Meet Dan, and how his family business has spiked to over £2 million sales since the Pandemic, here’s their story…
Our franchise operates from two offices within our home in Kent. The family business is heavily focused on being a cruise specialist, with service and valuable advice being very high in our priorities for our clients.
Our business journey started with building a small customer database from scratch, then setting about increasing that, using direct mail and attending county shows. All three members of the family have been involved in the business build, and in 2019, I joined the family business full-time, just before the Pandemic. During the first lockdown, I used my social media and cruise knowledge to offer advice to members of the travelling public that were experiencing problems with their agents and tour operators. In doing so, as a biproduct, I helped to increase the customer database. As soon as travel started to open up again in 2021, we started promoting the business online through social media and email drops. This, along with a professional and pleasant character, were instrumental in the business increasing cruise sales and customer repeat business. I am supported by my Dad, who has been taking cruise holidays regularly since 1981 and so has a wealth of experience as a customer, in addition to the business side.
I myself have cruised as a passenger since 1997 and have seen the cruise life from a child's and teenager's perspective as well as an adult. Whilst at university studying for a degree in Port and Shipping Management, I gained invaluable experience working for port agents in Southampton, taking responsibility for cruise ships whilst in dock, including the arranging of crew movements and reprovisioning.
As well as continuing to promote the business via social media and emailing offers to existing clients, we have come to an agreement with another GoCruise and Travel franchisee. They were looking to retire but did not want to give up the business entirely, so they are now working with us part-time, servicing some of their existing clients while we service the remainder.
We have also setup agreements with two social media cruise influencers. As part of these agreements, they promote us as their travel agent. We book their travel for them and any of their followers that wish to book through us gains them a percentage of the commission we make. In addition, we have been instrumental in arranging a group cruise for them in 2025, attracting nearly 200 people from the UK, USA and Australia, with a further group in 2026.
Our key values are honesty, respect and flexibility.
Honesty - we always take the time to understand our clients wants and needs for their holiday and will always endeavour to provide them with a holiday that we believe is best for them. In doing this, we do not focus on the differential earnings we can make from each operator, just on who provides the best product for the client.
Respect - treating clients with the utmost respect in every interaction we have with them, even if they themselves may not be so respectful. We all have bad days, but we must not let it show to the client, even if they take theirs out on us.
Flexibility - taking the time to deal with those clients that need hand holding and extra effort in order to satisfy their needs and being ready for them to change their minds and for us to act accordingly.
Our values have enabled us to achieve a fantastic performance this year and we are so proud and geared up to strive for even more in the years to come! Working from home and having that flexible approach with our customers has certainly contributed to having such a successful business, backed by the support of GoCruise & Travel.
Our advice to you if you are wanting to start your own business in the travel industry, is to choose the right company to be associated with and ensure they have a strong support network in place, as the hardest part is building that customer database and having the knowledge behind you. Choose the right company that has great relationships with cruise and holiday companies, and make use of social media, it’s the way of the World!
