Are your top brass out of touch with what the customer wants?

Are your top brass out of touch with what the customer wants?

IN CUTTING Edge this week, we pose the question: are the highly paid bosses out of touch with customers?

Former Going Places marketing, commercial and business development director Francesca Ecsery-Merrens recently jumped ship from travel site Destinex.com to join Ifyoutravel.com as managing director.

As a parting shot, she reportedly said to one magazine:”At Going Places, we were selling mass-market holidays and I don’t take those sort of breaks.”

Hang on a minute, youdidn’t say that during nearly four years at the retailer. And what were you doing, marketing something to people that you wouldn’t have done yourself? When I spoke to Francesca she said that wasn’t a fair reflection of her views.

She pointed out that, as she didn’t have a family, she tended to go on specialist holidays and, at Going Places, relied heavily on research rather than anecdotal advice from people.

That sounds fair enough but wouldn’t it have been good to experience a mass-market package first hand?

There’s an argument that says if you are going to sell Walkers Crisps, you should eat them. Francesca, incidentally, did once sell Walkers Crisps and enjoyed them immensely. She was even responsible for the Worcester Sauce variety.

Former AirtoursHolidays managing director Chris Mottershead once had to listen to holidaymakers trying to trump up a complaint in order to gain compensation when he travelled incognito on one of his own holidays. It probablywasn’t the most relaxing break he’s ever had but at least he got a feel of what it’s like in resort.

That contrasts strongly with a senior sales person at one leading tour operator who decided to take one of his own holidays and was so out of touch that he didn’t realise a coach picked him up from the airport and took him to resort. Have you got any hilarious examples of out-of-touch industry leaders?E-mail or fax any suggestions to the addresses at the top of the page.

Bagging the bargains: bet there are no mass-market holidays in that trolley, Francesca