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UNIT 2 Customer service Exam
Chapter 2 Latest Edition with A+
Answers.
Why is customer service important in the t&t industry - Correct Ans:
✅ Due to the the travel and tourism industry being highly competive and having similar products customer service is important because it diffrentiates on oganisation from one another. These orgs sell experiences and having a customer focus , it distinguishes one org from the other.
customer service - Correct Ans: ✅ The assistance and advice provided by an organization to the people who buy or use their product or service
Why is it important for travel and tourism .org staff to be aware of
the part they play in satisfying the customers needs - Correct Ans:
✅ Because customers expect the highest standard of customer service.
What will happen if a poor standard of service was provided by an
employee - Correct Ans: ✅ Dissatisfaction of the holiday product to customers because its a people based industry and the attitudes of the staff will result in the quality of the service.( enthusiastic team = enjoyable ; miserable team = holiday is spoilt )
What are the key features of customer service - Correct Ans: ✅ - reliability
- responsiveness
- accuracies
- Empathy
What is reliability - Correct Ans: ✅ The ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably
What is responsiveness - Correct Ans: ✅ The willingness to help customers and provide a good and efficient service.
What is Assurance - Correct Ans: ✅ Th knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to be trustworthy and confident when dealing with requests
What is empathy? - Correct Ans: ✅ The ability to care,individualism and give attention to the customer
What is a customer - Correct Ans: ✅ Someone who buys or is interested in your product or service and therefore has the right to ask and expect an employee to provide a service as part of their job role. In the t&t industry the organizations have to deal with 2 types of customers (external and internal)
This wasn't set up by Maslow for the tourism organization in particular.
What is the order of Maslow hierarchy of human needs - Correct
Ans: ✅ 1^ ( physiological needs)food , water ,shelter
2^ (safety and security) health, family ,social stability
3^ ( love and belonging) friendship,sense of connection
4^ (self esteem )confidence,achievement,respect for others
5^( self actualization )spontaneity,experience purpose
How does the model ( Maslow hierarchy) relate to tourists needs.
1^ physiological - Correct Ans: ✅ Tourist needs
- tour package that offered frequent rest stops
- easy access to food outlets in malls
-accommodation strategic location
2^ safety and security - Correct Ans: ✅ - cruise ships providing doctors
- well trained tour guide in exotic and unfamiliar places
3^social and belonging - Correct Ans: ✅ - group tours with people having similar interests
- trips to explore ones ancestral roots
4^ esteem - Correct Ans: ✅ - elite status gold card on airlines
- Flowers , chocolates rewards to guests
- Incentive travel rewards for using a company multiple time
5^ self actualisation - Correct Ans: ✅ -Educational tours
- learning the language + studying the culture of another country prior to travel
- activities providing educational info and about cultures
How does the model work - Correct Ans: ✅ Once each level is satisfied the external customer moves to the next level
Problem with using this model - Correct Ans: ✅ - not all the needs on that level need to be met in order to go onto the next level
- wasn't made the the travel and tourism industry in particular
What is segmentation - Correct Ans: ✅ To divide a market place into parts or segments
Why do organizations segment their external customers by age -
Correct Ans: ✅ Because there are differences between the generations and one may require something that the others don't vice versa
These segments are divided into :
a) baby boomers (1944-1960)
- likes quick solutions - not long explanations
- dislikes being talked down to - young but know what the want
What is the tourist family life cycle - Correct Ans: ✅ Tourist s requirements vary according to the different stages of a family life cycle
Stages of the tourist family life cycle - Correct Ans: ✅ - early childhood
- early teenage
- young person
- partnership stage
- early family stage
- late family stage
- empty nest
- retired
Early childhood stage - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristic : Entirely dependent on parents or guardian
Tourist Behaviour : seek seaside or inland resorts with facilities for young children
Early teenage stage - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristics : have more influence on decision making but still dependent on parents
Tourist Behaviour: resort based holiday with entertainment,nightlife and activities
: some use youth based hostel sis and semi independent activity holidays
: group based holiday
Young person - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristics:young single and not living at home
Tourist Behaviour: takes holidays depending on time and resources
: High on adventure and backpacking : Sunlust to activity based holiday
Early family stage - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristics: financial and school constraints are important factors , seek for family oriented holiday ( single or separated parents)
Tourist Behaviour:key interest in a holiday , VFR
Partnership stage - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristics: couples living together with busy lifestyles , time is a major barrier to travel
Tourist Behaviour :wide range ,short breaks to fit in the dual schedule
Late family stage - Correct Ans: ✅ Characteristics: major constraints due to education and term dates ,Holliday patterns start to breakup
Tourist Behaviour: mix of holidays and children seeking semi independence
How does a TIC (tourist information Centre ) provide a good
customer service? - Correct Ans: ✅ - are customer focused
They have effective questioning techniques to establish the specific information needs of each visitor and to them use appropriate information sources to fulfill their needs.
- customer being helped in a friendly manner to benefit them.
How to meet every visitors need - Correct Ans: ✅ - ask direct questions about their preference,
- listen closely to their response
- provide them with a relative amount of options to choose from.
What will the needs of customers include - Correct Ans: ✅ - ancillary products and services eg car hire
- travel and tourism products and services that meet the specific needs of customers eg low cost flight
- information and advice,eg about a business visa
-assistance ,help make bookings
- resolving customer problems and complaints eg if plumbing issues occur
What should the efficient booking service include - Correct Ans: ✅ - should be told clearly the prices for accommodation,meals and refreshments including extra charges + taxes
-important information about smoking polices ,planned functions
- instructions that certain facilities need to be pre-booked
- details about the cancellation policies
-warning should be given if the restaurant will be closed or fully booked
What are internal customers - Correct Ans: ✅ Members of staff within an organization or an organization's supplier who contribute towards the service provided to external customers.they include managers , supervisors ,colleagues in ones department or another,employees of the other organizations ie retail outlets at an airport are internal customers of the airport.
What are the likely needs of an internal customer - Correct Ans: ✅ - safe working environment ,good working conditions
- Training appropriate to their job role - good product knowledge
- Knowledge of procedures ,routines,performance standards for carrying out duties,code of conduct
-job satisfaction,how content an individual feels in their job role and how motivated are they.
Why does employee satisfaction affect customer satisfaction -
Correct Ans: ✅ -satisfied employees are motivated employees:therefore have motivational resources to provide adequate effort and care
- they are empowered they have the resources,training and responsibilities to understand and serve customers needs and demands effectively
-have high energy and the willingness to give good services- they can deliver a positive perception of the service and product
-employee of the month awards
What are the impacts of quality customer service for customers -
Correct Ans: ✅ - the quality of customer service received will leave customers either feeling satisfied or dissatisfied
-they will perceive their experience as either positive or negative based on how well their needs are being met and whether they feel they have gained value for their money or not.
Impacts of quality customer service for employees - Correct Ans: ✅ Job satisfaction is caused by an employee offering high quality customer service and getting positive feedback as a result.
If employee can answer questions and deal with problems at hand this can lead to job dissatisfaction
That's why organizations are willing to invest time and money into training staff to enhance skills and develop them
Team work = job satisfaction
Impacts of quality customer service for the organization - Correct
Ans: ✅ Investing time and money in developing stafff pays off for any org as this results in a more efficient workforce.
Staff will understand their job therefore making a positive contribution this then builds a positive reputation of the org
Staff that are comfortable and confident in their job role will increase customer satisfaction this then will lead to customer loyalty they will come again in the future
This allows the org to increase their earnings
More customer greater revenue = greater profit
What are the main problems of poor customer service - Correct Ans:
✅ -not getting the information they need
- Loss of income to the organization of cancellations occurs or customers don't return
- increased cost to an organization if they have to attract business and new customers through marketing
-High staff turnover because employees aren't satisfied
-inefficienct and unhappy workforce
-not meeting customers needs and wants results to them not coming back
-lack of customer loyalty-no incentive to return or products becoming outdated not keeping up with trends
-poor public image effect of negative publicity on the org
How do travel and tourism industries assess the quality of customer
service - Correct Ans: ✅ -informal and formal quality assurance systems to support meeting the needs of customers and to evaluate the effectiveness of their customer service provision
- commonly used strategies include: monitoring customer feed back,maintaining staffing levels,training programs,monitoring individual performances
When is customer satisfaction achieved - Correct Ans: ✅ When customers feel that their needs and wants and expectations have been fully met or even exceeded
They must feel valued and important
What is the employer's responsibility - Correct Ans: ✅ To develop sustainable and responsible working working practices
When setting org customer service standards the org needs to think about CSR as tourism industry has neg & positive impacts to a destination
What are customer service procedures and how do these makeup
standards towards which employees must work - Correct Ans: ✅ Are routines and detailed steps an org uses to deliver its customer service
Some organizations have these procedures in formal writing and others train staff and monitor service
What is the key feature of excellent customer service by orgs
employees - Correct Ans: ✅ The need for standards
What do the customer service standards specify - Correct Ans: ✅ - what is to be done
In a given scenario
Some organizations give a checklist to their employees to indicate organization standards
What are functional area customer service standards - Correct Ans:
✅ Designed to describe the action an individual employee needs to follow to perform a task
These standards specify how a particular service task should be done
What will customer service training focus on - Correct Ans: ✅ - professionalism
- staff attitude and behavior
- customers being able to contact stuff when needed , them being able to be flexible and respond to particular needs
-reliablity and trustworthiness of staff
-ability to bounce back when things go wrong
-making sure the organization has a good brand name and public image
What is individual customer service performance - Correct Ans: ✅ Duties and responsibilities for ones job.
Performance standards should be from the heart of any job description as they describe what to ,how to ,how well of a particular job role
Each performance standard states 3 things about each aspect of the
job these are - Correct Ans: ✅ -what the employee is meant to do
What does the benchmarking process involve - Correct Ans: ✅ Looking outward to examine how others achieve their performance levels and to understand the process they use.
After the benchmarking process of excellent performance the lessons are learnt and this can be applied and altered to make it even better(improved performance)
Benchmarking shouldn't be one off it should be ongoing so improvements are reoccurring
What is the key steps of applying benchmarking - Correct Ans: ✅ - understanding in detail all existing customer service processes within the organization
- analyzing the customer service processes of others
- comparing your customer service analysis with others
-implementing steps necessary to close performance gap and implementing those that can give a competitive advantage
Why is customer feedback important - Correct Ans: ✅ Builds a strong customer focus becz opinions of customers are valued
Responding to feedback is and important part of the process this allows customers to feel satisfied that their views are being taken seriously by the org
Feedback techniques include: - Correct Ans: ✅ - informal feedback
-social media
-suggestion box
-customer comment cards
-specific market research
-surveys
-Customers acting as mystery shoppers
-focus groups
-observations of interactions between customer service staff and customers
external customers - Correct Ans: ✅ the people who buy a company's products or services
internal customers - Correct Ans: ✅ people within an organization who rely on one another for the information and recourses they need to perform their jobs
prospects - Correct Ans: ✅ people who fit the description of existing customers but are not being served currently
demographics - Correct Ans: ✅ customer characteristics such as age, gender, ethnic group, income level, family size, occupation, and educational level
service level agreements - Correct Ans: ✅ an agreement that specifies the services expected of each department in a company and the time frames in which they are to be provided
Why is it important for companies to identify their main customers?
Give at least three reasons - Correct Ans: ✅ It is important because
