1. CHAPTER 3 PRINCIPLES OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
AICE TRAVEL & TOURISM
CHAPTER 3
PRINCIPLES OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

2. KEY POINTS IN CHAPTER 3
WE WILL LEARN ABOUT THE FOLLOWING POINTS IN CH.3
KEY PRINCIPLES OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
WAYS ORGANISATIONS PROVIDE EXCELLENT SERVICE
HOW INTERNAL/EXTERNAL CUSTOMERS CONTRIBUTE
IMPORTANCE IN RESPONDING TO CUSTOMER NEEDS
VARIETY OF CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICES/PROCEDURES
WAYS ORGANISATIONS CAN MEASURE EFFECTIVNESS

3. KEY DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE (pg. 76)
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy

4. Activity 1: Understanding the Key Dimensions of Service (pg. 77)
Come up with an experience where you witnessed a service failure.
Faulty product? Late or untimely service? A dispute over pricing?
Discuss what did the person providing the service do that was so offensive?
Was it their attitude? Words or phrases? Tone of voice or non-verbal communication?
Might consider the effect of these experiences on you?
Would you use organization again? Tell others of you experiences? What sort of customer service would you expect to receive?

5. Examples of Poor Customer Service (pg.77)
Not getting information
Customer Cancellations/Not returning
Unhappy workforce
Lack of customer loyalty
Poor public image

6. Discuss Poor Service (pg. 77)
Discuss with your neighbor a disappointing experience you might have had with a company/organisation.
Service Failure?
What was offensive?
Effect on you as consumer?

7. Zones of Customer Experience
Zone of Outrage
Zone of Dissatisfaction
Zone of Satisfaction
Zone of Delight

8. Moment of Truth
Every time a customer interacts with a travel and tourism organization and experiences any of its operational procedures.

9. Three aspects of service encounter (pg. 80)
The nature of the service task being performed and what it involves
The service standards expected, both by the customer and provider
The service delivery system for the task at hand

10. Operational Standards & Competence Standards (pg. 81)
Operational Standards – What is to be said or done.
Competence Standards – How a particular service should be done.

11. Customer (pg. 81)
Anyone who has the right to ask or expect an employee to provide a service as part of their job role.
Most employee’s deal with two types of customers at work:
Internal Customers
External Customers

12. External Customer an organizations visitors or users.
Individuals
Groups (different age, cultural groups, special interest groups)
People w/ children
Foreign visitors
People w/ specific needs
Members/non-members of travel organizations

13. Internal Customer members of staff of organization who contribute towards the service provided towards external customers.
Colleagues
Management/supervisors
Employees of other organizations
(ex/ retail outlets at an airport are internal customers of the airport)

14. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Self Actualization
Esteem Needs
Social Belonging
Safety and Security
Phsiological Needs (of traveler or employee)

15. Tourist Family Lifecycle (pg. 84) Stages
Early childhood
Early teenage
Young person
Partnership stage
Family stage – early
Family stage – late
Empty nest
Retired

16. Different Generations (pg. 84)
Baby Boomers (1944 – 1960) – ‘getting older, thinking younger’
Generation Xs (1960 – 1980) – ‘technically competent, independent and flexible’
Generation Ys (1980 – 2000) – ‘sociable, goal-orientated and highly familiar with digital media’

17. Employee satisfaction affects Customer satisfaction (pg. 87)
Employees that interact with customers develope awarness of goals/needs.
Satisfied employees are:
Motivated employees
Empowered employees
Have high energy/willingness to give good service
Provide customers with adequate explanations for undesirable outcomes (empathy, understanding, respect, concern)

18. Delivery of Customer Service (pg. 89-93)
Understanding types of staff role work within an organization and how each delivers quality service (study pages to better familiarize with roles/tasks)
Example:
Hotel waiting staff
Hotel receptionist
Housekeeping room attendant

19. Interpersonal Skills (pg. 90)
Skills that promote relationships with other people also known as “soft skills”

20. Stages of Development (pg. 95)
Stage 1 – Waits to be told
Stage 2 – Asks what to do
Stage 3 – Recommends what to do
Stage 4 – Takes action, reports immediately
Stage 5 – Takes action, reports routinely

21. Performance Standards (pg. 96)
Each performance standard states three things about each aspect of the job:
What the employee is to do.
How it is to be done.
To what extent it is to be done (how much, how well, how soon)

22. Assessment of the quality of customer service in travel and tourism (pg. 98)
Commonly used strategies include:
Monitoring customer feedback
Maintaining staffing levels together with training programs and the monitoring of individual performances.

23. Benchmarking (pg. 98)
Is the process of identifying best practice in relation to customer service delivery.

24. Benchmarking involves 4 key steps: (pg 99)
Understanding all existing customers
Analyzing customer service process of others
Comparing own customer service performance w/ others
Implementing the necessary steps to close performance gap

25. Collecting Customer Feedback (pg. 99)
Customer comment cards, placed around building for visitors
Feedback option through website
Evaluation forms given out after specific events
Responding to assessments by special external bodies & special interest groups

26. Key Terms Customer Reliability Responsiveness Internal Customers
External Customers
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Interpersonal Skills
Suggestion Box
Observations
Reliability
Responsiveness
Empathy
Zones of customer service
Operation Standards
Competence Standards
Assurance

27. Key Terms Informal Feedback Soft skills Surveys Moments of Truth
Qualitative Data
Quantitative Data
Mystery Shopper
Focus Groups
Soft skills
Moments of Truth
Performance Standards
Customer Service Procedures
Assessment of Customer Service
Benchmarking