Thomson plans to use call-centre and retail agents to carry out searches for consumers who can’t find what they’re looking for online.
The operator has borrowed the idea from a service called ChaCha in the US where consumers can tell researchers what they are looking for and have relevant information sent to them.
Thomson will combine its call-centre and retail workforce to carry out the research during quiet times.
Consumers will only have access to the online facility when Thomson agents are logged in and have time to help them.
TUI Northern Europe director of new media Graham Donoghue said: “We have licensed technology from Google and we’re getting 20,000 searches a day. The idea is to let consumers initiate a search and we will push the information back to them.
“There will also be the option to chat to someone from Thomson. It’s taking what we have done with Google and stretching it out to the retail network.”
The technology will also help retail staff by telling them where consumers are on the website and even where they are in the world.
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by Linda Fox
