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Lectures 17-18 Customer service at a tourist company
Discussion questions:
Customer service strategy
Service management is directed at realization of major production objective of a tour operator - providing high-quality tourist services. It requires realization of all specific requirements dictated by market needs and safety of tourists. Each enterprise develops its own strategies of providing services which identify how the company will compete on the market.
Service strategy involves three major components of any entrepreneurship in this sphere:
Positive answers to these questions are the basis for the service strategies which make the major part of the whole service management in a tour operator company.
Service strategy is an action plan which defines priorities of strategic goals in service and achievement of which will facilitate to formation of a favorable image of a tour operator, regular clientele and stable financial position on the market. The following are major components of tourist service management which identify priorities in a tour operator’s work:
Each certain route has its own specific features. However, there are some recommendations on customer service during a tour:
The following are strategic directions in servicing tourists: quality and culture of service, informative and saturated programmes, unobtrusive service, etc. Service strategy is also based on a certain target market. For example, specifics of servicing Japanese tourists differ from service specifics of European tourists. There are differences between specifics of servicing young travellers, economy class tourists, and exclusive VIP-tourists.
Strategic direction of the work with customers in tourism business has two objectives: 1) maintaining effective relations with consumers of tourist services; 2) meeting needs of tourists in reasonable and comfortable tourist product. Services in tourism business are provided by people that’s why effective selection, training and motivation of the personnel who deal with customer service are very important. Customer service skill of personnel is called interaction marketing. Tourist evaluates the tourist product not only by its technical efficiency (for example, if there was no delay in transportation, or problem with accommodation and catering), but also by its functional features (for example, if the personnel was friendly and competent, etc.).
Forms and styles of customer service
Customer service at a tourist firm has general features which are characteristic for service industry. However, depending on the range of the provided services, their quality, specific features (domestic, outgoing, incoming) there can be different forms and styles of tourist service. By the form of customer service we can identify individual and group tours. Styles of customer service can be formal, informal, and mixed. In a formal style, a client applies to a tourist firm as to any other service providing enterprise, and chooses a tour. In this type of service style there is a psychological or social distance between a client and company staff which is natural to the incidental contact. Informal style assumes trustworthy and confidential conversation between the staff and a client, which can form an image of “native home” or “good friend”. Mixed style assumes a standard approach to a client but with elements of informal conversation, for example offering a client a cup of coffee or tea. But whatever service style is applied, a manager at a tourist firm must be ready to improvise and have acting skills. During the first conversation with a client in the office of the company a manager must obtain as much information as possible about the client without being tactless and obtrusive. Thus, a manager should formulate questions to be posed to a client so that he can provide only positive answers. If due to any reason, a client has given a negative answer, the whole work realized before that can be considered as unproductive as the word ‘no’ is associated with negative emotions.
Animation service of tourists
Tourist animation is an activity on development and realization of special programmes assuming personal involvement of tourists in game and performance show-programmes, sport and cultural-entertainment measures. Animation makes a rest of a tourist more vivid, diverse and impressive. Tourist animation formula contains four components: use of interest; vivid exposition; involving tourists into activities; and variety of entertainment. Tourist animation appeared due to the competition among accommodation enterprises which mainly provided resort holidays. Animation programmes are widely spread and presented on sea resorts of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, especially those resorts which provide all inclusive holidays. Animation crews work with tourists during the whole day: morning exercises (often in a swimming pool), playing games, sport activities, performances on the stage, shows, birthday parties, contests, dance parties, etc. Children and teenagers are also offered games, water attractions, excursions, drawing contests, watching films, various clubs, etc. Resort animation is based on personal contacts of an animator with tourists, on mutual involvement of an animator and holidaymakers in entertainment activities offered by the animation programme of a tourist complex. Animator must be young, fit, energetic, know foreign languages, communicative, must have good memory for people’s appearances and names, creative and artistic. The process of perception of animation programmes by tourists depends on many factors: their age, gender, educational background, ethnicity, and mood. Quality of animation programmes depends on skills of animators, interesting scenarios, wide range of musical, stage, verbal, plastic, illumination and even pyrotechnic methods. Animation work at the resorts of the “Club Med” system can be an example of such animation programmes. Club Méditerranée is a French corporation of vacation resorts found in many parts of the world, usually in exotic locations. It is considered the original all-inclusive resort. Club Med staff are called "GOs", or Gentils Organisateurs (Gracious/Nice Organizers). Clients are "GMs", or Gentils Membres (Gracious/Nice Guests/Members). The resort is known as a village. The resort manager is called the chef de village (Village Chief).The special feature of Club Med is that the GOs and GMs play, dine, drink, and dance together every day and night. Outdoor buffet dining (usually on tables of eight, mixing GMs and GOs), daytime sport-playing, and evening shows with extensive audience participation, are part of the holiday experience.
Besides animation programmes at resorts there are show-museums, theme parks, fancy-dress tours. Show-museums are the museums with live characters of the certain epoch. For example, Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm here tourists can learn about traditional crafts and traditions of historic Sweden in miniature. First theme parks appeared in Europe at the end of 60s and have been in demand since that. Annually up to 10 million guests visit such places, the most popular of which are Disneyland, Legoland (Denmark), Port Aventura (Spain), Warner Brothers. Tours to theme parks are mostly popular among families travelling with children, young travellers, and just married couples on their honeymoon. A fancy dress tour is one of the avant-garde directions of the animation tourism. Example for such type of tours can be rest on the American rancho where tourists put on clothes of cowboys, get equipment, learn to ride a horse and throw a lasso. In Austria tourists rent dresses and costumes made in the style of the XIX-century and attend balls in a castle. Animation of sport or ethno-folklore tours, adventure tours or hobby-tours have specific character by its scenario and requisites. However, one feature is common for all – making the tour more vivid by involving tourists in the activities.
Formation of communication skills of tourist company staff
Effective application of communication skills of managers who deal with tourists is one of the major prerequisites of the economic success of a tourist company. Effective communication skills of tourism staff are gained during the work and at special training sessions. Communication skills of the employee are mainly based on his ability to verbal communication. The following are major communication skills of tourism staff: establishing contacts with a client, choosing effective forms of communication with customers and with other staff members, regulating relations among the staff members. There are special approaches of effective communication in a tourist firm. They can be broken down into the approaches for communication with well-informed and badly-informed clients, with hesitating clients, and clients with low motivation. It is quite easy to communicate with well-informed clients as they have already made the decision and have obtained all information in advance, but anyway a manager needs to give this client some time to express his wishes and requirements demonstrating friendliness and listening attentively. Badly-informed clients require substantial time to get motivated. Often such clients change their decisions at the stage of receiving confirmation of the booking of holiday arrangements. Sometimes managers have to deal with hesitating clients; this category of clients requires special attention and special communication approaches. Managers should always remember that hesitation is a natural status in the decision-taking process. Managers should comply with the following rules when dealing with hesitating clients: listen attentively to a client without interrupting; not to get irritated or annoyed while answering to a client’s objections, not to get distracted; to identify what exactly is bothering a client; to build the conversation in the way when a client can find the answer himself; sometimes to agree with a client so that to demonstrate objections afterwards (e.g. “I agree and understand your doubts but let us consider this way or let me show testimonials of tourists who have already been on such tour”); not to turn to the next argument if the client has not agreed with the previous argument; to make resumes of the conversation with the client; not to get disappointed if the client has not changed his mind. Clients with low motivation usually have resources and desire to go somewhere or to rest but don’t have strong and confident intentions to purchase a certain tour. That’s why they usually apply to tourist firms for help. There are special methods for forming tourist preferences in dealing with such clients: convincing arguments, identification of a client and place for rest, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP): using words, phrases which are emotionally close to a client and which are connected with comfortable rest in his mind; using images and gestures which form a client’s positive opinion about the tour on offer. Dealing with clients who don’t have much motivation or haven’t made their decision, manager must have a clear view on which destination (region, country, or city) to offer. Offering various holiday options, a manager must take into consideration social-demographic specifics of a client, mainly gender and marital status.
A good tourism manager is a good psychologist who can effectively and unobtrusively lead a client to the goal – purchase of a tour.
Reading:
Independent Research