Customer service for tourism

Write a vision statement and business plan

Every business should develop a vision statement to align business goals and aspirations.

Your vision and statement will help shape your business plan. Your business plan should explain how you will manage all the important aspects of your business.

Understand your customers' needs

Understanding and researching your customer base will help you identify their needs and develop ways to improve customer service standards.

The inclusive tourism guide outlines your legal responsibilities for ensuring accessibility and inclusivity in your tourism business.

Hire staff that provide quality service

Finding the right people for your business can be the difference between good and bad service, a good and bad experience, and ultimately, the success or failure of your business.

Leadership within your staff is equally important. Good managers with the right management style, and who lead by example will help set service quality standards for your entire workplace.

Measure and manage service quality

You can regularly measure your tourism businesses’ service quality using tools including:

• customer research (e.g. feedback cards, surveys and forums)
• customer complaints policy
• market research
• benchmarking
• tourism customer review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor)
• social media sites (e.g. Facebook and Twitter).

Find out more about collecting and storing customer information, including feedback.

Recognise and reward service quality

Recognise and reward staff

Recognition can be planned or spontaneous. Examples of planned recognition include:

• regular staff performance reviews
• pay bonuses or gifts for reaching targets
• time off (in lieu for full-time staff, or a break for casual staff)
• employee-of-the-month awards.

Spontaneous recognition might include:

• passing on positive feedback from customers and management to staff
• thanking staff when they do a good job
• surprising your staff with morning or afternoon tea.

Recognise and reward customers

It's important to recognise customer feedback, whether positive or negative, and thank them for their contribution to your business. For example, you may choose to reward certain customers with discounts.

Manage your online reputation

Social media and online review services such as TripAdvisor can greatly impact your online reputation and bookings. An important part of your customer service is how you encourage, manage and respond to online reviews.

Find out more about managing online customer reviews.

Review and revise service quality

It is important to ensure you are constantly working to improve service quality. Incorporate any improvements that result from your reviews into your business plan, workplace systems and standards and staff training programs.

Also consider...

• Read the visitor safety advice for tourism operators.
• Learn about access requirements for visitors with young children in prams, seniors with mobility requirements and people with permanent or temporary disabilities.