Home workers are important to Travel Counsellors but building strong customer relationships is the secret of the company's success

Looked at from the outside, the most striking feature of David Speakman's business, Travel Counsellors, is that all the agents are home workers. But for Speakman, this is a side issue. It happened, he says, because when he launched the firm in 1994 he couldn't afford to start a traditional agency.

"I had been in the travel industry since 1978 and built and sold one successful agency. I then launched a restaurant and opened a second one just at the start of the first Gulf War. It failed and wiped me out. I lost all the money I'd made through selling the first business."

As a serial entrepreneur, it was natural for Speakman to start again. But he didn't have the funds. Taking inspiration from US trendspotter Faith Popcorn, who had predicted that the 1990s would be about people working and buying from home, he set up Travel Counsellors, a business built on home workers supported by a central head office.

"The industry has always denigrated travel counsellors as the poor end of the market, but I'd always been impressed by their knowledge. If they don't know something, they'll soon found out."

Speakman says the industry has now pigeonholed Travel Counsellors as a home-working business, but is adamant the trade is wrong about what makes the firm stand out. "What they don't understand is that we are different not because we work from home. What makes us different is our focus on customer relationships."

Speakman argues that the internet has turned the industry into one focused purely on the transactional. Customer relationships are often seen as having no part to play. "We focus on building relationships. We look to engage with customers about 20 times a year through various channels. By far the most important is through telephone calls. With so much choice available through the internet, what customers want above all is to be offered validation of their choice. That's what TripAdvisor and similar sites are all about."

What makes Travel Counsellors different is that it offers such validation with a more powerful, personal touch. Speakman is a fan of the Net Promoter system devised by Fred Reichheld. Reichheld says Travel Counsellors has one of the highest scores of any company in the world, with an average of between 94 and 96 per cent.

This is reflected in the company's performance and results. The past year has been a tough one for the travel industry in the UK, with the market staying flat. But Speakman's business grew 20 per cent, with turnover up to £320m. Profits were held back by investment in overseas operations, but will still be a healthy £6m this year.

Speakman claims that the business has a policy of not entering travel industry awards—"I'm more concerned with customer service awards"- but nevertheless is proud of the company winning the Guardian Best Travel Agent Award last year, having scooped the same accolade in 2006 and 2007. It is also the only travel company to have won a Queen's Award for Enterprise (2003 to 2008).

The true test of many travel businesses has been how they have reacted to the disruption caused by the recent volcanic ash cloud. Here Speakman is again proud of his team. "One counsellor went to Turin to pick up stranded customers and his wife baked a lasagne so they had something for the customers to eat when they got there."

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