THOMSON has enraged its Preferred Agents after hundreds were left out of a direct mailing campaign to customers.
The mailing, which cost about £400,000, targeted around 600,000 customers who booked holidays through non-Preferred Agents.
It was designed to encourage them to switch their business to Preferred Agents and contained a list of four such agencies within a 15-mile radius.
But a computer error by Thomson’s data-processing company, The Database Group, failed to pick up the majority of agencies in customers’ catchment areas.
Furious Thomson management admitted the blunder could be potentially damaging to its relationship with Preferred Agents.
Sales director Manual Mascarenhas said: “Only agents in the northeast quadrant of the customer addresses were picked up by the computer within the 15-mile radius. In other areas, the computer failed to pick up any agencies at all.”
Mascarenhas said 30 Preferred Agents have so far complained to the company.
“It’s fair to assume many more are affected,” he added. “We spent a lot of time and money convincing agents that direct mailing is going to add value to the relationship and that work could be undone by this. Every new project has glitches but this was a significant error.”
Mascarenhas admitted Thomson was not blameless and should have made more internal checks before the mailings were sent out.
Thomson deputy managing director Shaun Powell has now written to every Preferred Agent apologising for the error. It has also ordered The Database Group to pay for a rerun of the mailing.
“My first priority is to regain the confidence of those Preferred Agents who have suffered from these errors,” said Powell. “I am personally furious we have all been deeply let down by The Database Group.”
The new mailing will be sent out later this week. Powell added the offer contained in the mailshot will be extended to the middle of October.