Kathryn Darbandi
Chris Mottershead
Darbandi: Cook has changed its complaints policy
Thomas Cook’s retail and customer experience director said there is a changing culture at the firm about how it deals with complaints. Kathryn Darbandi said the business no longer looks to simply defend the brand in the face of criticism but promises speedy action to resolve issues. Cook now pledges to respond
to all complaints within 10 days. Darbandi said Cook had had
Mottershead: EU vote has had no impact on bookings
The UK Brexit vote has had “no impact” on bookings but recent terrorist attacks have “changed the industry”, according to Thomas Cook UK managing director Chris Mottershead.
Addressing the convention,
Mottershead said bookings were strong and downplayed the impact of the fall in the value of sterling. “Brexit has not had an impact on bookings at all,” he said. “Bookings are strong for future seasons. We see greater demand for what we offer.” He added: “The impact of the
exchange rate will be [felt] more down the road.” However, Mottershead said:
“The wave of terrorist attacks in the last 16-17 months and the attempted coup in Turkey have changed the industry. “Companies don’t know when
it will end and we have to find the best way to run our business.” He said Thomas Cook had to continuously react to changing situations, including moving capacity from Sharm el-Sheikh, Tunisia and Turkey.
“We introduced destinations such as Sicily and Croatia, and we’ve gone back to some old favourites such as Malaga,” he said. “We had to change some of our
“Bookings are strong [but] the impact of the exchange rate will be felt down the road”
hotels and grow our all-inclusive.” He suggested the tour operator model had proved more adaptable than that of online travel agents (OTAs), saying: “The OTAs really struggled in the lates market offering commoditised product.” Cook moved aircraft capacity to
Spain this summer. “Demand was there but prices weren’t low, so demand in the lates moved back to Turkey,” Mottershead said.
to adapt to changes in customer demands throughout its history but “one common thread is customers continue to expect us to deliver on our promises”. “We take that promise very seriously,” she said. “It’s a big responsibility. Holiday firms will always try their very best to deliver the very best experience but things will always go wrong. “We are saying to customers
‘If you travel with us and you find something is not exactly as we described we will fix it within 24 hours’,” she said. Darbandi described social media as both a threat and an opportunity and said Cook now responded to complaints by phoning the customer instead of writing back to them.
Chris Mottershead gave Thomas Cook’s shops a ringing endorsement at the Travel Convention in Abu Dhabi. Cook’s UK managing director
Cook chief champions merits of company’s retail shop network Cook announced plans two
weeks ago to close 28 shops. “Inevitably, we review our
told delegates: “You’ve got to have all the elements to match where customers want to book. We have 800 shops and they are important. We have a strong website, we have shops and we have call centres.”
retail sites, and leases come to an end,” said Mottershead. “Some of these shops were
left over from a dim and distant past – there may be an old Pickford shop or a Going Places shop [among them]. We may have duplicate locations. “But the shop is here to stay.
We intend to open more shops in high-footfall, bustling areas.” Ahead of the convention,
Mottershead told Travel Weekly he has plans to open 25 shops over the next two years. He told the convention:
“Technology changes and moves on [but] customers don’t remember the technology they used [to book], they remember the holiday experience.”
20 October 2016
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