Chapter 3: Customer Care and working procedures

• Reliability: the ability to perform the promise 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 individualized attention provided to a customer.

• Moment of truth: the actual service encounter between a customer and an employee for the first time setting a first impression of the company and their services.

• Customer service includes providing information, giving advice, receiving and passing on messages, keeping records, providing assistance, and dealing with problems.

• Teamwork has a variety of reasons including improving productivity improving quality of products and service improving customer focus increase employee motivation.

• Procedures for handling complaints:

  1. It is important to listen carefully to the customer.
  2. The member of staff should apologize in general terms for the inconvenience caused.
  3. Staff should never argue with the customer. The aim is to solve the problem.
  4. It is always important to agree the solution with the customer.

• Skills required when working in travel and tourism industry:

  1. Communication skills: such as clear speech and literacy skills as service encounters will involve either face-to-face meeting or some other form of direct communication.
  2. Numeracy skills: most jobs such as cashiers require math skills and ability to count money.
  3. Personal presentation: uniforms should be clean and freshly pressed, have a good personal hygiene and personal appearance with a good general grooming as customers will judge company based on this interaction.

• Problems in customer service:

  1. Language problems: such as accent, if one of the parties comes from a different part of the world.
  2. Prejudice: the sender may have already got preset views and is not prepared to listen.
  3. Cultural differences: the receiver may receive the message correctly worded but due to cultural differences take the message to have a different meaning.
  4. Complexity: if message is too long or too technical.

• Computer reservation system, CRS: used globally within the travel industry to book a range of travel products such as flights, hotels, car hire. also known as global distribution system or GDS.

• Promotional methods used by employees:

  1. Brochures: small, easy to store, and provide all information needed quickly to the targeted customer.
  2. Internet: reaches a wide customer base and is the cheapest and quickest of all available promotional methods.
  3. In-house methods: such as TV adverts, newsletters, information sheets and word of mouth.

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