About Me

I’m Robin, 35 and been working for www.cruise.co.uk for 6 years now. I have worked in the travel industry for the past 15 years and I have become very confident in promoting cruise as well as focusing on customer service and providing the best possible service I can. Nothing is too much for me to look into and help you find that perfect cruise getaway.

I have been working in travel since 2003. I fell upon my first travel job when I was 20 working for a Teletext call center. I thoroughly enjoyed this job and found myself loving the job itself, from the team and management to the clientele. It was such a lovely customer service orientated job to have and I think this is where I found my passion for customer service. It was a pleasure going to work.

In 2005 I was made redundant due to the company going into administration (not the best feeling in the world), however, my glass is always half full rather than being half empty. After being made redundant I went to work for a travel company called United Travel, again based on Teletext holiday but I worked from home. I found this job very exciting as I could treat this as my own business to build up. I worked long and hard to promote the business and offer great knowledge and customer service, along with great value for money.

However, in 2006 I was headhunted to go and work for a Travel Agent. I kept my options open and went for induction and a chat with the Branch Manager, who I am very close to now. She offered me a job on the spot and the package was too good to refuse! And at the age of 23, I had to consider my options and future aspects as to where this could lead. So I decided to accept the job offer and move to retail.

So I went to work for “Travelcare”, now known as The Co-operative Travel. I worked consistently hard for 2 years and was awarded a trip onboard P&O Oceania cruise for 1 week. This was a  real eye-opener for me as I had never cruised before. Wow, what a difference it made. After returning from the cruise I was the top seller for cruise and overall top seller in the branch.

With this in mind, I was then promoted to Assistant Manager by 2008. I like to work hard and work my way up. So for the next 2 years, I worked as the Assistant Manager, dealing with all the queries and complaints using all the customer service skills I had picked up over the years and can honestly say I feel that I did my best in this role. I’ve always believed that doing your best will give you the best outcome.

In 2010 I applied for a Branch Managers role which was offered and accepted. At this time The Co-operative Travel and Thomas Cook had joint ventured which made us the biggest retailer on the high street. I was very excited to work with a team to manage and direct. The store itself was in need of help. Figures, customer service and general staff morale was at an all-time low. This was going to be my biggest challenge yet. However, within the first 6 months, I had managed to get the staff excited when dealing with customers and their own figures, jumping at the chance to serve. Within the next financial year, the branch excelled with targets and was awarded one of the “Best Customer Service” awards. This was an exceptional award to have been given. Within the next year, our cruise customers and bookings grew by 35% which was a great improvement and showed just how dedicated we were as a team. As a branch by the end of the financial year of 2012, we overachieved all targets and I was awarded an A* performer award. This was a fantastic award that I received from Thomas Cook as it showed how valued I felt being part of the group and it also recognized the hard work and dedication that I had put in to make my branch one of the best. In early 2013 all Branch Managers from The Co-operative Travel and Thomas Cook were invited to join a meeting where we were all informed if our shop would shut. And we were all told that we were going to be put on the consultation for 90 days. The reason for doing this is that Thomas Cook needed to pull back funds and start the turn around the process in making Thomas Cook a sustainable business for the future. The consultation would mean after the 90 days, Managers would work their service and either leave the company or apply for a Cluster Manager role (a Manager looking after 4-6 shops). Although I thought this would be a great opportunity to work my way up in the business again, I felt that maybe it was time for me to move on and start afresh. So that is what I did and I now work for a fantastic company called www.cruise.co.uk.