Schedules forming part of the Financial ... - Thomas Cook India

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giving due diligence to the brickbats and appreciations which are
received and the department thus identifies the areas that need
attention, at the same time provide impetus to continue the good
work, that is being rendered over the years, based on the applaud
received. The department advanced the “customer centric” culture
and incorporating the PRIDE values, steered the organization to
provide enhanced customer services.
Going forward the objective will be to focus on:
� Effective service recoveries, with structured service resolution
mechanism.
� Customer delight
During the year 2011, the department undertook the following
initiatives:-
Complaint Management Handling & Analysis – At Thomas Cook
complaints are considered as opportunities and hence every effort
is made to get feedback from the customers who avail our services.
The data thus received from various feedbacks, positive and negative
is channelized in form of detailed MIS circulated every month to the
business heads on re-occurring issues. The customers are benefitted
largely by the enhancements done thus, towards product upgrade.
2011 posed challenges in ways of increased processing time being
taken for visas, during the peak travel period for the Outbound travel
business and increase in surcharges by the airline during the same
period. Despite these not so favourable incidents which led to a hike
in customer feedback and complaints, the situation was ably handled
and various options were given. Acceptance of options and travel
plans being continued by the customer thereby, indicated that the
detailed responses and action taken thus by the businesses, have had
a positive impact.
Telephone Audits – Thomas cook believes that the customers all
across must be serviced with good product knowledge and a smile.
Telephone audits were conducted and the auditors judged the
front end staff on basis of the information provided and telephone
etiquettes followed during a customer call. Objective of these audits
was to understand the comfortability of the employees all across, in
selling the various Thomas Cook products and the SOP’s followed thus
to render nothing but the best, for any service related enquiries. The
data thus collated was shared with the branch heads to identify the
areas that need attention and corrections duly done.
Uniforms – As an organization, we believe that a well groomed
appearance instils confidence in a customer and projects a positive
& efficient outlook to all. The department had unveiled uniforms and
driven the dispatch of same for all customer interfacing employees
across India. The uniforms were distributed on regular basis with
influx of new employees, exit of old. Designed on the lines of the
Thomas Cook UK, but well suited to Indian weathers, sweaters were
also added on and distributed to the chosen branches, on the onset
of winter.
Health & Safety – Protecting the health & safety of our customers
remains our primary concern. As part of our endeavour to ensure high
levels of safety for our customers and employees, Thomas Cook has
initiated such focus through dedicated resources in the Organization.
The aim is to develop policies and standards that would adhere to
international requirements for preferred practices and ensure high
Thomas Cook (India) Limited
quality systems to enable consistent Health & Safety reporting of
incidents & accidents that could arise.
Service Trackers – An important instrument to encourage critical
customer feedback, the Service Trackers provided more objective
feedback from customers on various service & product offerings. The
Vision and Values were incorporated in the same.
The service trackers are available at all branches and the on tour
feedback forms are given to the group tour members at the end of the
tour to share the experience they had of the services rendered.
Customer Data Management – It is essential that the customers
visiting us and availing of our services remain in our records. To
capture customer information software is introduced with the front
end staff to capture accurate data and updated on regular basis.
The data is used for various promotional offers, sent via SMS and
email campaigns, thereby creating awareness of happenings and
achievements at Thomas Cook.
Birthday Sms – Thomas Cook values its customers and we look for
every opportunity to make their special days even special with the
birthday SMS sent to all.
While we are driving all the initiatives as a step towards providing
enhanced customer service, we strive continuously to make every
interaction a delightful one for all our patrons, now and always when
they approach us for any of their travel related services.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Human Resources Management:
Human Resources in Thomas Cook strives to enable the organization
to achieve its objectives by constantly aligning the ‘people factor’ with
the ‘business needs’. This creates a need for constantly evolving and
stimulating the systems and processes in the context of organizational
culture. As part of the HR Action plan, we have initiated steps to
work on each of key variables that affect human resources, both at a
strategic level and at an operational level.
The world stands at important crossroads. These are challenging
times, and to retain a competitive edge, a company must direct
individual accomplishment toward organisational objectives. The
only sustainable differentiator of organisational success lies in the
Vision and Values of a company. We must be the force that influences
industry standards. In our kind of business, people come to us with
dreams, with plans, with trust, hoping we will make those dreams
come true.
The Thomas Cook Group has defined the Vision of the Group, an
inspiration for each one of us: “We Go Further to Make Dreams Come
True …”
To enable the vision and to provide the context of the kind of
organisation we want to create and the people we want to be, the
group also defined the ‘VALUES’. Thomas Cook India has always prided
itself on core values that act as a foundation to our organisation and
we are now re-aligning our values to reflect that of the Group. Our
Values are called the PRIDE Values.
P Pioneering our Future
R Respect for Individuals and United as a team
I Integrity
D Delighting the Customer
E Excellence