Thomas Cook UK boss plans mystery shopper visits
Thomas Cook’s new UK managing director is planning some ‘mystery shopper’ style visits to its high street shops as part of his philosophy of ‘leading from the front’.
Salman Syed, who was promoted to UK MD earlier this month, will be popping into stores around the country to see what experience customers are getting and to check that group-wide initiatives and information are reaching agency staff.
For example, he will be asking staff how they are promoting the group’s exclusive hotels and investigating whether the marketing and offers are relevant to their customers.
He will also be testing them on how they are promoting different destinations.
At the same time, Syed and 150 other top Thomas Cook managers are each adopting a store and will spend at least five days there.
The move is designed to bring front line staff and top management closer together.
Syed said the initiative has been very well received so far.
"The more engagement, the better the outcome," he added.
Under Syed’s leadership, Thomas Cook has just made a series of internal promotions across three areas of its business. Click here to see who got the top jobs.
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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