Inspiring Vacations - Female Employee of the Year - Business

Company: Inspiring Vacations, Melbourne VICTORIA
Company Description: Inspiring Vacations is proudly 100% Australian-owned and operated with our head office located in Melbourne. Founded in 2017, our three co-owners have nearly 40 years’ experience combined in the travel industry. The recipient of multiple awards and nominations, our staff are recognised for their passion to provide trusted customer service and exceptional travel experiences.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Employee of the Year - Business

Nomination Title: Laura Coop

Driven by a passion for travel and a desire to deliver outstanding service, Laura began her journey with Inspiring Vacations as a Customer Service Specialist in September 2019.

Despite a global pandemic occurring at the end of her training period, and the resulting difficulties faced by the travel industry, Laura has remained steadfast and unwavering in her delivery of excellent customer service. When the demands of customer service ceased, she took the initiative to re-evaluate her skillset and seek out professional development opportunities.

Given the opportunity to assist the marketing team despite no official experience in the field, she dedicated herself to the role and quickly developed beyond expectations. Recently accepting a permanent position in the team, Laura has continued to grow and take on additional responsibilities outside of her primary focus, adapting to the rapid changes of an industry navigating a global pandemic.

With less than 12 months in the marketing team, Laura has shown inordinate passion, dedication and growth in her development, unparalleled to other comparable graduates. Most recently accepting a promotion to Email Marketing Manager, she has gained sole responsibility to manage and engage a substantial subscriber database of over 50,000 consumers.

Working as a customer service specialist throughout the pandemic, Laura ensured every customer interaction was managed with compassion and understanding.

Being a newcomer to the field of marketing has not stopped Laura from achieving outstanding results, particularly considering the extenuating circumstances of working within the travel industry during a pandemic. Key achievements thus far include:
-Acquiring sole responsibility to manage and engage a subscriber database of over 50,000 consumers;
-Designing at least three large-scale sends per week, which are a key contributor to overall revenue (increased from one send per week since Oct 2020);
-Increased engagement of marketing emails resulting in a higher click-through rate. In the final 6 months of 2020, CTR was averaging at 6.72% per email. In the past few months, email CTR has averaged as 8.53%;
-Transforming email marketing to be an indispensable sales tool and contributor to overall revenue. In the month of April 2021, email marketing accounted for 31% of total monthly revenue vs. only 14% in April 2020.

Her unwavering passion for work extends within the team, often volunteering to take on additional responsibilities, including;

-Working with the CS team for several hours each week, maintaining her position as one of the highest-performing employees outside of the sales team for inbound calls;
-Developing key social media skills to assist with moderation, facilitation of live Facebook events and organic content creation;
-Working closely with the Inspiring Vacations Magazine to oversee house advertising and create content for bi-monthly publications.

Whilst other marketing teams in the travel industry mostly lay dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura and the team at Inspiring Vacations identified the opportunity to take advantage of a unique situation to bend the marketing narrative and meet the demand from consumers for domestic travel.

A key contributor to the company’s revenue growth, the email marketing that has been created and deployed by Laura accounts for over 15% of total revenue in the past 12 months and plays a crucial role in the ongoing success of Inspiring Vacations. A position of considerable responsibility, it is Laura’s high level of professionalism and instinctual skills that offered her a permanent position in the team, despite the need for her original role in customer service.

Particularly significant is Laura’s commitment to personal development. Rising to the challenge of starting an unfamiliar role with no official experience in marketing, Laura was in an additionally unique situation of onboarding with a reduced team whilst working remotely due to lockdown restrictions. Relying mostly on independent learning, Laura took it upon herself to undertake further research and delve into the intricacies of a complex marketing automation software at a rate that surpassed all expectations.

With less than a year in the marketing team, Laura has progressed from strength to strength, and was recently promoted to a junior management position, overseeing a level of responsibility that is significantly higher than other graduates who have worked for a similar timeframe, regardless of their background or past experience.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

During her time as a customer service representative, Laura was driven by a desire to provide outstanding support to all customers at any stage in their travel journey. Her dedication to this endeavour is clearly evident in the attached customer reviews. Laura’s caring nature, attention to detail and high regard for her customers' needs have created a memorable experience for many clients navigating through the challenges of an unprecedented time in travel.

The significant results achieved by our email marketing in the past 12 month period is best expressed when viewing the total revenue from eDMs in this timeframe, as attached. A clear and significant increase is evident from November 2020, which marked the beginning of an ongoing series of email marketing campaigns, all created and deployed by Laura. The difference in revenue from email marketing between December 2020 and April 2021 is an increase of 464% and the result of several successful campaigns including 12 Days of Christmas, Japan in Bloom and Holiday Here.

But what makes Laura’s nomination for Female Employee of the Year so noteworthy is not the financial results. It’s Laura’s continual growth and quiet passion for personal development that has seen her rise to a position of considerable responsibility in such a short period of time. Constantly exceeding expectations, Laura works to not only fulfil her role but also aid the wider team by taking on additional responsibilities. The attached employee feedback is only a small selection to highlight our support in Laura’s nomination.