At 12 years old her path was already clear. In a little Spanish outfit, the young Ines would spend so much time chatting with customers in her family restaurant that her dad would have to remind her she was working. This is the story of how Ines took that love for people and channelled it into the agents with whom she works. It’s the story of her desire to raise the industry with passion, connection and hard work. This is Ines Iniesta’s story.
Ines Iniesta is Journey Beyond’s Business Development Manager for Victoria and Tasmania. And before I meet her I am told she is beloved.
It takes no less than three minutes into our conversation for me to see why. Ines gives. She gives her time, her knowledge, her passion and herself. Her smile is pretty contagious too.
I ask her where this love for people came from and she talks of her years at the family restaurant.
“My dad would be looking at me from the kitchen going, ‘hurry up, I need you back in the kitchen’. And I’d be talking to a customer and laughing. Having way too much fun.”
“I’m a people person. I love connection. And I’m Spanish so I need to feel, touch, kiss, hug. I love everyone.”
Lockdowns and social distancing then were clearly not a great time for people like Ines.
“Sitting at home was breaking me,” she tells Karryon.
“My job was very social for me. So being stuck at home, day in, day out… I couldn’t do it.”
So Ines did something that few do. With travel down and before starting at Journey Beyond, Ines went to work at a COVID vaccine clinic… for the connection.
“I just needed people, conversations.”
The only problem was Ines kept calling the patients ‘guests’.
A customer service queen
When I ask people about a moment in their travels that touched and inspired them, the usual response is some awe-inspiring scene, some bucket list item that had been ticked and highlighted. Not Ines.
She has so many stories but the one that most hits home is about an experience she had in a hotel.
“I was walking in through this beautiful foyer and there was this incredible flower arrangement that just took my breath away. So I had to go up to it (because I thought it was fake),” she laughs.
“I go right in, take a sniff, touch it and, oh my god, it was just so beautiful.
“Anyway, I check in, go up to my room and decide to go for a walk and get something to eat.
“And when I get back to my room, on my bedside table there was a vase with the same flowers from the display in the foyer in it.
“Someone’s obviously seen me have a look at the flowers, smell the flowers, and decide to put some flowers in my room. How wonderful is that?!”
This act blew Ines’ mind. This little act of human kindness, anonymous, with little chance of recognition or compensation meant everything to Ines.
“I always say that good people in sales or in customer service are always listening, always watching. And they learn and add to a guest’s experience.
“And, look, it’s not even customer service. It’s just being a good human being.”
A force to be reckoned with
Ines was fresh out of school when she knew she wanted to work in travel. She found an advertisement for a job with Venture Holidays.
“I was this fresh-faced little 18 year old and was willing to do anything. ‘I’ll even change rubbish bins,’ I said. I don’t care. I’ll just get in there. They’ll love me and I’ll make my way through the channels.”
“I got through the interview and the boss said he’d get back to me. Well, you know, I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. So I kept ringing and leaving messages. I was desperate to get in. And I think he was so sick of me that he eventually just said, ‘Alright! You’ve got it!’”
She started in a junior position, sitting in this tiny box of a room in front of a telex machine.
“I did that for months and I would do lots of overtime because I just wanted to prove my worth, you know?”
After three months, she moved up. And then up again.
“Each job was a win for me, and starting at the bottom just made me better at things when I got into higher positions.”
Ines stayed at the company until the Gulf War and the subsequent folding of Venture Holidays. We talk of the impact on travel of things like 9/11, the global financial crisis and inevitably the pandemic.
“There’s always been a challenging time, a lull and then travel picks up again, and everyone would worry. But I kind of look at these times to better and to progress myself.”
This was easier said than done for a single mum with three kids, in a time when part-time work wasn’t exactly embraced.
“But I always set goals for myself and challenges. I always wanted to learn more, know more and be more.”
That mindset saw Ines move into retail travel and after seeing the BDM reps come through she thought, “I could do what they do.”
“I know what people want and what they really need and I want that job. I want to do that.”
The rest, especially when Ines set her mind to something, is history. And her journey to Journey Beyond was set.
She knows your pain
Ines takes her determination and love of people to her agents, but she also brings her experience from their side of the desk.
“I can relate to agents because I’ve been there. I know what their pain points are and can empathise with them, and then show them how I can inject Journey Beyond and what we can offer to make their lives a little bit easier.”
“When I walk into an agency the first thing I ask is, ‘What do you need from me?’. They’re busy. So beyond the product and systems training, it’s about showing them the Journey Beyond products that are easy to sell.
“At Journey Beyond our products are highly sought after. They are high demand with also high yield. So, they’re very easy to sell and it’s a high return for yourself and for the company that you work.
“And our guest experience is unparalleled which means agents have that repeat and referral return.”
D-Days and tough days
Nothing is off the table with Ines. She wants the new agents to feel comfortable to ask the questions they need answered to sell the products.
“I’m still learning,” she tells Karryon.
“This is an industry that you never stop learning. It’s a constantly changing landscape and your clients will ask the questions even if you don’t,” she says.
And it’s not just her Journey Beyond knowledge Ines is willing to share.
“I’m pretty forthcoming when it comes to helping people navigate through the industry. Why wouldn’t I help somebody else in my industry? It will help us all in the long run.
“There’ll be tough days and there’ll be easy days. Days you just want to throw your hands up and say, ‘I’m done’, and days you’ll just go, ‘Oh my god, I love this place’. But I’d never want to do anything else.
Tough days and easy days aside, if Ines says it’s Doughnut Day or Cookie Day, we all know she’s lying. Just eat the doughnuts.
