Thomas Cook to launch a new website and streamline call centres

Thursday, 15 May, 2014 0

Thomas Cook is to launch a new more user-friendly consumer website as part of its push to online sales.

The group says its online bookings have now reached 39%, up slightly from 37% this time last year.

Online bookings now represent around £3 billion in sales, while mobile and tablet bookings have jumped 75% and now account for £0.5 billion in sales.

As part of its online strategy, it will launch a new "fully responsive website with a substantially improved user interface" initially in the UK, with plans to roll this out to other markets over the coming months.

"Significant progress is being made to transform Thomas Cook from a detached and disjointed web legacy to a fully integrated digital business. This includes consolidating 304 websites to around four per segment and reducing 17 web platforms to one," it said.

Meanwhile, the group said it was also looking at streamlining its call centre operations and encourage customers to use the internet for less complex questions.

"We currently have a diffuse collection of 32 call centres spread across 18 European countries, as well as a further operation in Thailand," it said.

"The benefits from a more streamlined operational approach in terms of better service expertise and consistency, improved staff training and management, scale economies and greater use of the web for less complex questions, are clear."

It did not specify if this streamlining would include call centre support for travel agents.

This time last year, Thomas Cook came under fire from agents who complained about how long they were kept hanging on the phone at premium rates.

In response, the operator provided a new 0844 dedicated phone line for third-party travel agents, expanded the Frequently Asked Questions section of its website and urged agents to use its Live Chat facility as an alternative to ringing its calls centre.

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Bev

Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.

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