Thomas Cook, Stratford
Opened in late 1979, Thomas Cook in the Stratford Centre has had only three managers to date, including Peter Ryan. Ryan’s enthusiasm inspires much admiration from his 11 staff.
One of the former managers, 68-year-old George XX, even still works there three-days a week.
Ryan has been with Thomas Cook for eight years but begin his travel career cutting his teeth at an independent. He explains that recent competition has ramped up the team’s game in terms of service: a Thomson store opened in Westfield this September.
The staff rose to the challenge, using their combined 220 years of experience to see record sales for January 2016. The shop is now Thomas Cook’s top-ranking large store. Ryan has also tapped into the cruise trend, with a 9% year-on-year growth.
Pushing the store digitally, the team have piggybacked on the Stratford Centre’s email database of 10,000 subscribers to promote deals, even creating a fun PhotoFunia news meme to inform customers of upcoming sales on the store’s Facebook page.
The team at Thomas Cook likes to take advantage of events within the centre, especially at Christmas. The shop houses a Santa’s letterbox, bringing customers into the store. The box is then opened nearer to the big day in a raffle event in Santa’s Grotto with kids getting the chance to win a trip to Lapland.
The agency employs simple but effective marketing tactics in order to keep in touch with past customers: they record all repeat clients in a diary, and call them back every year to enquire about their holiday plans.
Ryan and team can’t stress enough how much the customer means to them. From Ryan taking his best clients out to dinner out of his own pocket, to staff taking ten minutes out of their day to talk to a customer with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Place of registration: England and Wales.
Company number 08723341.
Registered address: 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU
