We are running a series of weekly ‘Ladies Day’ features to celebrate the incredible women we have working with us at Emperor Divers.
We want to share their stories and tell you more about them. Some may be familiar faces from our boats and dive centres, a familiar voice or name from our reservations team or perhaps someone from ‘behind the scenes’. Whoever it is, they are all amazing and help make us the great organisation we are.
This week we meet a lady who will have helped many of you book your Emperor Divers trip – Anna Zamurueva. More often known as Anna Z among the Emperor team, she will be a familiar and reassuring presence to so many who have used our reservation service.
Here she explains what makes her role special and why she loves her job so much.
Anna has been with Emperor Divers for two and a half years but has plenty more experience in the industry – something that will be immediately apparent to anyone who has been given her calm and reassuring customer service.
Anna loves her role and her joy is in making sure anyone that contacts the Emperor reservations team gets the best possible help and advice – even if it might not always be exactly what they want to hear.
“I believe it is important to be “met” by a nice, helpful person when you are looking to book or searching for information, so I try my best to be that person,” she says.
“I really love it when I can help guests quickly, with any kind of information, and that leads to a confirmed booking.
“But also I am not afraid to tell any ‘cons’ to the guest, especially when it is a less experienced diver looking for some advanced trip or a dive site. This way I do my best to ensure that divers choose an itinerary right for their experience level and come back safe and happy.”
It is this personal element that makes the job so satisfying for Anna – speaking to the guests and making sure they get what is right for them.
“Sometimes we can go into discussion of food or national holidays, weather where we live or upcoming holidays. I think this makes us little bit closer to people on the other side of the chat/email/messenger,” she explains.
“It shows we are humans, not just a computer thing, and it feels safer to book with a person that you can chat with.
“Sometimes it just takes longer for some people to decide, and I will always continue to talk or chat if that is needed.
“That could be a 30-minute Zoom with a person who does not feel comfortable to book online, it could be messaging with a relative who is not responding from onboard to make them feel better, or it could be something special that needs to be arranged with the destination team.
“Just recently we had a guest who could not get visa – although he started the process six months before the trip.
“Closer to the trip he started losing hope, as he had tried all official ways.
“We could not cancel the booking as it was already too close, so tried to help with what we could – although as a company we are not dealing with visas at all. We tried to cheer him up, we asked agents from same country for tips, we did everything we could do to help him.
“When he sent us a short email from the airport to tell us he was allowed to travel and was heading to the boat, we all were really happy.
“He was very nice and I felt kind of involved, so was really pleased with the happy end. I think that’s the small things that make me love this job.”
If you would like help booking your holiday or would like to speak to someone in order to get a bit of advice about a liveaboard trip, get in touch with Anna or the rest of our amazing reservations team on [email protected] or via the chat on our website.