Bus 541: Customer Service Excellence

Customer Service Excellence

Question

The European Hospitality Sector makes a major contribution to the overall European economy. Its contributions is as follows:

1. 16.6 million jobs (1 in every 13 jobs is provided by the sector)

2. The total output is €1.0tn (8.1% of the total)

3. Gdp €460bn (3.7% of the total) Introduction: 1. What is Customer Service Excellence? 2. Why is customer service excellence so important

Main body: 1. Role of service provider in tourism 2. The role and importance of the internet in contemporary tourism in travel agencies business . 3.Customer Service Excellence ( description) 4. Customer expectations (real vs imagined) and preferences 5. Expectations and preferences of providers Conclusion: 1. Key points (output) 2. Bibliography Introduction 1. What is Customer Service Excellence? Definition: The degree of assistance and courtesy granted those who patronize a business .

Excellent customer service is more than what you say or do for your customers. It also means giving customers a chance to make their feelings known. Here are some suggestions for finding out what your customers want--and what they think about your customer service:

• Attend trade shows and industry events that are important to your customers. You'll find out what the competition is doing and what kinds of products and services customers are looking for.

• Nurture a human bond, as well as a business one, with customers and prospects. Take them out to lunch, dinner, a ballgame or the opera. In a relaxed social atmosphere, you'll learn the secrets that will allow you to go above and beyond your competition.

• Stay abreast of trends; then respond to them. Read industry trade publications, be active in trade organizations, and pay attention to what your customers are doing.

• Ask for feedback. Survey your customers regularly to find out how you're doing. Send postage-paid questionnaire cards or letters, call them on the phone, or set up focus groups. Ask for suggestions and then fix the trouble areas revealed.

Whatever you do, don't rest on your laurels. Regularly evaluate your product or service to be sure it's still priced, packaged and delivered correctly.

2. Why is customer service excellence so important

Customers of a business can be new ones or current ones returning to buy more. The significance of good customer service can be shown in financial terms, as it costs at least five times as much to win a new customer as it does to keep a current one. Much of the profits of most businesses rely on repeat custom.

Customers can be either internal or external. Internal customers are people within the business who depend on other parts of it. For example, continued good sales (in the sales department) may depend on the quality of the product (in the production department). External customers are those who come to buy products. Portakabin knows that if its internal customers deliver excellent service, external customer service excellence will follow - each member of the business is able to contribute to better service. To this end, each department has been encouraged to create its own internal customer charter, and a first-class service is the target of all internal departments.[1] Main Body

1. Role of service provider in tourism A service provider (SP) is a company that provides organizations with consulting, legal, real estate, education, communications, storage, processing, and many other services. Although the term service provider can refer to organizational sub-units, it is more generally used to refer to third party or outsourced suppliers, including telecommunications service providers (TSPs),application service providers (ASPs), storage service providers (SSPs), and Internet service providers (ISPs). The role of the service providers , the tourism businesses is to: (Main Roles) Supply products (hotel rooms ,food, drinks, tickets etc.) supply services (book flights, give advice, give information) They make money (profit) –for those who work in the tourist industry. [2] Roles:

• receive and allocate sources of funding (direct government

funding, local authority funding, grants, self-funding mechanisms,

sponsorship, partnership)

• to advise government and public bodies on issues affecting the

British tourism industry (for example)

• tourism development and marketing

• public-private partnerships

• liaison with regional development agencies

• quality management

• coordination and representation of the industry

• research and analysis

• maximise positive impacts and minimise negative impacts

(destination management)

• channels of communication 2. THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNET IN CONTEMPORARY TOURISM IN TRAVEL AGENCIES BUSINESS The appearance of the Internet and the incredibly rapid development of highly sophisticated computer and telecommunication technology have made the world a global village in a real sense. 'Communication network satellites provide the quickest and the cheapest data transfer to all parts of the world, a great agreement among thousands of computer systems that communicate with each other is represented by the Internet.'(Kent,P. 1994). Development of information technology and the creation of computer networks and the Internet have enabled a new way of communication. The internet provides a better access to numerous sources of information around the world, as well as direct communication with all users. ‘The Internet is a collection of computer networks around the world and as such is the largest computer system that millions of computer users can use and share all kinds of information: numbers, text, sound and image. ‘(Gates, B., 1999).    The Internet has become a support to more complex and critical functions in tourism and hospitality industry and it contributed to its significant innovation. Due to the appearance of the Internet, there have been some changes in the tourism subjects business and those are the following:

1.  Each serious subject in the tourism and hospitality industry has a website that can be classified into four broad groups: ‘holding corporation identity websites, chains, concession and membership websites, websites of individual sites and facilities, and portals and vortals.’(Koelzer, W., Cox, B., 2005). ‘Portal can be defined as a vehicle that offers a rounded set of services for specific well-defined group of users.’(Kalakota, R., 2002). ‘Vortal is a website that provides information and resources about a particular and specific industry.’(Webopedia - On line Computer Dictionary for Computer and Internet  Terms  and Definitions).

2. ‘The Internet offers the possibility of expansion, rapid data transfer and flexibility (websites can always change, the changes are immediately visible and are not limited to space and time).’(Raza, I., 2006).

3. ‘Contemporary business in tourism market is characterized by the implementation of various booking systems into business systems of travel agencies, hotel chains, airlines, car rental companies and other participants in tourism product formation.’(Dobre, R., 2005).

4. Organization and distribution costs are decreased in various tourist subjects business conducting (travel agencies, hotel chains, independent hotels...).

5. New intermediaries on the Internet are created and traditional ones must change their role.

6. The Internet allows high-quality and effective market research and ‘industrial espionage’.

3.Customer Service Excellence ( description) There are certain customer service skills that every employee must master if they are forward-facing with customers. there are a few universal skills that every support member can master that will drastically improve their interactions with customers.

Below I'll cover the 8 most-needed skills to master this incredibly important position. 1. Patience

Not only is patience important to customers, who often reach out to support when they are confused and frustrated, but it's also important to the business at large: great service beats fast service every single time. If you deal with customers on a daily basis, be sure to stay patient when they come to you stumped and frustrated, but also be sure to take the time to truly figure out what they want — they'd rather get competent service than be rushed out the door! 2. Attentiveness

The ability to really listen to customers is so crucial for providing great service for a number of reasons.

Not only is it important to pay attention to individual customer interactions (watching the language/terms that they use to describe their problems), but it's also important to be mindful and attentive to the feedback that you receive at large. 3. Clear Communication Skills

Make sure you're getting to the problem at hand quickly; customers don't need your life story or to hear about how your day is going. 4. Knowledge of the Product The best forward-facing employees in your company will work on having a deep knowledge of how your product works. (including your hotel). 5. Ability to Use "Positive Language"

Sounds like fluffy nonsense, but your ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns can truly go a long way in creating happy customers.

Language is a very important part of persuasion, and people (especially customers) create perceptions about you and your company based off of the language that you use.