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YOUR ROLE IN PLANNING FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE

You have a key role in planning. If you are responsible for planning, organising and conducting tours it is important to understand the

• scope of your responsibilities;
• limitations on your authority.

Basically, you need to be certain

• to whom you must report to;
• who you can expect to report to you.

Those to whom you are responsible will expect to be consulted on a new project and you may need to obtain their consent and support. Those for whom you are responsible can be expected to carry out your plan. This will work only if you have actively 'brought them on board' and got them interested. Colleagues of equal standing to yourself will probably form part of your team and should be consulted and actively included in decision making.

Your initiative is more likely to succeed if you have the full support of everyone around you. The same consideration should be given to other resources – what resources can you control personally and for what must you seek another's permission to use?

Customer Service Excellence will include ample opportunity for colleagues to be involved in both the decision-making process and the delivery and monitoring. However, you must take care to schedule such meetings, discussions and keep to your timetable. These are all important in the planning process.