SAA goes for more direct sales

Monday, 24 Jun, 2005 0

South African Airways is refocusing its direct sales strategy to “capitalise on business growth opportunities”.

The carrier has reversed a decision to switch its UK-based call centre to Johannesburg and moved UK and Ireland marketing manager Russel Barlow Jones to the position of direct sales manager.

Tebogo Tsimane, SAA ‘s UK and Ireland general manager is returning to South Africa to become head of sales for Africa and the Middle East. He will continue to oversee both roles until a replacement has been found for the UK.

A statement said: “A head office review of continuing growth opportunities has prompted SAA to reverse its earlier plans to switch the handling of UK customer calls to SAA’s centralised call centre in Johannesburg.”

Barlow Jones said: “Given the passenger growth we are experiencing, and the excellent performance of the UK call centre, it makes good sense to keep the function running in the UK for the foreseeable future.”

He added: “We have a first class sales team, especially in our call centre, which has consistently been recognised by the Benchmarking Performance Analysis for delivering the highest standard of customer service in the industry.

“My priority will be to work with the direct sales team to build on the successes of the past year to deliver even higher levels of customer service to meet the growth in demand for SAA flights.”

Despite the refocus, the carrier said that “industry sales also remain a priority”.

UK and Ireland sales manager Judy D’Arcy and her team “will continue to actively deliver the most competitive deals and the highest level of support to its trade customers,” the statement said.

Report by Phil Davies

Phil Davies

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