Business Relationships Project - Assignment Example

Assessment Part A. Project Questionnaire Reliability The travel agency’s abilityto bring out economical packages 2. Travel agency’s sincere interest to solve the problem of the clients during their travel 3. Providing all the packages to the customers accurately 4. Providing all the services and packages to the customers when they ask 5. The delivery of services and travel packages are on time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Responsiveness: 1. The customers services responds, communicates with the clients when they inquire about services and tour packages 2. While answering queries, being prompt and accurate 3. Customer service agents taking in feedback from the customers after services are given 4. Being responsive to the requests of the customers 5. Having the ability to solve problems of the customers with interest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assurance 1. Customer service’s ability to fulfill demands of the customers that enhances confidence in customers 2. Having secured transactions that builds trust level in the customers 3. Having a courteous behavior with the customers 4. Having the relevant knowledge to answer the queries of the customers that satisfies them 5. Reputation of the travel agency is outstanding 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Empathy 1. Every customer representative having the ability to provide personal, individual attention 2. Having operating hours that are convenient for everyone 3. Being empathic to customers’ needs and wants 4. Having the capacity to enhance relationship with customers 5. Capability to allocate time to make customized travel packages for customers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tangibles 1. Having technological advanced sources and equipment 2. All the packages having appealing accommodations 3. Physical appearances of the customer representatives are appealing and professional 4. Facilities provided to the customers are physically sound 5. The location of the store is good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2. Response times: In order to increase ratings of the product and customer service ratings, the customer service representative needs to be receptive, honest and have the capacity to own mistakes. It can be said that communication is the key, where they should keep the deals realistic in order to fulfill the requests of the customers. Moreover, being customer friendly is essential in order to generate a positive response from the customers. Pricing: With regard to pricing, it can be said that customers assess the prices of the travel packages and services to see if they are reasonable hence, travel agencies need to place justifiable prices that are acceptable to the customers. Alternatively, if the travel package is providing an extensive accommodation with more benefits, then prices can become high but the service quality should be good and premium in order to generate greater customer satisfaction levels and enhancing product features. Quality of product: In terms of quality of products and services, the travel agency needs to use measurement indicators for quality improvement. These indicators are based on different destinations, have the capability to measure their worth in the market place. Document presentation standards: With respect to document presentation, the travel agency needs to focus on keeping documents appealing, and design them in such a way that it provides an implementation framework consisting of all the relevant information, tools and resources that guarantees customer satisfaction. Complaint management: Customer Service Representatives should take in the feedback from the customers. In this regard, complaint resolution centers should be created, having the aim to listen to grievances of the customers, promising better options and building customer loyalty. 3. Two Factors in Internal Environment The factors of internal environment include ineffective complain handling in resolution centers and failure to investigate on complains, procedural fairness or finding appropriate remedies. These factors may pose a threat to the proposed changes of creating resolution centers for complain handling. Two Factors in External Environment The basic aim of introducing “quality indicators” is to improve product and service quality but there are factors such as customer’s experiences during travel and accommodation that may have an impact on quality indicators. It is seen that even if the tourism industry promises exclusive service qualities but every customer has a different travel and accommodation experience which may be due to weather conditions, inhospitable hotels etc. Thus, these two factors of external environment have an impact on the proposed changes. Assessment 1 Part B. Project 1. In order to improve customer services, the above methodologies can be employed by establishing service policies that are in line with the target market (customers). These target market can be visitors who are traveling for leisure or business associates, thus these policies will ensure total quality service. Moreover, in terms of Total Quality Management and quality assurance, the “quality indicators” are employed meeting the standards of the tourism industry. They focus on identifying problems as well as opportunities of travel. They measure andunderstand tourist issues and provide integration of these resources and indicators to manage quality of the tourist services. 2. In order to maintain good services, continuous improvement and benchmarking in this industry can be carried out by comparing the industry’s procedural operations and prices with that of a competitors to ensure that the improvement are being made and they are having competitive edge in the market. In this respect, benchmarking provides a medium through which an organization has a means to improve its processes and services through comparative analysis. Hence, customer services can be improved and modified after results are obtained by benchmarking destinations, airlines, accommodation like hotels, motels and other tourist attractions. These benchmarking initiatives promise more profit for the organization as well. 3. Firstly, in order to enhance the capability of customer service representatives, it would be essential to introduce employee engagement to recognize the roles of these employees. Employees, who are motivated and valued in the organization, are more likely to remain happy and they have the capacity to listen to and solve the problems of the customers. Secondly,a good compensation package along with a recognition “employee of the week” would further motivate the employee to perform better. Fourthly, training and development of the customer representatives would make their relationship better. Finally, establishing customer service goals would help the staff to stay focused and counseling would motivate them to perform better for the organization. 4. Being a member of CATO would have a good impact on the customer service standards of the organization because the management can base their organizational setup and procedures on their ground. In other words, it can be said that the company would have to abide by the rules set forth by CATO. According to the standards, the travel industry and service representatives must satisfy the inquiries of the travelers. They encourage cordial relationships with customers and peers though there is strictness of compliance. Confidentiality of clients is a must and disputes need to be solved proactively. Hence, the standards set forth by CATO would help the organization to stay focused on building and enhancing customer services. Assessment Part C 1. As a manager, opportunities can be provided for the team to participate in customer service planning processes by engaging the team members and instilling an interactive session. Opinions and feedback can be taken by the team members when decision making is carried out with respect to customer’s orders and travel packages. As team members already have the responsibility to take in requests of the customers so they would be required to extract further information from them, increasing levels of accurate information in order to plan out attractive travel packages and being responsive to their needs. This would provide them opportunity to deal with the clients on their own and participate in service planning as well. 2. Coaching need to be carried out to enhance communication and problem solving skills. There are various forms of coaching that can be carried out to improve communication skills of customer representatives. Coaching can be through dialogues, counseling and actionable instructions. In order to cope with customer service issues it would be appropriate to focus on behaviors of the customer representatives with respect to their performance and not personality. However, it would be more appropriate to use workshops or training programs as a medium of coaching. should be conducted that pay attention to body language, boosting confidence and motivating the staff to cope in stressful situations. 3. In order to communicate new approaches in service delivery, it would be feasible to conduct a meeting, put forward the new agenda, and give briefing to the staff about the new approaches, asking for a feedback. This exercise would encourage employee engagement. There are more chances of staff to adapt to these new approaches because their feedback and opinion is valued and respected by the management. An open communication system would create a dialogue, will help generate a feeling of mutual trust amongst the employees that can make them adapt to the new approaches readily. Read More