Executive General Manager – Mandy Scotney

TravelManagers prides itself on its high level of customer service; in fact they monitor any complaints closely and have a complaint factor of less than 0.01 per cent. Now some would say that’s not even worth monitoring but perhaps that’s why it is so low. In addition to this Mandy Scotney TravelManagers’ executive general manager, says repeat business and referrals are a significant driver for sales.

“Of all booking transactions, repeat business and referrals from existing clients make up 53 per cent of our sales. There’s no doubt happy clients are our best advertisement for the level of service TravelManagers provides.”

Scotney says they are constantly being sent emails from happy clients.

“We recently had a fantastic example of true customer service, which is not dissimilar to the feedback we generally get about our personal travel managers. They take their roles very seriously, it is not just a transaction to them and this is evident when you see the lengths they go to deliver excellent customer service and how they often react in times of need.”

Samantha (Sam) Taylor joined TravelManagers in November 2011 as their representative for Yarrambat, prior to this she was an owner operator at a small agency north east of Melbourne’s CBD.

Her client, Sherry McKimmie and her partner and daughter booked a holiday in Vanuatu which included them getting married. Samantha sorted all of the arrangements for what was supposed to be a dream holiday and wedding. Their first week was without any hiccups however the second week was a completely different story.

The day before their wedding their daughter became very ill and they had to postpone the wedding and they spent the day in a hospital in Vanuatu. The wedding was changed to the next morning and was a beautiful occasion.

Ms Taylor says she got a call early one morning from her client.

“Sherry explained her daughter was ill and that they urgently needed to get home. As a mother I could hear the concern in her voice, I really felt for them.”

Ms McKimmie says within an hour of her call of desperation, Sam had organised their flights and they were soon at the Vanuatu airport ready to come home.

“Now you may think, well that’s her job and that is why you don’t book on the internet, but it didn’t stop there and it went beyond any service I have ever received from a travel agency. When we landed at 10.30pm Sam was at the Melbourne airport to pick us up. In fact, not only did she pick us up, she had organised another car so that we could all fit, she had a car seat for our daughter and a bag of warm clothes for us.”

Ms McKimmie’s daughter was diagnosed with measles and Sam continued to check in with them in the following days, until finally they could report back that she was on the mend.

“Sam went above and beyond for my family. I can’t thank her enough for everything that she did for us, for the outstanding care and compassion she showed us. Sam is now officially classed as part of our family!”

Ms Taylor says she would do it all again tomorrow.

“I want to go the extra mile for my clients. These were difficult circumstances for this family so I just thought what else can I do to help, it’s about foreseeing the consequences of such a change and doing my best to eliminate any inconvenience or uncertainty for my clients. This is what we do, this is why I wanted to become a personal travel manager.”