Service from the Heart

Service from the heart

Tourism service training

10.04.2023

Contents1. Finland as a tourist destination

♥ Economic significance of the tourist industry♥ Culture tourism♥ Rural tourism

2. Identifying customer needs and desires♥ Customer sought value / benefit segmentation♥ Customer expectations♥ Internal and external customers♥ Significance of service

3. The customer’s path

4. Competence in providing personal customer service♥ Attitude is crucial – from good to outstanding!

5. Customer expectations and exceeding expectations (WOW!)♥ Making service into a lifetime experience

6. System for listening to customers♥ Market research, customer feedback, complaints

7. Challenging customer service situations

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Finland as a tourist destination

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Tourism as an industry1. X% of the world’s working population receive livelihoods

from tourism2. In Finland, approximately xx persons receive livelihoods from

the tourist industry (catering and accommodation, places of interest, sports and nature activities, rural tourism)

3. Tourism accounts for around x% of Finland’s GDP4. Finland has around xx rural tourism enterprises5. In Central Finland, the proportion of foreign tourists out of

all tourists is x%6. According to research, Finland’s most appealing tourism

factors are…

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The tourist’s route… Europe Finland Province! Town Village Tourist destination Company

Where do you see tourists?

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Culture services from the heart– How can a tourist area be profiled using the local

culture?• Tourism is the realisation of images created by

communications• Profiling occurs via communications, appearance and

activities

– > marketing, interior design, signs and guidance, souvenirs, service products (dramatised guidance) and customer service

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Regional tourism

• This slide can be used for each trainer to add their own example.

2. Identifying customer needs and desires

Who are your customers? Do you really know what they want and expect from your provision of

services?

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What is good service?

• respect for others• taking others into consideration• fulfilling needs and desires

What are the consequences of good service?• the customer will return; the customer will

probably become a loyal or key customer• employees will be satisfied; he/she has done a good

job, perhaps even surpassing himself/herself• the customer will remember you and your

company free marketing

Customer expectations

©What kinds of different customers/customer target groups do you have?

©Do they all want the same things and same services from you?

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My internal and external customers

• Internal customers– Co-operation between various acting bodies in the

village• Companies, associations, independent operators, public

sector– Co-operation between villages

• External customers– Use the services -> Tourists– Domestic– International10.04.2023

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How is service expectation created?

♥ Marketing communication♥ Reputation♥ “Grapevine”♥ Earlier experiences♥ Customer needs

Reputation

Expectedquality

Experiencedquality

Company image

Technical quality: what?

Functional quality: how?

Experienced overall quality

adapted from Gummersson 1995

Benefits for the customer!

♥ The customer is not merely purchasing goods /services, rather personally experiencing benefit and satisfaction.

♥ What values do your customers seek when using your company’s services? ♥ Benefit segmentation vs. marketing communications,

service pledge

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3. The customer’s path

Service product experienced by the customer

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Various stages of thecustomer service

process

1. Customer expectationsand needs

The image created bymarketing communications

2. Arrival stage First impressions of the

service environment

3. Expectation stageObservations of theservice environment

(e.g. other customers)

5. Conclusion of services Saying goodbye, taking the customer into consideration

6. Post impressionsAssessing of experiences(cf. Overall quality experienced)

4. Service stage First impressions of staff Pertinence of service, politeness, customer service attitude

The basic stages of a service product

The customer’s path depending on the nature of the service product

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It may be very straightforward or complex!

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The customer’s path and moments of truth, e.g. family visit to Kalajärvi

Inspiring interest / initial desire to visit

the destination

Browsing marketing material (website,

social media)Decision to visit

Assessing the post

impressions

Leaving Going to the toilet

Buying from the kiosk

Using the cafeteria services

Ticket purchases,

info

Arrival (guidance,

parking place, entry)

Watching the performance

4. Competence in providing personal customer service

Using the right attitude to achieve WOW!

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Attitude is apparent…♥ In overall attitudes and appreciation of the tourist

industry and tourists (state, municipality, village, neighbours, etc.)♥ Tourism is everybody’s business!

♥ On the company level♥ The comprehensive customer orientation in

activities (cf. service pledge)♥ On the personal level

♥ Personal communications: gestures, expressions, tone of voice, etc.

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Attitude significance

10 x 100 = 1000

10 x 0 = 0 Attitude is decisive – always (Positiivarit)

InformationSkill

Final outcome

Service attitude

5. Exceeding customer expectations

Willingness of involvement and leaving a positive memory with the customer – even a lifetime experience!

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Lifetime experience?

We cannot guarantee others a lifetime experience, but we can create the right settings and possibilities for this

experience.A lifetime experience is an unforgettable experience that

leads to the personal development of the individual experiencing it – that what is learned and experienced

during the lifetime experience may be adopted as one’s own everyday personality, or having a lifetime experience may lead to changing one’s own world image. (LEO 2006)

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Service into a lifetime experience – service product levelsLifetime experience, WOW!

Fluent and functional

Safe and tidy

Basic level, minimum requirements met, customer fairly satisfied.

OK level, customer satisfied in principle.

Exceeds expectations, leaves a positive memory. Customer is very satisfied and wants to tell others of this good experience.

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WOW! Great service!

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Service quality as experienced by the customer

Lifetime experience, WOW!

Fluent and functional

Fluent and functional

Professionalism and expertise

Attitudes and behaviour

Accessibility and flexibility

Reliability and credibility

Service rectification

Service state

Reputation

6. System for listening to customers

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Monitoring and developing customer service

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♥ Why do companies lose their customers?• death• move to another location• buy from the competition• change companies by recommendation• chronic complainers and/or constantly after variation. They

purchase products at random from different companies.• change of company, because the same service is available

elsewhere for a more reasonable price.• change company, because the sales and other staff are

not interested in the customer, their wishes or problems!

1 %3 %4 %7 %8 %

9 %

68 %

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Customer listening systems

Production/service;commercialisation and

continual development of activities

Needs and expectations:surveys and studies

Complaints andhandling complaints

Assurance of satisfaction:

constant feedback

How has your company made assurances that collection of written and/or verbal customer feedback is performed, and in particular for the systematic processing of such?!

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Customer feedback

Finns are notoriously bad at giving feedback on the spot. According to research, up to 98% of unsatisfied customers do not complain

Nevertheless, around 90% of unsatisfied customers return, if they feel that the matter has been resolved or attempts have been made to resolve the matter

Social media facilitates the effective word-of-mouth principle Based on personal experiences and feelings, but it may

also be effective at “branding” the entire company 1 – 10 – 27 rule!

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Customer satisfaction can be surveyed using…

© Customer satisfaction form– sent via email– given to the customer in advance– via an internet link

© Mystery shopping© Telephone survey© Direct feedback

– Ask, chat, watch– Note body language, gestures and expressions!

Rural tourism customer feedback

• Feedback for tourism enterprises and the other services of the village

• Electronic feedback form: – Can be sent to the customer after the service event -> also acts as a thank you

message!

• Paper feedback form:– Clear instructions and request for feedback (a pile of questionnaires placed

somewhere is insufficient) – Feeding the feedback into the system

• Summary by village• National summary• Comparability: How well have we succeeded in

serving customers? 10.04.2023

What do you do with the feedback?

• It’s not enough to simply collect feedback, it also has to be competently processed and utilised!

• Positive feedback:– Tells us what the customer thinks is good!– It must be noted that the customer compares experiences on the basis of

earlier experiences. This information may be used in, for instance, planning marketing communications.

• Rectifying feedback: – Tells what points need improvement! – Remember! Nobody is perfect, if no-one complains, this means you have

been difficult to approach! – You have to react to feedback and utilise the feedback in the

development of activities. 10.04.2023

7. Challenging situations

When it doesn’t always go to plan…

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Challenging situations© You can also learn from the experiences of others!© Working in small groups

– Write down an account of one of your own experiences of an awkward customer service situation

– Don’t reveal the solution yet, just describe the situation

– Next, these documents are exchanged among the small group and the other members of the group each provide their own solution for resolving the problem

– Finally, the true course of events is revealed as to how the situation was resolved

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Tips for handling complaints

♥ When you encounter a difficult customer, stay calm and give them time (body language!)

©Listen to what the customer has to say, and make more enquiries. Refrain from disagreement; find a good solution for the matter – don’t worry about who is right/wrong.

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Tips for handling complaints

© Find out what caused the situation to occur, but do not look for who is to blame. Consider the customer’s motives with a positive attitude.

© Try to take responsibility for the event yourself, but don’t take the complaint personally.

© Keep calm and control the situation

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Reaching a solution

♥ Give the customer different options; let the customer decide.

♥ Agree on the solution; remember, you can’t always fully meet the demands of customers.

♥ Conclude the matter and thank the customer for providing feedback.

♥ 3/11 rule

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Reaching a solution

♥ Remember to tell others of this matter to ensure the things you have promised are arranged without problem.

♥ Ways of rectifying or compensating could be e.g.– Offering a new similar service– Correcting the service– Gift voucher– Price reduction

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When rectifying mistakes, it is essential to…

©Give the matter immediate attention– ability and authority to resolve

problems©Concentrate on resolving the issue©Apologise

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Remember! ♥ The customer is definitely not always

right♥ However, the customer is King, who

will always have the freedom and power to decide who to buy services from!– http://www.aasiakas.net/