Visitor Experience not Being Taken Seriously by Tourism Industry
Businesses within the tourism industry are still not making visitors their number one priority and as a result a
concerning trend is developing that has the potential to significantly impact individual business performance and the
overall industry.
Business is viewing the improvement of a visitor experience strategy as a reactive task. A task that reluctantly must be
contemplated when all else fails, rather than a critical part of a successful business plan according to Chris Bell
Managing Director of Customer Experiences a company specialising in the development of quality customer experiences.
As businesses face increased competition, higher visitor expectations around the areas of service and experiences they
are reluctantly concluding that a need to refocus their attention on the visitor and the quality and consistency of the
experience is what is possibly required.
This reactive response is not only making the task that much more difficult, it’s starting to be seen by visitors for
what it is, a “have to do” rather than a proactive genuine desire to put the visitor first.
In today’s highly competitive travel industry businesses without a visitor experience strategy as part of a business
plan will struggle. A visitor experience strategy impacts every area of a business not just the service quality
delivered at the front counter.
One of the reasons businesses have not contemplated the development of their visitor experience is the lack of know-how.
As a result businesses have tried to improve just some of the immediate areas that are not performing.
One example has been the reactive response to visitor complaints as a result of poor service levels. The response has
been to send their front-line people on a customer service training workshop to improve their customer service skills.
We know from the evaluations we have carried out that this approach at best only delivers short term results and is very
much a cost rather than an investment and in many cases is viewed as punishment by those involved rather than a skill
development opportunity.
Research confirms that companies providing exceptional service have a strong competitive advantage. Customers are
prepared to pay higher prices, make additional purchases, are more loyal and recommend the business to others. These
benefits can boost a bottom line significantly.
In today’s market the visitor has all the power, a result of the huge amount of choice now available.
What proactive businesses are focusing on is using the development of their unique customer experience to enable them to
stand out from the crowd rather than just to be in the game.
In 2013 business must realise that in a world of excess, uniformity and repetition, people buy experiences, not products
or services. When people feel good about their experiences, they will not only return but will tell their friends and
many others via social media. Get it wrong and today many more will hear about it via the same social media channels.
Customer Experiences has just made the process of improving service levels easier through the release of an affordable
fully supported customer experience development program available online www.customerexperiences.co.nz
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