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30/04/2013 by
3139 views

Thomas Cook Launches 24/7 Social Media Monitoring Facility

Travel company Thomas Cook is increasingly seeing the importance of big data. They have launched a social media monitoring tool called the Thomas Cook Listening Lab to help them make sense of it all.

monitoring

So what is it exactly? Well, the monitoring facility was created and is managed by Chapel Social to oversee Thomas Cook’s 60+ global brands on all social media platforms in real time. A trained listening team will listen to brand talk about Thomas Cook in over 180 languages, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The monitoring facility features 6 monitors that show “real-time tracking with various data visualisations and dashboards,” specially designed computers, a video conferencing system to get in touch with regional Thomas Cook marketing teams, and several more desktop systems.

monitoring

So why are they suddenly so keen on making the most of this online data? Jonathan Roberts, Global Head of Social Media for Thomas Cook Group plc explains:

Being proactive and having to monitor thousands of social mentions a day can be difficult and time consuming, but with the Thomas Cook Listening Lab, coupled with social media listing experts, we are able to see and resolve social concerns with our social media customer care team.

Other than focus on customer care, Thomas Cook also intends to use the available data for future marketing campaign efforts, to get information about competitor discussions and Cook campaigns, or to target specific customers.

The lab will help Thomas Cook listen to and engage with their customers in a relevant way, according to Thomas Cook CEO Harriet Green:

Our Thomas Cook Listening Lab will allow us to better position Thomas Cook as the leading travel authority by listening and monitoring customer sentiment, enabling us to discovering useful and valued information about our customers. The Listening Lab will further help our customer services team to better engage with our customers in active dialogues, and provide relevant, fresh and valuable content to key audiences.’

My Opinion
It’s a good thing how Thomas Cook is trying to give their customers a bigger say when it comes to customer care and marketing efforts.

Big data is becoming more relevant by the second, and building a facility that will give a brand the ability to make sense of the gigantic stream of information that comes in daily, is a setting example of how companies should approach this.

The main advantage of a tool like this is that it becomes easier for customers to get in contact with customer care, especially customers of a travel company. The fact that the tool will also enable Thomas Cook to directly respond to questions and complaints through the tool will massively simplify the process.

Of course it remains to be seen whether or not this lab will work in the way it was intended, but the idea behind it is promising.

What About You?
What are your predictions for the Thomas Cook Listening Lab? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

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About the author
Marion aan ‘t Goor is a Social Media Consultant at ICON&Co. You can connect with Marion via Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

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