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CHAPTER 6: CUSTOMER SERVICE - Coggle Diagram
CHAPTER 6: CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customer Service and Satisfaction
Service quality
A quality experience can only exist to the extent that the operator’s product and service meets the needs and expectations of the customer.
Benefits of excellent service quality
Customer satisfaction
Repeat purchases
Customer loyalty and positive promotion of the company
Lower marketing cost
Customer Satisfaction
Linked to the customer's expectation (level of fulfilment)
Can be considered a long-term evaluation
Factors affecting customer satisfaction
Basic factors
Performance factors
Excitement factors
Managing the Service Encounter
The interaction between the tourist and a representative of the tour operator, essentially front-line staff or subcontracted employees.
Tour operators must manage service quality based on the expectations of the tourist
The customer experience is gauged not by the seperate elements but the totality of experience.
Stress caused by any aspect of the trip can lead to dissatisfaction with the holiday product
Difficulties over money
Transport delays
Unfamiliar customs and food.
Performance of service staff
Relationships with other tourists
Personal safety and health.
Problems with foreign languages
Measuring Service Quality
Qualitative Data Collection
Customer interviews
Focus groups
Complaint monitoring
Critical incident technique
Mystery shopper
Incident logs
Tour reports
Online reviews
Quantitive Methods of Data Collection
Customer service questionnaires
The benefits of collecting and analysing information about service delivery are numerous, ranging from the identification of frequent causes of complaints, areas where improvements could be made, identification of provision that is not included and feedback about the accuracy of marketing materials
Do not address the expectations the customer had prior to the holiday.
Tools utilizing customer service questionnaires
Importance Performance Analysis (IPA)
Keep up the good work
Concentrate here
Possible overkill
Low priority
SERVQUAL
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Customer Loyalty
Maintaining Loyalty
Loyalty schemes exist and are extremely popular for many principal components of the holiday product
Loyalty schemes do not only exist for tourists, but also for distributors of their holiday products
Developing and maintaining customer loyalty, that is creating long-term relationships with customers, is key to an operator’s growth and success
Customer Loyalty Ladder modeling
Suspect
Prospect
Customer
Client
Advocate
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Service
Service Quality
Marketing
Service Recovery
Respond quickly to the customer,
thanking them for their contact
Ensure that clear procedures and
timelines are provided to the customer
Adopt a patient and empathetic approach in all communications without apportioning blame and accept constructive criticism where appropriate
Complete the appropriate research which may involve requesting reports from resort representatives, tour managers, suppliers and other third parties
Maintain contact with the customer and involve them in the process by updating them on a regular basis
Customer Satisfaction
and Profitability
The Service Profit Chain (SPC)
Establishesrelationships between profitability, customer loyalty and employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity
Techniques that can be employed to improve performance
Feedback from customers
Input from employees
Implementation of interventions
The Balanced Score Card (BSC)
An effective tool that can be applied by tour
operators to manage and improve their performance
4 basic questions
How do customers view the company?
(Customer measure)
How do owners/shareholders view the
company? (Financial measure)
What must the company do and excel
in to satisfy customers? (Internal processes measure)
How can the company continue to improve and grow? (Knowledge, education and growth measure)