Tourism is an incredibly large industry. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), over a billon tourists traveled to various European countries just last year, which was also a five percent increase over 2013. And since UNWTO predicts that these numbers will only continue to grow, this marks a tremendous amount of customer engagement opportunities for marketers to provide the personalized customer experiences that can attract and retain new and existing travelers from all corners of the world.
The implications of this idea are fairly clear. Those that can gauge, understand and speak to the needs and wants of this tremendous number of perspective customers will be in a prime position to gain customer loyalty. This has provided the impetus for TUI UK & Ireland’s new partnership with Talend, an open source big data integration and application software company.
In an effort to build a “360-degree view” of customers, TUI UK & Ireland will rely on Talend’s Master Data Management customer service platform to offer sales and support teams access to insights that will dramatically improve levels of customer engagement excellence and personalized services.
“We are extremely proud to be teaming with an industry pioneer and participating in an initiative showcasing the full value of Master Data Management,” said Brad Stratton, Talend’s Senior VP of Sales. “TUI is creating a competitive advantage by using new insight into their customers to deliver a better, more personalized travel experience. This is going to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty for years to come.”
As the UK’s largest tour manager with numerous leading brands including Thomson Couples, Thomson Family Resorts, First Choice Holiday Villages and SplashWorld Resorts, TUI UK & Ireland will leverage this new platform to provide a smoother and more efficient customer experience for it’s 5.2 million annual customers who interact with that brand in local branches, through call centers, and, perhaps most importantly, on the web.
“The web has not only changed the competitive landscape, but also consumers’ expectation as far as personalized care is concerned,” said Louise Williams, TUI UK & Ireland Customer Engagement GM. “Our selection of Talend was really about a desire to deliver a superior service and form a long-term and meaningful relationship with our customers. We could not be happier with the results. Talend’s Master Data Management solution has enabled us to provide customer data to our frontline sales and support teams in real time so they can really personalize the service they give customers.”
TUI UK & Ireland will use the new system to merge and manage data across numerous customer touch points. This will also provide the ability to gain a deeper understanding of the of the type of information coming into the organization, the rate at which it is generated, and allow customer insights to unfold in real-time.