The changes include organising ship visits to stimulate interest among beach clients to book a cruise, incentivising reps on customer service feedback rather than sales, and being more available for pre-holiday enquiries.
Some of the initiatives have been trialled during summer 2009 and will be rolled out across the board for the 2010 season.
A new UK call centre has been set up to answer pre-trip questions and a dedicated email and phone number is being provided for the advisor in resort, while some customers may be contacted in advance of their break.
For example, Thomson Premier cruise customers will get a call from the cruise manager before they depart to chat through their holiday.
Both Thomson and First Choice will deploy ‘delay coordinators’ at UK airports, as well as a ‘delay hotline’.
Plans are already in place for customers to email and SMS for advice on delays.
Thomson and First Choice are also looking to bring an end to queues at foreign airports, by staggering the arrivals of transfer buses to avoid congestion.
Overseas holiday reps have been retrained and are now incentivised by higher customer satisfaction scores.
In addition, there will be a customer service manager on all Thomson Airways flights.
TUI has also expanded its product range in response to customer feedback.
Following research that port visits are more important than days at sea, more fly-cruises are being introduced into the Thomson Cruises and Island Cruises programmes for 2010.
In addition, both brands will be offering ‘test-drives’ to Thomson and First Choice beach customers when ships dock in resort ports.
Internet access is currently paid for on cruises, but from 2010 Thomson Cruises will offer a free internet usage for customers who want to blog about their experiences.
First Choice’s Splash collection goes long-haul for the first time in 2010, and eight children have now been selected to join the operator’s Cool Pool Board to advise on future developments.
Seven new Family Choice properties have been added for 2010.
See also:
Dubai programme for Thomson (17/08/2009)
Thomson signs Dream deal (07/07/2009)
Thomson web bookers to get personalised sites (30/06/2009)
Thomson Tailormade relaunches with carbon offsetting (29/06/2009)
Thomson and First Choice unveil 2010 brochures (25/06/2009)
Thomson/First Choice reps given more power (19/05/2009)
First Choice Holiday Village bookings rise (23/02/2009)
First Choice and Thomson get personal (16/01/2009)