A scheduling note: There will be no Off to Lunch on Monday, 27 May due to the bank holiday. Our Business Leader podcast will also be taking a break next week.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
How important are your customers to your business? Well, the company featured in this week’s episode of the Business Leader podcast puts the customer at the centre of everything it does. As a result, it may be the best reviewed company in Britain, with 98 per cent of reviewers on Trustpilot giving it five stars.
Travel Counsellors is a company that you may not have heard of. But there’s a very good reason why its CEO, Steve Byrne, is OK with that.
The company is effectively an online travel agent, with more than 2,000 self-employed travel experts delivering bespoke luxury leisure and corporate travel services. The company’s core focus is repeat business and building advocacy, as Byrne points out:
We want every ‘travel counsellor’ – every customer and every colleague, no matter how long they interact with us – to be a raving fan of Travel Counsellors.
Terry Leahy spoke at our travel conference about 15 years ago when he was then CEO of Tesco. He said: “The problem with most travel businesses is they spend far too much time and money trying to chase new customers, rather than looking after ones they've already got.” That's always stuck with me.
This issue is not isolated to travel businesses. When we spoke with Fred Reichheld, the creator of the Net Promoter Score and the ‘godfather of customer loyalty’, he told us that only 10 per cent of business leaders believe that the primary purpose of their business is to make their customers’ lives better. That is why, as he says in his book Winning on Purpose, the other 90 per cent are destined to fail:
That’s just mind boggling to me because it’s the only purpose that actually leads to positive outcomes in the long run.
Byrne, who has been at Travel Counsellors for almost two decades, also talks about the importance of values, particularly as he has grown the company to turnover of close to £1bn.
The thing I've noticed is that the bigger it gets the more you focus on the simplicity of the values. By focusing on the values, it helps you cut through the noise and complexity you might get with being a bigger business.
There's a risk, as you get bigger, that you move away from them. As a team, we are very focused on making sure we always remain true to our values, and they guide everything we do. That quickly came to the fore during Covid, when we went through a torrid time and made difficult decisions.
You can listen to the full episode on Substack here, Spotify here and Apple here
Other stories that matter…
1. Retail sales fell at a faster rate than expected in April as bad weather kept shoppers away. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows retail sales fell 2.3 per cent; most economists were predicting a 0.2 per cent drop. Read more here.
2. Consumers may not be spending as much, but their confidence is on the rise. GfK’s consumer confidence index, which measures how people are thinking about their personal finances and economic prospects, rose two points to minus 17 – its highest rate in two years (albeit still well in negative territory). Find out more here.
3. Abrdn’s chief executive is stepping down after a four-year tenure that has included a rebrand that removed the vowels from its name and a slump in its share price. The group’s finance boss Jason Windsor will take over as CEO on an interim basis while the board conducts a formal search for a permanent replacement. Read more here.
4. The energy price cap is to fall by 7 per cent in July, meaning an average dual-fuel household will pay £1,568 a year – a drop of £122. While it will ease some of the pressure on household finances, prices are still far above the level of summer 2021, when they started rising due to the energy crisis. Read more here.
5. The Economist has taken a deeper look at the shift among retailers to sell access to their customers. The piece examines the case of Walmart, which says its growing advertising business helped operating income rise by 9.6% year on year in the quarter ending April. More here.
Are you a CEO, founder or finance director looking to scale your business?
Our ambition – one shared by our partner OakNorth Bank – is to help more companies achieve their potential. To do that, we’re bringing a community of entrepreneurs, founders and leaders together to talk about the challenges they face and get advice on how to overcome them.
Over breakfast, you'll have the opportunity to network with peers and discuss and share your journeys. And we'll be running a panel discussion with leaders at Deliciously Ella, Total Fitness and Mowgli Street Food.
If you're interested in joining us or finding out more, click here.
And finally…
Bill Gates has released his reading and watching recommendations for this summer. On his blog, GatesNotes, the co-founder of Microsoft recommends the following:
The Women by Kristin Hannah This terrific novel tells the story of a US Army nurse who serves two tours on the frontlines in Vietnam before returning home to a country rocked by protest and anti-war sentiment.
Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson Anderson, who has been the curator of TED Talks for more than two decades, explores how the internet can amplify the impact of generosity. He offers a plan for how everyone – including individuals, governments and businesses – can foster more generosity.
Slow Horses on Apple TV+ Gary Oldman plays the head of Slough House, who is basically the polar opposite of James Bond. He’s a slob and an alcoholic, but then he surprises you with an amazing bit of spycraft. Like le Carré novels, Slow Horses has enough complex characters and plots that you have to really pay attention, but it pays off in the end.
Brave New Words by Salman Khan Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, has been a pioneer in the field of education technology since long before the rise of AI. That means the vision he lays out in Brave New Words for how AI will improve education is well grounded.
How to Know a Person by David Brooks The key premise is that conversational and social skills aren't just innate traits – they can be learned and improved upon. Brooks provides practical tips for what he calls ‘loud listening’, a practice that can help the people around you feel heard and valued. It’s more than a guide to better conversations; it’s a blueprint for a more connected and humane way of living.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy Off to Lunch then please share it with others and spread the word. If this newsletter was shared with you then please sign-up below to get Off to Lunch sent directly to your inbox