VUSSC/Content/Tourism/Customer Care/Introduction to Unit 4

INTRODUCTION

In the previous Units we looked at the

• meaning of customer service excellence;
• rationales for delighting our customers;
• needs of our customers in a tour guiding context.

Customer service excellence does come by chance or coincidence. We pointed the importance of planning. This is what we consider in this Unit.

Why is planning important for service excellence?

The best way to answer this question is to consider what happens when we don't plan and think ahead. We find ourselves too busy dealing with problems. Given a little thought, these problems could have been avoided. This takes up time which could have been spent on something more productive. This is often called 'fire fighting' rather than 'fire prevention'. It gives the impression to an outside observer that a person is actually 'busy doing nothing'.

You will be introduced to the concept of market research, some methods and tools that are relevant in public service delivery. Any quality planning is normally spearheaded by the mission, quality objectives and the values of the organisation/agency.