So anywhere you are in the UK, we'll pick you up from your door, take you to the airport, and then do the reverse on the way home. So it's a real door-to-door service for us, and that's a real key selling point. 

And it's the same with Virgin. They're the method of transport that takes you to that holiday. But it's a real key selling feature. And so I wanted to shout from the rooftops from both of our perspectives that this is just as good as the holiday itself, like being in resort. So having that kind of end-to-end experience and the journey included was really important to me. And yeah, it’s been a great success. Tuck Into India is our partnership with Virgin Atlantic, and it's out currently. 

Charlotte: Thank you. And your fleet of vehicles in the UK is expanding, isn't it? Tell us about that.

Chris: So we've currently got an order and it's slowly being entered into service. 94 new vehicles, they're hybrid vehicles. They're the beautiful ones that you've seen previously. Different models and different colours, but known around the UK. It's a key selling point for us, that end-to-end journey. And it just takes any kind of worry out of the mix. You've got the chauffeur service, which is a lovely touch to it as well. So you're feeling like you're in the lap of luxury, heading to the airport, whatever time of day that is, wherever you are in the UK.

And little-known fact, but we cover a lot of the islands as well. And that's all included in the fare cost. There's no supplements to pay for that. 

Charlotte: And finally, tell us how agents can learn more about Titan and keep up to date with all of your news.

Chris: So we have a few ways you can get in touch with us. I've already mentioned about trade support@titantravel.co.uk. That's a good starting point. Our Facebook group TITANium which is currently 3,200 members strong. This is all travel industry professionals, so it's a travel agent only group that we talk to you on. And really currently that's our main way of sending the message out there. As part of that, we do a weekly Facebook Live called Titan Talks. That's myself and Shane. And we just talk through the week and what's coming up, what you might want to know. We give away certain goodies. We talk about agent incentives. 

We also have our trade email channels. So we email out once a week from that and you can find out more about signing up for that on our website. 

Charlotte: Thank you for sharing all of that great information, Chris, and thank you for watching our In The Spotlight video with Titan.