Languages launched
Translation accuracy
Quality attainment
based on TUI’s
Quality Assurance forms
About the Company
If you’re on holiday in Europe, chances are you might be interacting with TUI. A global leader in the tourism industry, TUI Group is a vast network of 400+ hotels and resorts, 16 cruise ships, five airlines, and more than 1,200 travel agencies around the world. With operations spanning 180 regions and a customer base of 21 million, their customers speak all sorts of different languages. Ensuring a consistent and high-quality experience across such a diverse customer base can be a challenge, but TUI is up to the task and dedicated to providing top notch service to each of their customers.
To help them achieve this goal, the company turned to their partner for customer service: Transcom. Specializing in customer experience solutions, Transcom has multilingual customer service teams spread across the globe, but when it came to meeting TUI’s goal to serve customers in their native tongue even in niche markets where language barriers, high labor costs, and limited talent pools might complicate operations, they needed to rethink their approach.
The Bottom Line
To overcome language barriers and scale operations in a way that would expand services without adding new headcount, TUI and Transcom turned to Parloa. Together, we implemented our Real-Time Translation (RTT) solution that allows agents to conduct conversations in their own language while Artificial Intelligence (AI) translates their words on the fly, into the caller’s language, and vice versa. Not only that, but RTT can also suggest contextual responses based on the situation, and aid customer service representatives in providing even more consistent and high-quality assistance and speed up the conversation.
Powered by Microsoft Azure, Parloa’s technology uses real-time translations of speech and text, enhancing both flexibility and scalability. The solution seamlessly combines human expertise with cutting-edge AI, enabling agents to communicate in any language without the need to speak them fluently.
The Challenge
Managing customer inquiries in many different languages across 21 million customers is no small feat. While Transcom has long been known for offering high-quality customer service on behalf its clients, a shortage of affordable and skilled multilingual talent for niche markets was threatening their ability to scale effectively — particularly in hard-to-scale languages, such as in the Nordics.
For clients like TUI Group, this meant potential rising costs and strained service quality. Relying on language-fluency of human agents was no longer scalable. Transcom and TUI needed a solution that could bridge the language gap while maintaining their shared commitment to excellent customer service.
The Solution
Transcom turned to Parloa for a cutting-edge solution: Real-Time Translation (RTT) and a human-in-the-loop AI partnership. The Parloa technology enables agents located anywhere in the world to handle complex customer inquiries in languages they don’t speak fluently, or at all.
With Parloa, agents can see customers‘ requests and then speak, write, and copy-paste their own responses in the customer’s language in real-time multimodal translation, creating a seamless, human-like interaction.
„Think of a Dutch customer asking a question in their language, and an agent in Cairo responding in English,„ says Lars van der Las, VP Client Service Manager EMEIA at Transcom. “The agent talks back in English, with the solution translating the speech back to Dutch text in real-time and then converting it into Dutch speech using an artificial voice. Parloa’s AI translates the exchange instantly, maintaining natural flow and minimal delay.”
The system also integrates advanced language models like Microsoft’s Azure GPT-4.0 for contextual response suggestions, streamlining and speeding up agent responses while keeping humans in control. Parloa’s human-in-the-loop approach ensures accuracy and personalization, safeguarding the quality of customer interactions.
The Results
The partnership has yielded valuable insights and demonstrated the potential and outcomes of Parloa’s solution. Key outcomes thus far include:
- Quality Management: 82% Quality Management Scores based on TUI’s Quality Assurance form, measuring different aspects of the conversation quality
- Average Handling Time (AHT) Scores: 330 seconds per call
- Recognition as an Innovator: In October 2024, this collaboration won an ECCSA Award for Best Innovation in Customer Service, highlighting the groundbreaking nature of the solution.
„We recognized we often lacked the right skilled, knowledgeable agents at the right time, in the right languages,“ explains Ramón Delima, Global Director of Customer Services at TUI. “This isn’t replacing customer service agents. This is making our agents better.”
Looking Ahead: Scaling What Works
With continuous optimizations in progress, TUI and Transcom are working to further improve their KPIs, such as Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Average Handling Time (AHT). The RTT solution is setting new benchmarks for multilingual customer service.
This collaboration between Parloa, TUI, and Transcom highlights the power of AI to transform customer experiences, proving that language no longer has to be a barrier to exceptional service.
