Face to Face: Tony Seaman

When Attraction World was in its infancy, how did you ensure your staff stayed motivated to grow the company?

Having a strong vision is the key, and then being able to convey that vision to your team so that they feel part of it. As the success unfolds they feel excited and proud to be part of something that they are actually helping to build,

How did you differentiate Attraction World from other ticket providers? Why did you think it has been so successful?

I have always been a very strong advocate of excelling in customer service. We made this our mantra, always say “yes”. Resolve issues or queries quickly, provide easy booking and ticketing solutions, have great product and eye catching marketing campaigns and finally always striving to have the best sales and call centre staff in the industry.

What would be your advice to those looking to attain long-term customers?

Firstly you have to recognise the value of your customer. If you are an agent, then someone wanting a UK short break today, might want a round the world cruise tomorrow. Engage with them during the year not just when they come into your shop. Send birthday/Xmas cards, send after holiday ‘welcome home” cards. Send “before you go on holiday” cards. Have a newsletter. There are literally 100’s of things you can do to build loyalty. Because if you don’t engage with them, they will not engage with you.

How can a company develop/nurture a ‘sales’ mentality?

This forms part of the Vision I talked about earlier. To have a sales mentality/culture it needs to form part of the companies DNA. Everyone in the organisation needs to understand the goals and targets which should include financial targets. They need to be informed regularly of progress and what it means to the company on achieving or not achieving these goals. It is a journey but must start at the top.

Do you have any travel trend predictions for 2017? 

All the feedback I get says that 2017 has got off to a reasonable start which is encouraging. Without covering old ground too much, fear of Brexit and global trends including terrorism will play a big part in shaping travel patterns over the next few years. Will Trump’s travel ban put people off the USA? will holidays to Tunisia recover verses Spain? Even the short break market could be affected for example with Paris/France seeming to get a disproportionate share of terrorist activities. Very difficult times ahead I’m afraid.

Can you tell us some more about your new business venture?

The plan is to help companies achieve a lot of what I’ve talked about in this piece. Whilst there are many great companies, unfortunately there are also many who are still very poor at recruiting the right people, engaging effectively with them, and this then results in an underpowered engine. I have built a number of successful brands over the years in the travel and leisure industry, I love helping others achieve success, and in my new venture I hope that I will be able to do more of that.