On The Deck: Steven Roberts and Paul Frost

Within the current economic climate it would be easy to feel slightly downcast over the negative news stories that are littering our headlines. Tumbling share prices, bad press and shop closures are becoming all too routine. These stories are not helped by the fact that during periods of economic instability it is often tourism which is the first to suffer. It’s this reason why we were so intrigued by the announcement by Jetline Cruises that it was to open up a high street store in north London. The shop will still have its core call centre function, however it now boasts a ‘cruise concept’ centre allowing guests to watch videos and discuss their holidays with a specialist. The space will also allow for cruise lines to come down and meet their clients in person too. We went along to the opening and spoke to managing director Steven Roberts and marketing director Paul Frost to find out more.

Where did the idea for the store come from?
Steven Roberts: We had to move out of our old offices and we saw that with that move came an opportunity to try something a little different. We had wanted to do something similar to this with our old building but it was a call centre on an industrial park and simply wasn’t possible. The feedback we’d had from our customer confirmed that they wanted an experience right from the booking stage. These products are so special that they deserve something unique.

Why do you think the store fits with what you sell?
Paul Frost We obviously do sell your bog standard cruise packages but the majority of what we sell are unique, tailor-made experience. Whether that’s the Caribbean or the Far East, we are putting together pre- and post-cruise packages that will be as long as the cruise itself. Customers wanted to immerse themselves in the itineraries so this experience has been created where they can come and talk to specialists, watch videos taken onboard the ships they’ll be cruising on and looking at the destinations in more detail. It adds more colour and life to a web site or brochure.

How have the first few months been going?
Steven Roberts: Really well. It’s early days but we’re already seeing an interest from our customers. They are keen to come and talk to someone about their holidays. These are people that are spending over GBP20,000 on a holiday in some cases and customers aren’t comfortable spending that kind of money in just a few clicks. For a lot of people this is a once in a lifetime experience and we help develop those memories, right from the booking process. These types of holiday should be exciting – they will be something that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

What kind of feedback have you had since you’ve opened?
Paul Frost : It’s been fantastic. We’ve not gone out and marketed heavily as of yet because we were waiting for our official launch today but we’ve been telling our regular customers that we’ve now got a store they can come into. The fact that we can now offer that personal service face-to-face is a real plus for our market. Our core business remains the call centre, it’s just now supported by the cruise concept store.

The high street presence presumably comes with a cost. Do you think you’ll be able to justify this?
Paul Frost: Absolutely, because of the holidays we sell.
Steven Roberts: We’re justifying it right now because if we do nothing more than we’re doing now and it continues as a support to our current customers then it’s worthwhile. North London is a very big cruise market too and because of that, a lot of the cruise lines we spoke to were very excited about having a dedicated cruise seller – with a retail presence – in the area.

How is your relationship with the cruise lines?
Paul Frost: We’ve got a very close relationship with them and a number of them have shown an interest in doing experience sessions in here. We hope that within the next month or two we can release information about our first experience evening and we’ll put that out to our members first. It would be a small, intimate session – maybe two groups of 12 max, with a personal service. Cruise lines would be able to give a talk directly to real, prospective clients. It’s a great opportunity for our clients, the cruise lines and, very interestingly, some tourist boards too.

Are you hoping to open more stores?
Steven Roberts: Who knows, we have to see how this goes. Our attitude is never say never – especially if it proves successful. We would always want to know our boundaries and keep within that but there’s no reason why not. The idea of bringing your customer in and immersing them into an experience is one we obviously believe in.