1. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed Provision of customer service and its benefits BTEC Travel and Tourism

2. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What is customer service? A definition from the Institute of Customer Service: Customer service is the sum total of what an organisation does to meet customer expectations and produce customer satisfaction.

3. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What is customer service? Customer service generally involves: service teamwork and service partnerships actions by a number of people in a team or in several different organisations. Adapted from Institute of Customer Service Glossary of Terms

4. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What does it mean in travel and tourism? In travel and tourism organisations there is a strong focus on serving and satisfying the customer. There are many different kinds of customer: external users of the service offered internal customers within your organisation other internal customers within the industry

5. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed The culture of the organisation Effective travel and tourism organisations will have a strong service culture in all that they do. They should empower their employees to solve customers problems.

6. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What it means for staff A successful organisational culture is likely to involve managers: giving support to staff who give attention to customers needs rewarding staff who do this well

7. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed Why is customer service important in travel and tourism? Tourism is highly susceptible to service failure because of the very large number of service providers in the industry Travel and tourism is a very people- dependent area of work It relies heavily on people and human nature dictates that mistakes must happen

8. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What does this mean in practice? Travel and tourism organisations should plan for what to do when customer service breakdowns occur – so-called complaint handling encounters.

9. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What benefits are there? Good customer service in travel and tourism can: Boost repeat business Create new demand from new customers Cut costs (attracting new customers is thought to be five times as expensive as retaining existing ones)

10. http://www.bized.co.uk Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed What Now? Go to the activity sheet to find out: More about travel and tourism services How different travel and tourism organisations can raise customer service levels How one organisation deals with customer service failures