Thomas Cook in Huntingdon has a Branch Manager, a Customer Service Manager, one Sales Consultant in Foreign Exchange, six Sales Consultants in travel and one Apprentice who has just finished her qualification so is now a fully qualified Sales Consultant in travel and Foreign Exchange.
Two of the six Sales Consultants in travel work part time, the rest work full time. Most people that work in this branch have had previous experience in the travel industry or have worked at Thomas Cook for a long time. So they have a strong knowledge of the travel industry and all have good customer service skills. The structure of the shop is shown below.Store Manager Customer Service Manager (CSM) Sales Consultant Sales Consultant Foreign Exchange Travel Apprentice Thomas Cook has a target it has to reach in sales for both travel and foreign exchange each month. If they don't reach it, it usually means that it will increase the next month and the store as a whole will get a lower grade.
This is because Thomas Cook head office analyses its stores by giving them a grade on how they perform with A being the best and a D being not so good.This is how the staff are rated based on their sales targets for the month and how much they sell. Last year Thomas Cook in Huntingdon done really well and each staff member got an A so they went on a weekend trip to Barcelona with everyone else from Thomas Cook in the country who got an A performance rating. The sales targets are determined by head office based on how the market is doing and the previous sales and targets from the same period last year.The branch at Huntingdon has five desks for travel and two desks in foreign exchange but only one is ever used.
There is one office out the back where the branch manager mostly stays and gets on with paper work and takes part in conference calls. There is also a computer out in the staff room as well. There are only three printers within the branch and during busy times it can be slow. The travel and foreign exchange sales consultants share one printer, the branch manager has one printer and the other is in the staff room and this is used if one of the other two printers breaks down.The brochure room is quite small and when a load of new brochures come out there is not enough room to accommodate all these brochures and some of them end up getting thrown out.
There is not a big brochure stack out the front for brochures to be put out on display, and most customers have to ask for the brochure they want as it is either out of stock or in the brochure room. There is a big window so many promotions and offers can be promoted in the window. There is room for 18 window cards with the best deals. There is also a space for cruise deals and there is a section with the latest currency rates.The branch is open six days a week Monday to Saturday 9:00am till 5:30pm, however during January as this is the busiest time for a travel agent the branch is open seven days a week and is open 10:00am till 4:00pm on a Sunday.
Their busiest times during the week is between 11:00am and 2:00pm as this is when most people working in the town have their lunch break and they pop into Thomas Cook to get some currency, pick up some brochures, get a quote or book a holiday. On a Saturday it is busy all day as people are out shopping and more people go out on a Saturday and there is also a market on in Huntingdon on a Saturday to.There is no marketing team at Thomas Cook in Huntingdon as all the marketing is done through the head office at Peterborough. The organisational chart for the head office is show in appendix 2. Mission Statement The mission statement of Thomas Cook is to, "Perfect the Personal Leisure Experience. As part of this mission the company is committed to working towards developing, operating and marketing our business in a sustainable manner i.
e. a way that makes a positive contribution to the natural and cultural environment, which generates benefits for the communities in which the company operates, and which does not put at risk the future livelihoods of the people in those communities.As a business Thomas Cook believes that it can be an important contributor to the global society. The company will, therefore, strive to anticipate and prevent economic, environmental, social and cultural degradation. It works towards integrating these considerations into its operations and activities.
" This is a clear mission statement explaining exactly what it is Thomas Cook wants to achieve. The mission statement is feasible and the strategy Thomas Cook has in place to achieve this are as follows.
