Providing an overview of the characteristics of customers encountered in Thomas Cook
While working in Thomas Cook one can expect to meet customers who have several demands. According to Paparoidamis et al. (2015, p.173), these customers are connected to each other and the world, are mobile, have an urge for social acceptance, demanding or uses their inherent consumer knowledge as leverage over the organisation. The consumers are virtually connected in the clouding networks and thus, product detail and information are readily available to them. Since they are connected to the 24/7 online world, they expect Thomas Cook to be available 24/7. these customers. The customers on mobile and they are everywhere. A good business strategy is one where the company needs to identify the special needs of the consumers so as to lure which can help them to make a purchase. The consumers are also connected to each other on social media platforms and can be very demanding as the decision-making process is influenced by cost effectiveness and quality, in other words, they expect the best from the organisation. They have an unlimited supply of information pertaining to the products that they use to compare and choose from the existing sellers, the rivals.
Examples of products and services offered to the customers by Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook functions as a travel agency which is nothing but providing travelling and vacationing deals and opportunities to the consumers. Over the years, the nature and perception of the consumers have drastically changed. They serve at the global level and their products include schedule Chartered flights for passengers, holiday packages, luxury cruise expeditions and not to forget their own chain of hotels and resorts (Demirci-Orel and Kara, 2015, p.226). The need of the customer has been identified and the services are fabricated in order to satisfy them.
Examples of extra services provided by Thomas Cook
Once the primary needs of the customers are sufficed Many organisations forget to Cater to their secondary needs which can be termed as extra services. In words of Ford et al. (2015, p.187), Thomas Cook has been able to benefit by effectively putting up extra services for an optimal price which can be purchased by the individuals if they want their demands to be fulfilled. Thomas Cook offers special services in order to handle the issue of extra pieces of baggage. Most of the passengers are not allowed to carry over a certain limit of weight, Thomas Cook camp easily manages this crisis by providing prior consent which allows a subtle relaxation in the protocol. Thomas Cook also has undertaken several other special services such as providing the customers with the preference for the seats. There is also a consideration for upgradations of travelling class from economy to premium offered for a price by Thomas Cook.
Examples of personal involvement in assessing customer needs
Thomas Cook employees are trained to be helpful to customers. As pointed out by Setia et al. (2013, p.568), they are responsible for greeting and creating a sense of welcome in the consumer's mind. They also have uniforms which match with the company logo and colours. Such a get up is necessary as the customer perceived the organisation to be professionals who are steadfast in providing excellent quality of services. By asking the customer. Thomas Cook has set up a well-structured customer relations management system that help the company to specify its communication And Services to the customers by taking into consideration their personal choices. The providing additional services in order to keep the consumers happy, Thomas Cook has left no stone unturned in order to keep their guests entertained and happy.
Deliverables
Thomas Cook is one of the most well-known tourism and travel organisation which provides a variety of services in the context of hospitality and tourism sector. The way Thomas Cooks is driven to achieve the deliverables helps them in showcasing their products in front of the consumers. They hold the employees accountable for the level of satisfaction among the consumers by breaking down the concept of customer satisfaction and allocating each of the broken elements to individual employees (Davis and Ding, 2014, p.320). They also have taken advancement of technology to conduct real-time customer support by implementing the live chat systems so as the customer feedback can be utilised in a productive manner and hence, every sales opportunity can be termed as referral opportunity. Customers are also made aware of the various products so that they can dump unrealistic expectations.
Providing an action plan to deal with the various issue pertaining to products and services
An appropriate action plan can be developed by stating the specific changes that are stored in the community and system and hence, will help in accomplishing goals and objectives. Which of the strategy undertaken by Thomas Cook group page, the specific systems and communities that are to be changed unidentified (Orel and Kara, 2014, p.125). After identifying and reviewing these changes and their implications when implemented, the plan will be developed on basis of two criterions namely, the importance of the action plan towards the company mission and feasibility of implementing the actions. The formal decisions of the group or community are secured and simultaneously given priority so as to efficiently implement these changes. The action plan shall also describe in details the specificity of the changes, the reason for the interventions, individually assigned to carry out this plan, investment and resources along with appropriate communication process and structure.
Ways to avoid these problems
Setting up Action Plan can be expensive as well as time-consuming and hence it is advisable that organisations working in travel and tourism sector Undertaker serious so as to avoid the problems faced by the consumers in terms of products and services. This can be done by conducting comprehensive research and surveys so as to understand the degrees of expectations of the travellers. my understanding this need more cohesive promotional strategy can be implemented so as to leave the customers. According to Lam and Mayer (2014, p.650), the employees who are directly involved in the sales of the product needs to be top class and hence, Thomas Cook can undertake critical human resource strategies so as to employee and retain the best workforce.
Communication process and conflict resolution
The communication process is a simple term which is used to describe the exchange of information brother within the organisation or outside the organisation. As observed by Mouri et al. (2015, p.1250), there are mainly two types of communication process available which include verbal and nonverbal communication process. Both this communication processes are efficiently utilised by Thomas Cook in order to relay information along the various ranks of hierarchy. For non-verbal methods of communication, the organisation shares the information in form of written data or by body language. Written communication is more private and precise where does body language can be perceived differently by different individuals. In the verbal form of communication, discussion and interactions among the interacting bodies are based on verbal relying on the information. This kind of communication process is susceptible to privacy theft and are only used to convey operational instructions from the managers to the subordinates.
Example of promotional services offered by Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook understands the importance of promotion and it very effectively uses promotional services in order to achieve this feat. These additional promotional services help Thomas Cook to develop its position among the various segments of the market and simultaneously cater to the demands of the consumers (Wan et al. 2016, p.755). Thomas Cook offers online promotional services which can be utilised by the customer first special privileges and benefits. They have been able to lure in the customers with the special discount on selected holidays, extra credits for referencing and sharing product and service details which attract the customers to these special deals.
Evaluating customer feedback
On the basis of the feedback from given above data analysis needs to be done in order to understand the trend lines of customer behaviour (Delcourt et al. 2016, p.74). The first part of the table is involved in collecting customer information. This is necessary so as to grow and increase the size of the customer base listed in the data servers and networks of the organisation. By filling up these boxes, the customer helps Thomas Cook group to enrol their name into the existing database and thus this helps the company to enjoy a much larger market. This personal data collection also helps the customers to develop a perception that these issues that have been faced by the individuals will be sorted out by the company and those who suffered would be appropriately compensated for their troubles.
The next part of the feedback is asking general questions such as, whether the customers have ever been to foreign vacationing destinations. If yes have they availed Thomas Cook for the travel opportunities. As justified by Xue et al. (2013, p.364), people who respond in negative for both the questions can be assumed to be a new customer and their services would be slightly different from the regulars and loyal customers. The questions also need to take into consideration the levels of satisfaction for the past experiences as well as customer's travelling preferences.
References
- Davis, M.M. and Ding, D. eds., (2014). Call for Papers—Service Science Special Issue: Co-Creating the Customer Service Experience with High Tech and High Touch. Service Science, 6(4), pp.320-320.
- Delcourt, C., Gremler, D.D., van Riel, A.C. and van Birgelen, M.J., (2016). Employee Emotional Competence: Construct Conceptualization and Validation of a Customer-Based Measure. Journal of Service Research, 19(1), pp.72-87.
- Demirci-Orel, F. and Kara, A., (2015). Assessing the Role of Service Quality of Retail Self-Checkouts on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Market. In Marketing Dynamism & Sustainability: Things Change, Things Stay the Same… (pp. 226-226). Springer International Publishing.
- Ford, J.B., Paparoidamis, N. and Chumpitaz, R., (2015). Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Value and Loyalty: An Empirical Investigation of the Airline Services Industry. In The Sustainable Global Marketplace (pp. 187-187). Springer International Publishing.
- Lam, C.F. and Mayer, D.M., (2014). When do employees speak up for their customers? A model of voice in a customer service context. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), pp.637-666.
- Mouri, N., Bindroo, V. and Ganesh, J., (2015). Do retail alliances enhance customer experience? Examining the relationship between alliance value and customer satisfaction with the alliance. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(11-12), pp.1231-1254.
- Orel, F.D. and Kara, A., (2014). Supermarket self-checkout service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(2), pp.118-129.
- Paparoidamis, N.G., Chumpitaz, R. and Ford, J., (2015). Service quality, customer satisfaction, value and loyalty an empirical investigation in a service failure context. In Marketing Dynamism & Sustainability: Things Change, Things Stay the Same… (pp. 173-173). Springer International Publishing.
- Setia, P., Venkatesh, V. and Joglekar, S., (2013). Leveraging digital technologies: How information quality leads to localized capabilities and customer service performance. Mis Quarterly, 37(2), pp.565-590.
- Wan, E.W., Chan, K.W. and Chen, R.P., (2016). Hurting or helping? The effect of service agents’ workplace ostracism on customer service perceptions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44(6), pp.746-769.
- Xue, L., Ray, G. and Sambamurthy, V., (2013). The impact of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance. Journal of Operations management, 31(6), pp.363-375.
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