| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 15/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 1 |
| Copyright: Other |
What the big operators are telling your clients:
Cut out the middle man and book direct with me
Report by STEVEJONES
CALL-centre staff at three major tour operators are capturing direct business by continually undermining the role of travel agents, according to a new survey.Co-op Travelcare has accused Airtours, First Choice and Cosmos of adopting underhand practices to win direct bookings.
In the survey carried out by the agency, call-centre staff urged a mystery caller from the Co-op to “cut out the middle man” and book direct and condemned travel agents’ insurance policies as “basic”.
Group sales manager Amanda Williams, who conducted the research, said: “The responses were alarming and disappointing. It is clearly hypocritical for operators to talk to agents about building business partnerships while stabbing them in the back.”
The survey exonerated JMC and Virgin while calls to Thomson’s call centre went unanswered. The results follow agents’ anger over direct booking information included in Airtours’ and Thomson’s 2001 brochures.
In the survey, Williams posed as a customer wanting to book through a travel agent while seeking details of availability from the call centre.
“They used a variety of aggressive methods to make me question the need to go back to the travel agent,” said Williams. “These included undercutting the prices and terms which I said had been offered by the agent even though they made no attempt to verify the offer. They also questioned the insurance policies offered by agents.”
Co-op Travelcare has now written to all six major tour operators demanding separate brochures for non in-house agents that are free of direct numbers.
First Choice sales and distribution director John Wimbleton disputed the survey, insisting call-centre staff do not have carte blanche to offer any discount they chose.
“Call-centre staff will always do their best to get a booking – just like any travel agent,” he said. “But we do not undermine the travel agent and will investigate any specific examples Co-opTravelcare may have.”
Cosmos sales and marketing director Paul Riches said some of the issues raised were of concern. Airtours declined to comment.
n For more coverage, see page 3, Comment and Analysis, page 8 and Cutting Edge, page 74
Fighting talk: call-centre staff are using aggressive methods to encourage bookings