Delivery of Customer Service » Review and Assessment

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

How to review customer service delivery in travel and tourism
Methods for collecting customer feedback
How to analyse customer service data
Ways to implement improvements based on feedback
The importance of continuous assessment in customer service

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Introduction to Customer Service Review and Assessment

In the travel and tourism industry, providing excellent customer service isn't just a one-time effort it requires constant review and assessment. This ongoing process helps businesses understand what they're doing well and where they need to improve. In this session, we'll explore how travel and tourism organisations review their customer service delivery and use that information to make things better for their customers.

Key Definitions:

Customer Service Review: The process of examining how well customer service is being delivered against set standards and expectations.
Assessment: Evaluating the quality and effectiveness of customer service through various measurement tools.
Customer Feedback: Information provided by customers about their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a service or product.
Service Recovery: The process of addressing service failures to restore customer satisfaction.

Why Review Customer Service?

Regular review and assessment of customer service is vital for travel and tourism businesses for several important reasons:

📈 Business Benefits

Identifies strengths and weaknesses in service delivery
Helps maintain competitive advantage
Improves customer retention and loyalty
Reduces complaints and negative reviews
Increases profitability through repeat business

👥 Customer Benefits

Shows customers their opinions are valued
Leads to improved services and experiences
Creates more personalised customer journeys
Resolves issues that might affect future visits
Builds trust between customer and organisation

Methods of Collecting Customer Feedback

Travel and tourism businesses use various methods to gather feedback from their customers. Each method has its own advantages and limitations:

📄 Written Feedback

Comment cards
Surveys and questionnaires
Email feedback forms
Letters of complaint/compliment

Best for detailed feedback but lower response rates

📱 Digital Feedback

Online reviews (TripAdvisor, Google)
Social media comments
App ratings and reviews
Website feedback tools

Reaches wide audience and easily analysed

💬 Verbal Feedback

Face-to-face conversations
Telephone interviews
Focus groups
Mystery shoppers

Provides rich insights but can be harder to quantify

Analysing Customer Feedback

Once feedback has been collected, it needs to be analysed effectively to identify patterns, trends and areas for improvement:

Quantitative Analysis

This involves looking at numerical data and statistics from customer feedback:

Satisfaction scores: Often measured on scales (e.g., 1-5 stars, 1-10 ratings)
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures how likely customers are to recommend your business
Response rates: The percentage of customers who provide feedback
Trend analysis: Looking at how scores change over time or seasons

Qualitative Analysis

This focuses on the content and meaning of customer comments:

Thematic analysis: Identifying common themes in feedback (e.g., staff friendliness, cleanliness)
Sentiment analysis: Determining whether feedback is positive, negative, or neutral
Keyword spotting: Finding frequently mentioned words or phrases
Complaint categorisation: Grouping similar issues to identify problem areas

Case Study Focus: TUI's Customer Feedback System

TUI, one of the world's largest travel companies, uses a comprehensive feedback system called 'Holiday Experiences'. After customers return from their holiday, they receive an email invitation to complete a survey about their experience. The survey covers all aspects of their trip, from booking to return journey.

TUI analyses this data to create a 'Customer Satisfaction Index' for each hotel and resort. Properties that consistently score below certain thresholds are flagged for review and may be dropped from TUI's offerings if improvements aren't made. Hotels with exceptional scores are highlighted in marketing materials and often see higher bookings.

This system allows TUI to continuously improve their product offerings based directly on customer experiences, leading to higher repeat booking rates and customer loyalty.

Implementing Improvements

The most important part of reviewing customer service is using the insights to make real improvements:

🛠 Action Planning

Effective improvement requires a structured approach:

Prioritise issues based on frequency and impact
Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
Assign responsibility to specific team members or departments
Establish timelines for implementation
Allocate resources needed for changes

📝 Common Improvement Areas

Based on feedback, travel businesses often focus on:

Staff training to address service gaps
Process improvements to reduce wait times
Facility upgrades based on customer comments
Communication enhancements to set expectations
Technology solutions to streamline experiences

The Continuous Improvement Cycle

Customer service review and assessment isn't a one-off task but a continuous cycle:

The cycle typically follows these steps:

Set standards - Establish clear service standards and expectations
Deliver service - Provide customer service according to standards
Gather feedback - Collect customer opinions through various methods
Analyse results - Review feedback to identify patterns and issues
Plan improvements - Develop specific actions to address findings
Implement changes - Put improvement plans into action
Monitor impact - Assess whether changes have improved service
Repeat - Begin the cycle again with updated standards

Measuring Success

How do travel and tourism businesses know if their improvements are working? They need to track key performance indicators (KPIs):

📊 Customer Metrics

Customer satisfaction scores
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Repeat booking rates
Complaint volumes

💰 Business Metrics

Revenue per customer
Customer retention rates
Conversion rates
Market share

💻 Digital Metrics

Online review scores
Social media sentiment
Website engagement
App ratings

Real-World Example: Premier Inn's "Good Night Guarantee"

Premier Inn, a popular UK hotel chain, offers a "Good Night Guarantee" which promises customers a full refund if they don't have a good night's sleep. This policy came about through customer feedback analysis that showed sleep quality was the most important factor for hotel guests.

After implementing this guarantee, Premier Inn collects data on how often it's invoked and why. This information helps them identify specific issues at individual hotels (like noisy air conditioning units or uncomfortable mattresses) and address them quickly.

The guarantee serves multiple purposes: it reassures customers about quality, demonstrates the company's confidence in their product and provides valuable feedback data. Since implementing this system, Premier Inn has consistently ranked as one of the UK's top hotel chains for customer satisfaction.

Summary: Key Takeaways

Regular review and assessment of customer service is essential for travel and tourism businesses to remain competitive
Feedback can be collected through various methods including written surveys, digital platforms and verbal interactions
Both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (descriptive) analysis are important for understanding customer experiences
Effective improvement requires structured action planning with clear responsibilities and timelines
Customer service improvement is a continuous cycle, not a one-time project
Success should be measured through relevant KPIs that track both customer satisfaction and business performance

By consistently reviewing and assessing customer service delivery, travel and tourism organisations can create better experiences for their customers, build stronger loyalty and ultimately achieve greater business success.

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