Strategy
Do you know your customer?
Excellent visitor experiences are often underpinned by exceptional customer service. The concept of customer service standards will vary based upon your life experiences.
Customer service is often described as meeting, if not, exceeding customer expectations. Whilst there are fundamentals that underpin the delivery of quality customer service in all industries, tourism has an exceedingly high component of face-to-face contact over long hours (7 days a week, sometimes 24 hours a day) sometimes leading to inconsistency of service
Striving for tourism excellence needs to be a continual and ongoing process in the promise, offer and ultimate delivery of a quality experience.
Understanding visitor needs and expectations
This Tourism Excellence module, the first of seven to be developed, focuses on identifying and developing quality visitor experiences that meet and ultimately exceed expectations, by reinforcing the importance of research to enable the setting of benchmarks that measure, encourage and reward ongoing improvement.
While businesses in the tourism industry associate good business practices with higher profits, product differentiation and satisfied customers are also crucial, especially in markets where the consumer is being bombarded by an ever-increasing number of marketing messages.
Measurement tools are extremely important as they have the potential to provide independent feedback from the perspective of the customer. The tools are frequently under-utilised, especially by smaller businesses that have the most to gain.
One of the harsh realities of business is that not everyone has 20/20 foresight or an infallible instinct for making the right decision. Being informed and having accurate information will enhance your chances of success.
Successful marketing requires timely and relevant market information. Although the expense may be a deciding factor for many small businesses, there are significant cost benefits offered through the insight market research can offer. An inexpensive research program, based on questionnaires given to current or prospective customers, can often be a good starting point.
Market research also identifies trends that affect sales and profitability. Population shifts and local economic situations should be monitored to quickly identify problems and opportunities. It is also important to keep up with competitors' market strategies.
If it is so important, why don't some businesses undertake research?
Many tourism businesses owners believe that they already provide excellent visitor experiences, resulting in a low level of engagement with their visitors. Also, time and resource pressures are barriers to business owners and managers wanting to address this issue.
There is also a perception that measuring the visitor experience is too hard, will cost too much and "won't show me anything I don't already know", therefore is not worth doing.
There are many tools to aid businesses understand visitor needs and expectations. This Tourism Excellence module assists businesses choose the right tools for them.
So where is Victoria heading?
- Victoria intends to create a competitive advantage through offering exceptional visitor experiences
- Increase industry awareness that the provision of excellent visitor experiences positively impacts on the bottom line of the business.
- Assist businesses, regions and destinations gather meaningful data to measure current levels of visitor satisfaction and establish benchmarks.
- Victoria will improve packaging of information to create a tool kit to enable businesses better understand visitor needs and expectations.
- Encourage and profile Victorian businesses and/or destinations that deliver quality visitor experiences that meet or exceed expectations and create memorable experiences.
How do we achieve this?
- Provide a tool kit for businesses that:
a. Explains the value of research; how to use research and how to access.
b. Outlines practical case studies.
(Responsibility – Tourism Victoria) - Support the development and implementation of independent customer audit programs, industry “mystery shopper” programs such as Tourism Audit Services and Hotel Evaluations (Praise)
(Responsibility – Steering Committee, Early Adopters) - Develop a program of visitor research forums tailored for tourism businesses
(Responsibility – Tourism Victoria supported by VTIC and associations) - Provide regular communication with businesses
(Responsibility – Associations, Tourism Victoria, Early Adopters) - Investigate further statewide specific research through the CRC for sustainable tourism on visitor needs and expectations.
(Responsibility – Tourism Victoria)
Desired outcomes
An increasing number of tourism businesses surveying their customers.
An increasing number of tourism businesses including specific references to visitor experiences in their annual business plans.
More data relating to visitor experiences will be gathered to allow comparisons and benchmarks to be established for the benefit of all in our state.