A D A Y I N T H E L I F E LEEANNE BURNS
06:30 Monday morning and the alarm goes off. First it’s a shower then a cup of tea whilst having a quick catch up on Facebook before I wake my son, Reece, up with his breakfast at 7am, then its operation go! I manage to get the dog walked and a 14 year old ready for school without any grunts before 7.50am! I repeat ‘will you put your phone down and put your shoes on’ about 10 times daily! Everyone who has teenager will probably be able to relate to this morning struggle. 07:50 Time to leave the house to drop Reece off at school. The radio is turned up and my singing goes into full swing (thankfully no-one can hear me) and I’m on route from Sunderland to Durham to catch the Park and Ride. 08:30 I arrive in the shop and the kettle is switched straight on ready for the others to arrive. I prepare for the team talk and have a quick catch up on The Hub and emails in case there is anything we missed over the weekend when we were really busy. Our daily actuals are completed from the day before and figures are pulled from ‘pyramid’ ready for the team talk. Staff start to arrive and are full of life with stories of their crazy antics over the weekend! 09:00 Team talk is in full swing, with full interaction from the team. We look at how we performed last week and what our highlights and successes were. We discuss ‘time to shine’ and how we stood out from our competitors. Some mornings staff are excited to tell you about themselves and want the limelight, other times they’re complimenting their colleagues - it really motivates the team and challenges us to think about whether we are doing the best we can. We look at enquiries from the day before and
discuss how we might turn them into bookings. Facebook is reviewed and we look at the quality of our posts and tag messages that have come in from 4pm on Sunday so we can respond to them ASAP. We set ourselves some aims for the week ahead for travel and foreign exchange. We talk about how we might get there and how we will feel when we do - everyone is involved and it’s very interactive. We end with what we want from today and how we will do it then we are all ready to face the day ahead! 09:15 One of our regular customers brings in the free morning paper for us as soon as we open the door and greets us all ‘Morning, Mrs Hayses’! We hardly ever read the paper but it’s the thought that counts! I take this opportunity first thing to do full enquiry checks with each individual, to see how we are converting, what opportunities we have, what we are doing to get customers booked, what we may have missed and share best practice.
NAME: Leeanne Burns
AGE: 39
JOB TITLE AND WHERE YOU’RE BASED: Branch Manager, Sunderland Bridges.
HOW LONG IN THE JOB: 18 months.
HOW LONG IN TRAVEL: 23 years.
PREVIOUS JOBS: 18 years with Thomas Cook then two years in a travel call centre. HOBBIES: Watching my son play football and cricket. Socialising with friends, usually drinking Gin or Vodka!
10:00 As it’s Monday, we need to plan
Facebook for the week. We look to see what was booked the previous week, and also what was booked this time last year. Insights are reviewed to check that we are posting our deals when we have the biggest engagement on the page, we check what’s trending well on the main Hays page and we then set ourselves a weekly plan for what deals will be posted. 11:00 The store is starting to get busy and one of my regulars comes in to check a new holiday. They have just come back and are telling us all about their holiday to Lanzarote over a hot cup of tea. I get them rebooked for the winter dates they are after and they are happy, leaving us with some biscuits for our next cuppa.
BEST THING ABOUT YOUR JOB:
I love people, I love to see my team doing well and watching them develop.
WORST THING ABOUT YOUR JOB:
Seeing all the fab deals but not having enough holiday left to go!
50 HOME AND AWAY APRIL 2019
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