travel chapter 2

• Customer Service


  The assistance and advice provided by an organisation to those people who buy or use its products or services
• Customer


  Anyone who has the right to ask or expect an employee to provide a service as part of their job role. This includes both external and internal customers.
• Key dimensions of service

  • Reliability: the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
  • Responsiveness: the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
  • Assurance: the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence in dealing with a request
  • Empathy: the caring, individualised attention provided to the customer
• Types of external customers

  • Individuals
  • Groups (age, cultural, educational, special interest)
  • Families
  • Foreign visitors with language and cultural differences
  • People with specific needs (mobility, access, sensory disabilities, dietary requirements)
• External customers generally contact or visit an organisation because it can provide something they need
• Some businesses have a wide variety of customers because most people need or use their goods or services, while others provide products or services which are of interest only to certain types of people
• Meeting customer needs is crucial for any business or destination looking to retain and attract new customers
• External Customer


  The people that pay for and use the products or services your company/destination offers
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs


  A theory that puts forward that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

  • Physiological needs
  • Safety needs
  • Love and belongingness needs
  • Esteem needs
  • Self-actualization needs
• Physiological needs


  Biological requirements for human survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep
• Safety needs


  The need to experience order, predictability and control in one's life, e.g. emotional security, financial security, law and order, freedom from fear, social stability, property, health and wellbeing
• Love and belongingness needs

  The need for interpersonal relationships, friendship, intimacy, trust, acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love, affiliating, being part of a group
• Esteem needs


  The need for respect or reputation, including both esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement, mastery, independence) and the desire for reputation or respect from others (status, prestige)
• Self-actualization needs


  The realisation of a person's potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences
• Tourist Family Life Cycle


  A way of segmenting external customers by age and stages in life
• Stages in Tourist Family Life Cycle

  • Early childhood
  • Childhood
  • Teenage years
  • Young adult
  • Young couple
  • Full nest 1
  • Full nest 2
  • Empty nest 1
  • Empty nest 2
  • Retirement
• Needs of external customers


  • Travel products/services that meet specific needs
  • Ancillary services/products (e.g. car hire)
  • Information and advice (e.g. emergency passport information)
  • Meet and greet arrangements
  • Resolving customer problems and complaints
• Sources of complaints that can be avoided


  • Explained what is included such as price, service charge, taxes, means and refreshments
  • Any policies which the hotel may have
  • Pre-booking of certain facilities such as spa or attending a dinner
  • Advice
  • Detail of cancellation policy
  • Deposits required
  • Explanation of charges
  • Information about acceptable and unacceptable payment methods
• Internal customer


  A customer who is directly connected to an organisation/destination
• Likely needs of internal customers

  • A safe working environment
  • Appropriate training
  • Knowledge on procedures, routines and performance standards
  • Job satisfaction
• Importance of monitoring employee satisfaction

  Measuring employee satisfaction helps determine their needs and motivations, and how the company can help them grow, which contributes to the success of the business and reduces employee turnover
• When employees interact with customers

  They are able to develop awareness and respond to the customers' needs
• Satisfied employees


  Have high energy and willingness to give good service, and can provide customers with adequate explanations for undesirable outcomes
• Elements that reflect quality customer service

  • Attitudes
  • Service provision
  • Commitment of staff
• Impacts of quality customer service for customers

  • Satisfied
  • Dissatisfied
• Impacts of quality customer service for employees

  • High level of job satisfaction
  • Dissatisfaction with the job
• Impacts of quality customer service for the organisation

  • Repeat business
  • Customer loyalty
  • Greater opportunity to generate revenue and income
• Likely implications of poor customer service

  • Customers not receiving the information they need
  • Loss of income due to cancellations/customers not returning
  • Increased costs if they have to attract repeat business
  • High staff turnover due to staff not feeling valued
  • Unhappy workforce
  • Not meeting customers' wants/needs = fewer customers
  • Lack of customer loyalty
  • Poor public image
• Quality Assurance


  Part of the manufacturing quality system, it is process oriented and focuses on eliminating process variation by creating, revising and strictly implementing a set of tightly and precisely defined process and procedures
• Commonly used strategies for quality assurance include monitoring customer feedback and maintaining staffing levels together with training programmes and evaluating individual performances
• Most organisations have a customer service policy which will state their strategy for looking after their various customers, with the main aim of making the organisation's customers feel satisfied/valued in order for them to return again
• Quality Assurance


  Part of the manufacturing quality system, process oriented and focuses on eliminating process variation by creating, revising and strictly implementing a set of tightly and precisely defined process and procedures that when exactly followed, ensure the final quality of the product
• Commonly used strategies for quality assurance

  • Monitoring customer feedback
  • Maintaining staffing levels
  • Training programmes
  • Evaluating individual performances
• Customer service policy


  States an organisation's strategy for looking after their various customers
• Main aim of customer service policies

  To make an organisation's customers feel satisfied/valued in order for them to return again
• Importance of staff being aware of customer service policy

  Helps them understand the benefits of good customer service for the employee, organisation and customer
• Most companies offer specialist training courses to ensure staff provide the best service possible
• Zones of customer experience

  • 1. Consumers experiencing a feeling of outrage = Clearly unlikely to return
  • 2. Customers whom feel dissatisfaction = Unlikely to return
  • 3. Consumers feeling a sense of satisfaction = Likely to return
  • 4. Customers in a zone of delight = Clearly likely to return
• Moment of truth


  The moment where a customer interacts with a travel and tourism organisation and experiences