Travel and tourism means people focused jobs. Whether you’re in a travel agent booking people the best possible deal for their globe hopping plans, or working on the front lines at a hotel’s check in desk, you need to be able to deliver the highest standards of customer service. However, it can be difficult to strike the right balance, and create a natural seeming, helpful and welcoming atmosphere. Mastering this, on the other hand, is key to maximizing customer satisfaction. No matter how beautiful the attractions or exciting the amenities, unresponsive, poorly trained, unfriendly or awkward staff can spoil the memories and mood of travellers faster than anything else.
As a result of this challenge, while much of the tricks and techniques you will learn are perfected by practice, the standards have been well studied and even codified, such that they can be taught in places like a tourism management school. Here’s five management tips to start you off:
1)To sound happy, smile. This is a trick of human psychology that it’s very difficult to hold a cheerful facial expression and not have it rub off on you, so make sure this trick is the first thing you train staff. It will also change the tone of your voice, which makes it useful even over the phone, and makes you extremely approachable, good for nervous people who don’t like to intrude even on people who are paid to be there for them. 2)Personalize. It’s not possible to give everyone a unique experience, and the standards of your establishment will set the tone for everyone, but where ever possible, staff should be trained to think about what individual guests need and want.
3)Know your job and location inside and out. One of the best things that staff at a venue or attraction bring is insider knowledge. This can include everything from being able to give good directions to being able to tell you which menu items are the tastiest. If you’re in management, make the extra effort to let your staff experience things from the guest side for great dividends.
4)Cross train. While everyone should have their specializations, making sure that staff understands the work that the rest of the team their own will help them work together more seamlessly. For example if you have a resort that offers corporate conference space and hosts weddings, some introductory event planning courses help staff who don’t have a direct role with that get guests on the right page before they’re handed off to your in house expert.
5)Listen to the bottom rung. Continuously improving your business, in any industry, not just travel and tourism, means paying attention to the people who are the first line of contact with your customer base. Let them identify frequent guest requests and complaints to help refine the processes of your business based on their feedback. As an added bonus, feeling valued raises morale.
Visit Canadian Tourism College for more information on studying in a tourism management school.
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