Review and Assessment of Customer Service
Providing excellent customer service is only half the battle in tourism. To truly excel, businesses must regularly review and assess their customer service performance. This helps identify strengths to build on and weaknesses to address, ensuring tourists have the best possible experience.
Key Definitions:
- Customer Service Review: The process of examining how well a tourism business is meeting customer needs and expectations.
- Service Assessment: Evaluating the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of customer service provided.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measurable values that show how effectively a business is achieving its customer service objectives.
📊 Why Review Customer Service?
Regular reviews of customer service help tourism businesses:
- Identify what's working well and what isn't
- Spot trends in customer satisfaction
- Recognise training needs for staff
- Improve the overall tourist experience
- Stay competitive in the tourism market
📅 When to Review Customer Service
The best tourism businesses review their customer service:
- After each tourist season
- Following major events or festivals
- When customer complaints increase
- After implementing new service procedures
- At regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, annually)
Methods for Collecting Customer Feedback
To properly review customer service, tourism businesses need to gather feedback from their customers. There are many ways to do this, each with its own advantages and limitations.
📄 Written Feedback
- Comment cards
- Surveys and questionnaires
- Guest books
- Email feedback forms
Best for: Detailed feedback and specific suggestions
📱 Digital Feedback
- Online reviews (TripAdvisor, Google)
- Social media comments
- Mobile app ratings
- Website feedback tools
Best for: Reaching a wide audience and quick responses
💬 Verbal Feedback
- Face-to-face conversations
- Focus groups
- Telephone interviews
- Exit interviews
Best for: Nuanced feedback and building relationships
Analysing Customer Service Data
Once feedback has been collected, the next step is to analyse it effectively to identify patterns, trends and areas for improvement.
Quantitative Analysis
This involves looking at numerical data that can be measured and compared:
- Customer Satisfaction Scores: Often measured on a scale (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures how likely customers are to recommend your service
- Response Times: How quickly staff respond to customer queries or complaints
- Complaint Rates: The number of complaints compared to total customers
- Resolution Rates: The percentage of issues successfully resolved
Qualitative Analysis
This involves examining non-numerical data to understand the 'why' behind customer opinions:
- Comment Analysis: Looking for common themes in written feedback
- Sentiment Analysis: Determining whether feedback is positive, negative, or neutral
- Staff Observations: Insights from employees who interact with customers
- Mystery Shopping: Reports from undercover evaluators posing as customers
Case Study Focus: Premier Inn's Customer Service Review
Premier Inn, a UK hotel chain, uses a comprehensive review system called "GUEST" to assess their customer service:
- Gather feedback through multiple channels (online surveys, in-room tablets, social media)
- Understand patterns by analysing data daily, weekly and monthly
- Evaluate performance against competitors and industry standards
- Share insights with all staff members through regular meetings
- Take action by implementing changes based on feedback
This systematic approach has helped Premier Inn maintain high customer satisfaction scores and win multiple awards for customer service excellence.
Implementing Improvements
After analysing customer feedback, tourism businesses need to make practical changes to improve their service. This should be a structured process rather than random changes.
📝 Creating an Action Plan
An effective customer service improvement plan should:
- Prioritise issues based on impact and frequency
- Set specific, measurable goals
- Assign responsibilities to specific staff members
- Include realistic timeframes
- Allocate necessary resources (budget, staff, time)
- Have clear methods to measure success
👥 Staff Involvement
Staff should be central to the improvement process:
- Share feedback results with all team members
- Ask for their input on potential solutions
- Provide additional training where needed
- Recognise and reward excellent customer service
- Create a culture where feedback is welcomed
- Empower staff to make decisions that improve service
Evaluating Success
The final step in the review and assessment cycle is to evaluate whether the changes made have actually improved customer service. This creates a continuous improvement loop.
Measuring Improvement
Tourism businesses can measure the success of their customer service improvements through:
- Before and After Comparisons: Looking at customer satisfaction scores before and after changes
- Tracking Specific Metrics: Monitoring KPIs that were targeted for improvement
- Customer Retention Rates: Seeing if more tourists are returning
- Staff Feedback: Getting insights from employees about the effectiveness of changes
- Financial Impact: Assessing whether improvements have affected revenue
Case Study Focus: The Ritz-Carlton's Customer Service Assessment
The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is famous for its exceptional customer service. Their assessment approach includes:
- Daily Line-ups: Brief meetings where staff discuss service issues and share positive feedback
- Quality Improvement Teams: Groups of employees who work together to solve service problems
- Guest Engagement Survey: A detailed feedback system that tracks satisfaction across 30+ service areas
- Service Recovery Log: Documentation of all service failures and how they were resolved
- $2,000 Rule: Any employee can spend up to $2,000 to solve a guest's problem without approval
This comprehensive approach allows The Ritz-Carlton to continuously assess and improve their service, maintaining their reputation as a luxury brand with exceptional customer care.
Different Types of Tourists Require Different Assessment Approaches
It's important to remember that different types of tourists may require different approaches to assessment and review.
🎓 Educational Tourists
Focus assessment on:
- Quality of information provided
- Learning opportunities
- Knowledgeability of guides
- Educational value for money
🎖 Business Tourists
Focus assessment on:
- Efficiency of service
- Business facilities
- Internet connectivity
- Transport links
🏠 Family Tourists
Focus assessment on:
- Child-friendly facilities
- Safety measures
- Activities for different ages
- Family-oriented staff
Summary
Reviewing and assessing customer service is a vital process for any tourism business that wants to improve and stay competitive. By collecting feedback through various methods, analysing it effectively, implementing targeted improvements and evaluating their success, businesses can create a cycle of continuous improvement that benefits both tourists and the business itself.
Remember that the ultimate goal of customer service review and assessment is not just to identify problems but to create better experiences for all types of tourists. When done well, this process leads to happier customers, more positive reviews, repeat business and ultimately, a more successful tourism operation.