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Chapter 9. Customer Service

Ray Freeman and Kelley Glazer

Learning Objectives

• Explain the importance of customer service
• Describe the characteristics of exceptional customer service and its benefits
• Explain how the quality of customer service differentiates a destination
• Describe how to recover from service failure
• Explain how social media impacts customer service delivery

In the tourism and hospitality industry, the success or failure of our businesses and destinations depends on service. Some, however, deliver consistently higher levels of customer service. Why and how are they able to do this? This chapter will try to answer these questions as we explore the fundamentals of customer service in the context of a competitive global tourism environment.

Customer Service as Part of BC’s Tourism Marketing Plan

Many credit Expo 86, and the training that began the previous year under the SuperHost banner, with bringing this important topic to the forefront of BC’s tourism industry.

Take a Closer Look: The SuperNews

Back in the days of Expo 86, it seemed everyone in the industry had a vested interest in improving their customer service skills. Take a look at the first edition of the SuperNews, a newsletter for industry professionals that shared the highlights of training received by taxi drivers and at local colleges, and offered name tags for people to encourage customers to “Expect the Most: SuperHost.” Read a copy of the SuperNews [PDF] : www.worldhosttraining.com/documents/SuperNews_Vol1_No1.pdf

Customer service remains an integral part of delivering on BC’s tourism marketing promises to our guests. Destination BC recently launched its Remarkable Experiences program, intended to differentiate the province as a destination in a global market filled with competitors. Successful execution of this strategy will depend on how well employers and their staff provide quality customer service, focusing on the importance of the “human element” in the visitor experience (Destination BC, 2014). And across the country, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is encouraging the development of Canadian Signature Experiences, made all the more memorable because of the high-quality guest interactions they emphasize (Canadian Tourism Commission, n.d.).

A Key Issue for Employers

In a 2010 Tourism Vancouver Island training and education needs assessment survey, employers and managers indicated that customer service skills were one of the most significant issues (Tourism Vancouver Island, 2010). Employers and human resources managers were most concerned with employee skills and training related to personal development, tourism/hospitality knowledge, computer and communication skills, leadership/management skills, and customer service skills and attitudes.

A similar finding emerged from a 2014 LinkBC roundtable discussion held between tourism and hospitality educators and industry professionals. One of the main topics raised by employers was the need for new tourism professionals to learn customer service skills and to continue to hone these over time. In all groups, across all sectors, many students and graduates were found lacking in these skills (LinkBC, 2014).

For this reason, an entire chapter has been dedicated to exploring customer service issues, including quality of customer service, key challenges and benefits to employers and employees, the concept of customer orientation, and ways to recover when service interactions go wrong.

Quality of Customer Service

Quality customer service is an experience of feeling valued or heard. Sometimes it’s an intangible component of why a guest may prefer one tourism or hospitality provider over another. There is something about quality customer service that you often can’t put your finger on — but you know it’s there. And it’s a critical factor for tourism success, both as a means of satisfying ever-increasing customer expectations, and as a way to achieve business profitability (Erdly & Kesterson-Townes, 2002).

In 2012, Cornell Hospitality presented a report from PKF Hospitality Research that showed guest satisfaction is heavily influenced by service factors such as employee attitude and the pacing and order of services provided. It found that the greater the client satisfaction, the higher the revenues for a given hospitality business, and that service plays a far greater role than price and location in the guest-purchase decision (Cornell Hospitality Research, 2012).

Training is critical to ensuring quality service and meeting these objectives (Brown et al., 2009). On a global scale, Canada ranks high in human resources capabilities. Unfortunately, due to the seasonal nature of many tourism and hospitality positions, and limited access to affordable and accessible training, the industry isn’t always able to take advantage of this position (Blanke & Chiesa, 2009), as it can be difficult to attract, train, and retain reliable and qualified staff year-round.

Spotlight On: The Canadian Tourism Human Resources Council 

In Canada, the Canadian Tourism Human Resources Commission (CTHRC) offers the national emerit training program. Certification from emerit recognizes an individual’s competence in his or her occupation as measured against the National Occupational Standards. Professional certification is available for dozens of frontline and supervisory occupations, providing a marketable credential for those just starting out in the tourism industry and for seasoned veterans. For  more information, visit the Canadian Tourism Human Resources Commission : http://emerit.ca/home

The concept of total quality (TQ) refers to an approach by businesses to integrate all employees, from management to front-level, in a process of continuous learning, with a goal of increasing customer satisfaction. It involves examining all encounters and points of interaction with guests to identify points of improvement. Total quality management (TQM) in tourism and hospitality is a process where service expectations are created by the entire team, with a collaborative approach between management and employees (Kapiki, 2012).

Key Challenges and Benefits to Employers

Many employers struggle to justify the time and expense associated with training, particularly in a seasonal workplace or environment with high staff turnover (Saunders, 2009). In fact, many of the benefits of training are intangible and therefore difficult to measure, although there is evidence that the return-on-investment of training is quite high. For example, employee competence and job satisfaction are not always easily assessed, but can improve productivity and organizational profitability.

Take a Closer Look: World Travel and Tourism Council Global Talent Trends and Issues Report

The World Travel and Tourism Council’s report on trends in tourism employment speaks to the importance of hiring and training service tourism and travel staff who can deliver quality experiences as part of the tourism supply chain. It lists a strong customer service base as the top requirement for staff in tourism and hospitality businesses. To read the report, visit Global Talent Trends and Issues for the Travel and Tourism Sector [PDF] : http://www.wttc.org/-/media/382bb1e90c374262bc951226a6618201.ashx

Employers do need to understand the positive impacts of training on their bottom line. Key benefits may include improved employee attraction/recruitment, retention, engagement, and innovation. Saunders (2009) suggests that to be most effective, training should be oriented to develop employee potential versus addressing deficiencies.

Benefits to Employees

Customer service training provides employees with a foundation for effective service delivery. Potential benefits of this training may include improved skills and attitudes; better communication skills; better understanding of workplace practices; increased morale, confidence, self-satisfaction, and work satisfaction; increased participation; greater job/career advancement potential; greater interest in and willingness to participate in further training; and more independence (Grey, 2006).

As employees acquire certifications and credentials, and these are recognized by employers, both groups benefit. Employees have a tangible way of demonstrating mastery of service knowledge and skills, and employers have tools to assist with the recruitment and screening of potential staff.

Spotlight On: WorldHost Training Services

WorldHost Training Services, a division of Destination BC, offers internationally recognized training solutions to meet the needs of the tourism industry. A variety of customer training products are available, from self-directed online courses to customized training programs. Recently, WorldHost Training Services introduced a series of online courses entitled Remarkable Service in the Age of Social Media. For more information, visit  World Host Training : www.WorldHostTraining.com

According to Kim (2008), customer-oriented interactions between consumers and tourism employees influence the quality of the tourism experience. Let’s take a closer look at the concept of customer orientation and what this means in today’s tourism businesses.

Customer Orientation

Kim defines customer orientation “as the set of activities, behaviours, and beliefs that place high priority on customers’ interests and continuously create superior customer value” (2008, p. 195). Even when employees have positive attributes, it may not be enough to ensure positive customer engagements unless they are specifically trained toward customer orientation (Kim, 2008).

Spotlight On: WorldHost Hall of Fame 

The WorldHost Customer Service Award is presented at the annual British Columbia Tourism Industry Conference to an individual who exemplifies going the “extra mile.” Read the inspiring stories of those who have demonstrated leadership, professionalism, and a service approach that has made them recipients of this prestigious distinction: WorldHost Hall of Fame : www.worldhosttraining.com/halloffame/

Customer Service and Competition: The Customer-Oriented Organization

According to Masberg and colleagues, “to the customer, only service may distinguish a business from its competition” (Masberg, Chase, & Madlem, 2003, p. 19). While specific customer service jobs require different skills, building an overall customer-oriented organization may better meet customer expectations. One way to ensure quality service may be to encourage tourism and hospitality professionals to acquire industry certifications. Businesses can also choose to implement tools to determine customer satisfactions levels, such as the SERVQUAL technique that compares customer perceptions of quality against customer expectations (Morrison, 2010).  Under the SERVQUAL model, the five dimensions of service are:

• Reliability: where the quality and level of service is consistent
• Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of staff and their ability to convey trust and confidence
• Tangibles: the organization’s physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of staff
• Empathy: the degree of caring, individualized attention that the organization’s staff provide to its customers
• Responsiveness: the willingness of staff to help customers and provide prompt service

You can remember these five dimensions by using the acronym RATER. When these dimensions are consistently met, a company is well on its way to becoming customer oriented.

Spotlight On: Service Skills Australia

Service Skills Australia (SSA) supports skills and workforce development in the service industries. These include retail and wholesale, sport, fitness, community recreation, outdoor recreation, travel, tourism, meetings and events, accommodation, restaurants and catering, holiday parks and resorts, hairdressing, beauty, floristry, community pharmacy, and funeral services. SSA is a not-for-profit, independent organization and one of 11 Industry Skills Councils funded by the Department of Industry to support skills development for Australian industries (Service Skills Australia, 2015). For more information, visit  Service Skills Australia : www.serviceskills.com.au

So far we’ve explored the reasons good customer service is critical to our industry. And with the acronym RATER, we now understand the basics of what a customer might expect from an organization. Together, these concepts can form part of a  customer relationship management (CRM)  strategy for tourism and hospitality businesses. CRMs are tools used by businesses to select customers and maintain relationships with them to increase their lifetime value to the business.

There are a number of points in time where this relationship is maintained. For example:

• The first time potential guests visit a website and leave their email address to receive more information
• The moment a reservation is made and the company captures their personal details
• The in-person service encounters from the front desk to the parking lot
• Welcome notes, personalized menus, friendly hellos, and other touches throughout the interaction
• Background messages including clean facilities and equipment in good repair, pleasant decor and ambiance (flowers, etc.)
• Follow-up communications like a newsletter
• Further interactions on social media

All of these touch points are opportunities to maintain strong relationships with customers and to increase the likelihood of positive word of mouth sharing.

Let’s take a closer look at one tool that tourism and hospitality businesses are increasingly using as part of their CRM strategies: rewarding customer loyalty.

Loyalty and Customer Relationships

With competition between tourism destinations and businesses continuing to grow, organizations are increasingly focusing on retaining existing customers, which is often less expensive than attracting new ones. This focus forces tourism businesses to look at the customer relationship over the long term, or the  customer lifetime value (CLV) cycle, rather than at single transactions only.

It has been proven that it is much less expensive for a company to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one (Beaujean, Davidson & Madge, 2006). Ultimately, successful organizations will strive to build a base of loyal customers who will provide repeat business and may influence other potential customers. Building positive relationships with loyal customers requires planning and diligence for all customer touch points. This may include (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007):

• Managing service encounters: training staff to provide personal service to customers
• Providing customer incentives: inducing customers to frequent the business
• Providing special service options: offering enhanced services or extra offerings to loyal customers
• Developing pricing strategies to encourage long-term use: offering repeat customers special prices or rates
• Maintaining a customer database: keeping an up-to-date set of records on customer purchase history, preferences, demographics, and so on.
• Communicating with customers: reaching individual customers through direct or specialized media, using non-mass media approaches

Loyalty programs  pull together several of these elements to help a business identify, maintain contact with, and reward frequent customers.

Examples of Outstanding Service

If one uses the definition of quality in service as “meeting or exceeding customer expectations” (Kapiki, 2012), then the following examples certainly fit the description. These embody a concept known as a moment of truth (Beaujean, Davidson & Madge, 2006) when a customer’s interaction with a front-line employee makes a critical difference in his or her perception of that company or destination. The characteristics of employees that are best able to create these moments include self-empowerment and self-regulation, a positive outlook, awareness of their feelings and the feelings of others, and the ability to curb fear and anxiety while being able to access a desire to help others. These past winners of the WorldHost customer service award demonstrate this concept in action (WorldHost, n.d.):

Tamara Turcotte of the Sidney Airport Travelodge was nominated after she came into work on her day off after hearing that hundreds of travellers had been stranded after a bomb threat led to the cancellation of ferry trips from nearby Swartz Bay. Reporting for duty, she helped coordinate accommodations for these travellers, looking beyond the hotel (which was full) to the homes of coworkers and friends. Her compassion and swift actions helped turn a negative experience for these guests into a moment of truth about visiting British Columbia.

Agazzi Abbay received word that JetsGo, a small airline and his employer, had suddenly gone out of business, and he was out of a job. Concerned for the passengers that would be stranded by this abrupt end for the airline, he went to the airport to give them the opportunity to share their frustration. Even though he was unable to help their situation, he was able to demonstrate empathy and provide a listening ear as the only former JetsGo employee available across Canada.

Andrea Chan, a guest services supervisor at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Vancouver, received a call from a hotel guest who said she was ill. Concerned because the caller sounded disoriented, Andrea recommended a visit to the hospital. To be sure her guest was safe, Andrea accompanied her to the emergency room and stayed with her until her health and safety were assured — working well beyond the hours of her shift, and returning home the next morning. By treating every guest like family, Andrea created a lasting impression about Holiday Inn and its customer service values.

Of course, it’s not possible for every customer encounter to be positive. Let’s look at what happens when a customer encounter does not go well, and what can be done about it.

Recovery from Service Failures

If a business fails to meet customer expectations, there’s a risk the customer will tell others about it, often through social media networks. An on-location problem that turns into an online complaint, going from private to public, can become far more damaging to business than the original issue. To avoid any problem from escalating, organizations and staff must work hard to resolve issues before the customer walks out the door — or pulls out a smartphone to make an online posting.

Of course, it’s not always possible to resolve issues on the spot. A customer’s expectations may go beyond the service the business is able to provide, or staff might not be authorized by management to provide the means necessary to resolve the complaint. In these cases, staff must still step up as service professionals, realizing that the actions they take when faced with a complaint can have a significant impact.

Online complaints highlight this point; reviewers are often more upset about how a problem was handled than about the problem itself. As well, potential guests who read online complaints are looking for reassurance that the same thing won’t happen to them. If they don’t find it, they may dismiss the business as an option and move on. How a business handles complaints, face-to-face and online, is critical to ensuring successful recovery from service failures.

Service recovery occurs when a customer service professional takes action that results in the customer being satisfied after a service failure has occurred. Often service failures are not the fault of front-line staff, and at times, may not even be the fault of the business. Failure may be the result of an error made by another employee, by the guest him- or herself, or by a technical error. Regardless of where the problem originated, when customers bring it to the attention of the staff, they have certain expectations for resolution.

Disappointed customers often want:

• An empathetic ear. Sometimes they simply want to vent. They want to know that the employee or manager is listening and cares.
• An apology. In some cases a sincere apology is enough.
• A solution. Typically customers bring issues to the attention of staff because they want them fixed.
• Compensation. Upset customers are looking for compensation, but not always.
• Follow-up. For some people, it’s important to know that their concerns are brought to the attention of management and are fixed for future customers.
• Reassurance. Customers want to know they’re in good hands.

Skilled service recovery is especially important in the age of social media. Customers who are active on social networks are likely to be equally vocal about their satisfaction with service recovery when a problem is expertly handled as they are with their displeasure when they are disappointed with service (WorldHost Training Services, 2013).

While service recovery is a critical skill, all tourism and hospitality professionals should approach each encounter with the goal of providing remarkable service. The next section explores how this is accomplished.

Exceeding Expectations with Remarkable Service

We’ve discussed the basic ingredients of meeting customer expectations. However, for a business to be successful, it’s important to not only meet, but exceed, expectations. Remarkable service doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of cost, time, or resources. Often it’s the little details, the special attention from employees and the personalized touches that people remember most. There is no formula for remarkable service. It will depend on the type of customers, the nature of their visit, and the things they value. Finding ways to provide remarkable service requires support from management, keen observation skills, and a willingness to “go the extra mile” (Destination BC, 2013).

Providing good service is about understanding, recognizing, and anticipating the needs of customers and working hard to meet or exceed them. The core service essentials are also simple: make eye contact, smile, greet warmly, and use the customer’s name. These simple actions tell customers that your organization values them and is eager to help. In order to exceed expectations, your organization must be on the alert for opportunities to provide remarkable service (WorldHost Training Services, 2013).

The Role of Service and Social Media in Customer Satisfaction

While the basics of great service haven’t changed, social media and networking have raised the stakes in the service industry. The cost of a negative experience is higher — but so is the value of a positive experience. In fact, the opportunities of social media reviews and ratings far outweigh the risks.

Businesses that take time to “listen” to social media are going to be more successful at leveraging the power of online interactions. These companies effectively read review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and others and respond to guest comments both good and bad.

Many factors contribute to how people rate businesses, including value, quality, and convenience. More than anything, however, service influences customer impressions. Whereas a lapse in quality or convenience can be overcome with excellent service, it is especially challenging to overcome the effects of bad service.

Take a Closer Look: Remarkable Service in the Age of Social Media

This WorldHost Training Services video introduces the concept of remarkable service and what it means for the industry today:  Remarkable Service – Social Media Administrators : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q471_ano2E&feature=em-share_video_user

Now that we have a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of customer service, maintaining positive relationships with our guests and aiming to exceed their expectations, let’s look at some organizations that support the training and development of the industry.

Tourism and Hospitality Human Resource Support

A number of organizations support the training, development, and credentialling of tourism and hospitality professionals at both the national and provincial level.

Human Resource Councils

At the national level, the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC), a national sector council, is responsible for best practice research, training, and other professional development support on behalf of the 174,000 tourism businesses and the 1.75 million people employed in tourism-related occupations across the country. Provincially, the organization go2HR serves to educate employers on attracting, training, and retaining employees, as well as hosts a tourism job board to match prospective employees with job options in tourism around the province.

Training Providers

Throughout this textbook, you’ll see examples of not-for-profit industry associations providing training and certification for industry professionals. For example, the former Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors (CITC) is now hosted by the Association of Canadian Travel Agents and continues to offer a full-time and distance program to train for the occupation of Certified Travel Counsellor. Closer to home, WorldHost Training Services, a division of Destination BC, offers world-class customer service training.

Educational Institutions

British Columbia is home to a number of high-quality public and private colleges and universities that offer tourism-related educational options. Training options include certificates, diplomas, and degrees in adventure tourism, outdoor recreation, hospitality management, and tourism management. Whether students are learning how to manage a restaurant, gaining mountain adventure skills, or exploring the world of outdoor recreation and tourism management, tomorrow’s workforce is being prepared by skilled instructors with solid industry experience.

Through these educational opportunities, tourism professionals can earn a range of credentials and certifications that not only boost their confidence, but have proven benefits to employers seeking fresh ideas and potential leaders for their organizations.

BC tourism and hospitality employers named customer service as the most beneficial training topic in a number of surveys. These skills are integral to customer satisfaction, employee engagement, organizational performance, and a destination’s competitive position (Freeman, 2011; Tourism Vancouver Island, 2010).

Employers can either commit to creating a learning organization or undermine their business depending on their investment (or lack thereof) in training. Essentially, employers get out of training what they put into it, often by attracting and retaining better, more motivated employees. Ultimately, this investment results in a better customer experience with improved levels of customer loyalty and organizational profitability. Prudent employees seek employers who value investment in training.

We know there are a variety of ways to ensure quality of service and recover when things go wrong. A key factor of success is understanding that customers want to be listened to — they would like an apology, a solution, at times compensation, and often follow-up and reassurance. And when a complaint is expertly handled, the customer can be converted from a potential social media detractor to a loyal advocate for the business.

From the first wave of training that prepared BC to host Expo 86, to communities and businesses participating in WorldHost workshops today, tourism in our province is only as strong as the front-line employees that deliver experiences to guests.

Another key component in BC’s ability to compete as a tourism destination is its reputation for healthy wildlife, wild viewscapes, and pristine resources. Chapter 10 highlights the important role the tourism industry can play in either preserving, or damaging, our natural assets.

• Customer lifetime value (CLV): a view of customer relationships that looks at the long-term cycle of customer interactions, rather than at single transactions
• Customer orientation: positioning a business or organization so that customer interests and value are the highest priority
• Customer relationship management (CRM): a strategy used by businesses to select customers and to maintain relationships with them to increase their lifetime value to the business
• Loyalty programs: programs that identify and build databases of frequent customers to promote directly to them, and to reward and provide special services for those frequent customers
• Moment of truth: when a customer’s interaction with a front-line employee makes a critical difference in his or her perception of that company or destination
• Service recovery:  what happens when a customer service professional takes actions that result in the customer being satisfied after a service failure has occurred
• SERVQUAL: a technique developed to measure service quality
• Total quality (TQ): integrating all employees, from management to front-level, in a process of continuous learning, which leads toward increasing customer satisfaction
• Total quality management (TQM): a process of setting service goals as a team
• Complete the Remarkable – YOU! Checklist for Service Professionals (WorldHost Training Services, 2013). On a scale of 1–5 (with 5 being highest) rate yourself on the following customer service skills. You can use a recent customer interaction or one from a previous service role. Add any other criteria that relate specifically to your position.

2. What are three key benefits of customer service training for employers? What are three benefits to employees?

3. Identify and discuss three ways that tourism and hospitality businesses can maintain a long-term relationship with their guests.

4. What kinds of training and credentials are available to tourism and hospitality professionals? What are some of the benefits to both employees and employers of these credentials?

5. Take a moment to list all of the loyalty programs you belong to (using cards from your wallet or apps on your phone). Next to each, write the following: the reason you joined the program, the benefits you receive from it, and your estimate of the benefits the issuing company receives.

6. Name five instances in which a guest might interact with each of the following types of tourism and hospitality business:

a. A tour operator

c. An airline

d. A ski resort

7. Choose a tourism business, hotel, or restaurant that has received excellent reviews, and determine which comments can be linked either directly or indirectly to the quality and level of employee training and customer service. Find at least one example of each of the dimensions of  RATER.

Case Study: Accent Inn and WorldHost Training Service

Accent Inns is an award-winning, family-owned and operated company based in Victoria with hotels located in Victoria, Richmond, Burnaby, Kelowna, and Kamloops. All Accent Inns have developed a reputation for their quality, reasonable rates, and excellent service. Guest and staff satisfaction are key components of their service culture to treat every guest like family. The team at Accent Inns put great effort into making every customer interaction memorable.

In 2013, Accent Inns committed to incorporating customer service training at each property to be delivered by Accent Inns assistant general managers (AGMs). Core outcomes were to raise the level of service, empower front-line staff with the tools to exceed guest expectations, and strengthen the facilitation and coaching skills of the AGM team. Building on the business’s existing training culture and strong corporate values, WorldHost Training Services created a customized half-day program for the AGMs to use in their hotels.

To prepare, the AGMs completed an experiential 1.5-day train-the-trainer session. An emphasis on coaching support and a team facilitation approach led many to gain confidence in this new role. One trainer excelled and was selected as the full-time trainer for Accent Inns. Working with the human resources team from Accent Inns, WorldHost also completed a needs analysis at each property to ensure staff had input into future training. Training continues to be developed and delivered internally.

According to Kathy Gaudry, human resources manager for Accent Inns, “The WorldHost team was fantastic; they worked hard to ensure the training was completely relevant to our employees and our culture. The results were phenomenal — our junior leaders have acquired the skills they need to deliver training locally to their own teams — we couldn’t be happier.”

Visit the Accent Inns website (www.accentinns.com) and review the information to answer the following questions about their customer service culture:

• What kind of experience do you expect by reading the website’s information and looking at the pictures? What kind of service do you feel the inns provide?
• Select a review for families. What does the reviewer say about the property? How does Accent Inns respond?
• Select a review for solo travellers. What does the reviewer say about the property? How does Accent Inns respond?
• Are there any negative reviews? If so, how does Accent Inns respond?
• Now that you’ve reviewed the case study, the website, and TripAdvisor for Accent Inns, use the RATER dimensions to provide examples of how Accent Inns is using the SERVQUAL model.

Beaujean, M., J. Davidson, & Madge, S. (2006). The ‘moment of truth’ in customer service . Retrieved from www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/the_moment_of_truth_in_customer_service

Blanke, J. & Chiesa, T. (Eds.). (2009). The Travel and tourism competitiveness report: Managing in a time of turbulence . World Economic Forum, Davos, p. 525. Retrieved from: www.weforum.org/reports/global-competitiveness-report-2009-2010

Brown, J., Elliott, S., Christensen-Hughes, J., Lyons, S., Mann, S., & Zdaniuk, A. (2009). Using human resource management (HRM) practices to improve productivity in the Canadian tourism sector . Department of Business, University of Guelph, Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council. Retrieved from http://cthrc.ca/~/media/Files/CTHRC/Home/research_publications/productivity/HRM_Practices_Improve_ProductivitySept_EN.ashx

Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). (n.d). Canadian Signature Experiences . Retrieved from http://en-corporate.canada.travel/resources-industry/canadian_signature_experiences

Cornell Hospitality Research. (2012). Summit 2012: Building service excellence for customer satisfaction . Retrieved from www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/roundtableproceedings/roundtable-17003.html

Destination BC. (2013) Remarkable service in the age of social media (video) . WorldHost Training Services. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q471_ano2E&feature=em-share_video_user

Destination BC. (2014)  Remarkable experiences program . Retrieved from: http://strategy.destinationbc.ca/how-we-will-win/foster-remarkable-experiences/remarkable-experiences-program/

Erdly, M. & Kesterson-Townes, L. (2002). Experience rules, IBM Business Consulting Services’ vision for the hospitality and leisure industry . IBM Business Consulting Services.

Freeman, R. (2011). Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast tourism and hospitality sector customer service training and needs assessment report . Nanaimo, BC: Vancouver Island University.

Grey, A. (2006). Upskilling through foundation skills: A literature review . [PDF] Report prepared for the Department of Labour. New Zealand. Retrieved from www.dol.govt.nz/PDFs/upskilling-through-foundation-skills.pdf

Kapiki, S. (2012) Quality management in tourism and hospitality: An exploratory study among tourism stakeholders . Retrieved from www.academia.edu/1160667/Quality_Management_in_Tourism_and_Hospitality_an_Exploratory_Study_among_Tourism_Stakeholders

Kim B. (2008). Mediated effects of customer orientation on customer relationship management performance. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 9 (2), 192-218.

LinkBC. (2014). LinkBC roundtable 2014: Dialogue cafe . [PDF] Retrieved from http://linkbc.ca/siteFiles/85/files/2014RoundtableDialogueCafeReport.pdf

Lovelock, C. & Wirtz, J. (2007). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy [PDF] (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved from http://bschool.nus.edu.sg/Departments/Marketing/Jochen%20papers/sm6coverloyalty.pdf

Masberg, B., Chase, D., & Madlem, M. (2003). A Delphi study of tourism training and education needs in Washington State . Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 2( 2), 1. doi:10.1300/J171v02n02•01.

Morrison, A. M. (2010).  Hospitality & travel marketing (4th ed., International ed.).  Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.

Saunders, R. (2009). Employer investment in workplace learning [PDF] . Canadian Policy Research Networks. Retrieved from www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/WLKC/EmployerTrainingInvestment_FinalSynthesisReport_EN.pdf

Service Skills Australia. (2015). About. Retrieved from  www.serviceskills.com.au/about

Tourism Vancouver Island (TAVI). (2010). 2010 Training and needs assessment survey [PDF] . Retrieved from: www.tourismvi.ca/research/pdf/2010-Training-and-Education-Needs-Assessment-Survey.pdf

WorldHost Training Services. (n.d.). WorldHost: Hall of fame. Retrieved from www.worldhosttraining.com/halloffame/

WorldHost Training Services. (2013). Remarkable service in the age of social media . Retrieved from www.worldhosttraining.com/elearning/

Attributions

Figure 9.1   Family Checking In – WorldHost   by LinkBC is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Figure 9.2   Woman on Headset – WorldHost  by LinkBC   is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.  

Figure 9.3   huh? b y Liz  is used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license.

Figure 9.4   Happy Birthday from Mom  by Peter Lee  is used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license.  

Figure 9.5   1954- Service  b y James Vaughan  is used under a  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 9.6   new currency  b y Roy   is used under a  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. 

Figure 9.7   Complaints button  b y SEO  is used under a CC BY SA 2.0 license.  

Figure 9.8   Listen, Understand, Act  b y Stephen Shorrock   is used under a  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 9.9   Welcome to Vancouver 2010  b y roaming-the-planet   is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.  

Figure 9.10   Accent Inns Online Review by LinkBC is used under a CC BY 2.0 license. 

Figure 9.11   Man on Blackberry – WorldHost  by LinkBC is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Long Descriptions

Figure 9.3 long description: A sign saying, “Tim Hortons customers only. 20 minute limit. No loitering. Customers must be in the store or in their vehicle. All others will be removed at owners risk and expense. [Return to Figure 9.3]

Figure 9.10 long description: A customer gives a fairly positive review but comments on the older furniture. The manager thanks him for his review and adds that they will be updating the furniture and hopes he will stay again. [Return to Figure 9.10]

Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC Copyright © 2015 by Ray Freeman and Kelley Glazer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the tourist experience life cycle: a perspective article.

Tourism Review

ISSN : 1660-5373

Article publication date: 13 September 2019

Issue publication date: 20 February 2020

The purpose of this paper is to review the past literature of the tourist experience and propose a new model of behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

It is proposed that understanding of the visitors experience from a development standpoint may be useful in understanding how tourism destinations or indeed products may be experienced so differently. Therefore, a tourist experience life cycle has been put forth as a model.

This model may help to outline how tourists, like destinations, also go through a life cycle. The implications may help destinations better understand the different motivations of their visitors.

Originality/value

While the literature has discussed the tourism experience and how the customer experience has changed, there has been little focus on the longitudinal development of how the actual tourist experiences a destination.

Dodds, R. (2020), "The tourist experience life cycle: a perspective article", Tourism Review , Vol. 75 No. 1, pp. 216-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-05-2019-0163

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Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Events

• © 2022
• Marianna Sigala 0 ,
• Anastasia Yeark 1 ,
• Rajka Presbury 2 ,
• Marcela Fang 3 ,
• Karen A. Smith 4

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Blue mountains international hotel management school, torrens university, sydney, australia, faculty of higher education, william angliss institute, melbourne, australia, wellington school of business and government, victoria university of wellington, wellington, new zealand.

Consolidate case studies from tourism, hospitality, events that combine theory and practice to untangle real world issue

Enables students to develop academic mastery by better understanding and applying knowledge beyond the classroom

Inspires scholars to use case study methods to research as well as implement a research informed teaching approach

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Table of contents (27 chapters)

Front matter, introduction, case study: an underestimated research and pedagogical method.

• Marianna Sigala, Anastasia Yeark, Rajka Presbury, Marcela Fang, Karen A. Smith

Experiences

Designing servicescape and experience with art: learnings from the d’arenberg cube , australia.

Marianna Sigala

A Day in the Life of Guest Experience Stagers: The Saffire Freycinet Experience

• Anita Manfreda, Justin King

Extraordinary (Memorable) Experiences in Events: The Case of Skylighter Fireworx, Australia

• Anastasia Yeark, John Powers

Boom Then Bust at the George Hotel

• Eileen Aitken-Fox

High-End Restaurants During COVID-19: The Beginning of a New Fine-Dining Era?

• Sandra Cherro Osorio, Ana Delevska, Peter Matheis

The Power of Words: A Case Study of Service Language in an Australian Five-Star Hotel

• Madalyn Scerri, Rajka Presbury

Hidden Factors: Operations Management Implications for the Hayman Island Resort

• Zdenka Gabrielova, Marcela Fang

Hotel Revenue Management Strategy – Impacts and Consequences of Changes in Management

• Antoine J. Bisson

The Expansion of MexHospitality: Exploring the Ethical Implications of Hospitality Outsourcing

• Blanca A. Camargo

Exploring the Relationship Between Hotel Classification System and Service Quality: A Case Study of the Indian Hotel Industry

Technologies, how to design a smart tourism destination: the case of granada.

• Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, Juan Sánchez-Fernández, Ana-Belén Bastidas-Manzano

Marketing Suburban Tourism Destinations on Social Media: The Case of the City of Joondalup, Western Australia

• Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, Violetta Wilk

Mandatory System Usage Behaviour: A Case Study in Australian Resorts

• Leo Y. L. Kwong, Susan Foster, Victoria Peel

EHS Hotels: Neuroimaging or Self-Reports When Evaluating Tourism Advertising and Websites?

• Hospitality
• Tourism case studies
• Tourism management
• International Tourism
• Marketing communications

About this book

This book consolidates international, contemporary and topical case study based research in tourism, travel, hospitality and events. Case studies can make learning more attractive and interesting as well as enable students to understand the theory better and develop their analytical and problem-solving skills. Using industry as an open living lab, case study based research infuses scholars into real-world industry challenges and inspires them to theorise and advance our knowledge frontiers.

The book includes international case studies that can help tourism scholars build and advance (new) theories and enrich their educational practices. Case studies are accompanied with a teaching note guiding scholars to integrate case studies into instruction.

Dr Kirsten Holmes, Chair, Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) 

There is a vital need for contemporary and well-structured case studies for use in tourism teaching. By including case studies from Australasia and key destination regions in Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean, the book is helpful for tertiary teachers globally. 

The book inspires educators and students. The cases provide context to students’ learning and demonstrate the richness and variation of the industry. The book also clearly demonstrates how research can inform our teaching. 

Professor Brian King, Chair, THE-ICE Assessment Panel   

The book includes cases under five themes: experiences, operations, technologies, strategy and marketing, and destinations. The book provides subject lecturers with a structure to guide students of applying theory into practice. 

Dr Paul Whitelaw, Academic Director, Southern Cross University

This book marks a significant contribution to hospitality, tourism and events pedagogy at undergraduate and postgraduate level.  At a time when the industry is demanding that our graduates have a strong grasp of “real world issues”, the case study approach provides an accessible, meaningful and relatable means by which students can engage in real world issues.

Editors and Affiliations

Anastasia Yeark

Rajka Presbury

Marcela Fang

Karen A. Smith

About the editors

Prof Marianna Sigala   

Dr Rajka Presbury   

Dr Rajka Presbury coordinates the scholarship activities at Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School (BMIHMS) at Torrens University. Before joining academia, Dr Presbury gained extensive professional experience in the hotel sector and had held several management positions in Banqueting Services, Restaurant, and Event Sales and Conventions. Rajka is an auditor for the International Centre for Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education (THE ICE): www.the-ice.org.   

Dr Marcela Fang   

Dr Marcela Fang is a management lecturer in the Faculty of Higher Education at William Angliss Institute, where she teaches strategic management, leadership and innovation. Her experience includes lecturing, design and development of curriculum for higher education and industry settings. Marcela’s research focuses on leadership, leadership development, evaluation of higher education and training programs, strategy and innovation.  

Prof Karen A. Smith

Prof Karen A. Smith is an Associate Dean in the Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, where she is also a Professor of Tourism Management and teaches tourism and event management. She has co-edited four books and journal articles on a range of tourism and volunteer management areas. She makes extensive use of case studies in teaching and curriculum design. 

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Events

Editors : Marianna Sigala, Anastasia Yeark, Rajka Presbury, Marcela Fang, Karen A. Smith

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4671-3

Publisher : Springer Singapore

eBook Packages : Business and Management , Business and Management (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

Hardcover ISBN : 978-981-16-4670-6 Published: 06 January 2022

Softcover ISBN : 978-981-16-4673-7 Published: 07 January 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-981-16-4671-3 Published: 05 January 2022

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVIII, 505

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations

Topics : Tourism Management , Marketing , Management , Operations Management , Artificial Intelligence

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Customer journey mapping in tourism

Customer journey mapping has huge potential to change the travel & tourism industry in a positive way. As individual suppliers harness the potential journey mapping offers, they can craft more compelling experiences for their guests. Whether approaches are applied to services in a small hotel, or within a large destination management organization (DMO), journey maps can be created to suit different contexts and use cases within the travel industry.

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In this article we'll discuss

• Journey mapping in the context of tourism
• Questions to solve in tourism
• How to create a journey map for tourism services
• Example journey map
• Challenges when introducing journey mapping in touristic organizations

The relevance of customer journey mapping in tourism and travel

From time to time everybody craves a little change of scenery or a weekend getaway to add variety and excitement to their lives. There are so many different tourism businesses that we cannot focus on every aspect of it - so in this article we will focus on destination management rather than all the other businesses who provide tourism services and who can benefit from customer journey mapping .

Organizations within the tourism industry that can benefit from journey mapping include hotels, restaurants, airlines, airport, adventure activity providers and many more. Over a holiday or vacation a tourism customer journey will often include one or more of these different service providers. When considering the bigger context and how these services might interconnect and overlap, providers are given the opportunity to collaborate and develop travel experiences for customers that have as much satisfaction, and as little disruption as possible.

We often put the focus on destinations, however service providers such as hotels and restaurants can see themselves as distinct tourist destinations. This is because they have similar interests and responsibilities as the destination management organization itself: finding and motivating guests to visit, providing information, helping out with tips and making the stay as delightful as possible. As a hotel you can research the target group of the destination you are situated in. If the target group of the destination roughly fits you as a hotel, you can try to adapt it as your own target group or base your target group on the one of the destination.

Firstly it is important to understand the complexity of tourism as a product or service and why journey mapping helps to make the comprehensibility of a guest’s experience understandable.

‍ Tourism is defined as the “activities of persons going to places outside their usual environment and staying there for not more than one year for leisure, business and other purposes…”. - World tourism organization

As the above definition says, there are various reasons and motivations for tourism, whether these are people taking a holiday, a business trip, or visiting friends and family, etc.

Travel is an experience which can involve high levels of emotional involvement.

‍ Tourists - no matter whether they are travelling for leisure or business purposes - are often very time sensitive, have high expectations of what they will experience and the slightest inconvenience has the power to ruin an entire trip.

Tourism has some special features that must be considered when trying to understand a customer's service journey that differentiate tourism from other service providers industries. The most important within the context of journey mapping is that it is a whole bundle of independent, yet interconnected services that can be perceived as one. Tourists often aren't able to differentiate between the various providers and which of them delivered a bad service. For example, imagine getting a shuttle from the airport to your hotel. The shuttle is late, and you’re left standing in the heat or cold waiting for longer than you anticipated. You’re now late checking into your room, and the day already hasn’t gone as planned. Who do you blame? You might complain to the hotel, but it’s likely a 3rd party operator managing the shuttle, its schedule, and its employees. When interconnected services go wrong, they have the ability to taint the whole trip.

Questions to answer

Our focus in this article is on the journey of how tourists discover, choose and travel within a specific city from the point of view of a destination management organization.

There are several questions that destination management organizations should ask in the process of mapping their travel customer journeys. They include:

• Who are our guests?
• How do people discover us as a destination?

What information do they need?

How can you increase guest satisfaction and loyalty, who are your guests.

There is no customer journey without the customer, therefore in order to build a journey you need to know who your customers are. Understanding the different types of people who use our services will allow us to design, personalize and innovate our offerings to meet the needs of a wider audience.

The first step is to create personas for the different types of people who engage with our services. Let’s say you are part of the tourism board within a large city and you want to introduce journey mapping as a way to comprehend how you can best serve the tourists that come to visit.

The following questions can help you to create a persona:

• What do our customers expect from their trip?
• What kind of excitement are they currently craving in their lives?
• Where do they come from? What languages do they speak, or understand? What are their habits when going on vacation and what cultural aspects should be considered?
• What are their goals? What are they here for? (for example, visiting friends and family, holiday, business, conference, relaxation, adventure etc.)
• What do they consider as crucial things that can make or break their experience?
• What are their constraints concerning time and budget?

If you can answer these questions without having to do any research may indicate that you already have a good knowledge of who your guests are.. But don’t fall into the trap of creating persona's based on what we think, rather than what we know! If you base your persona on assumptions, the whole tourism customer journey can risk losing its validity - by using an inaccurate vision of our customer's experience we can create services that aren't relevant, don't meet people's needs and ultimately end up wasting time and money. Good journey maps are based on relevant, up to date customer research. Either you start conducting research at this point or you base it on research that has already been conducted beforehand.

A persona should always be the basis of each journey map – with good personas your team can have a collective understanding of the personalities, needs and wishes of the people you are trying to help. This collective understanding allows team members to have insights into the experience of customers without actually having to interview them in person. With this understanding, you can be comfortable making service decisions that are grounded in the reality of peoples lived experiences and needs. Creating a fictional persona that represents a group of tourists will validate the steps in your journey map, as then it is comprehensible why this person acts the way they do when having to make a decision.

How do people discover you as a tourist destination?

Once we have researched our customers it's time to build a persona. Let’s say it is Johan (from the example above). He is a retired teacher and wants to spend a nice holiday with his wife Laura. They love to engage in cultural activities, such as visiting museums, art galleries and theater performances. They also enjoy going for long walks in well maintained parks – Berlin sounds like it would be a perfect fit for them.

But how do Johan and Laura make the decision to travel to Berlin? Are they even aware that it's a potentially great destination for their vacation? What channels are they using to discover Berlin? Perhaps it’s even top of their mind and they just need something to validate their gut feeling.

There are many questions and journey mapping can help you to answer them. When you map out the pre-service phase you will get a better understanding of how to reach Johan and Laura in their home environment. To find out how this could happen, you might want to look at how your previous customers found you. By researching their lives and experiences you might find that Johan and Laura spend a lot of time in local communities where people with similar backgrounds share their holiday experiences. They may also be looking for potential destinations online, for example on an airfare comparison platform such as Skyscanner to see what destinations are easily reachable from their small local airport.

How can you provide your (potential) guests with the information they need? Journey mapping can help you to understand what questions they have, and at what point on their journey.

• What’s the average price level in the destination?
• What language is the most common in the destination? How common is speaking multiple languages?
• How do your guest’s get from A to B? Is public transport an option? If yes, how good is the network? Or is it recommended to take cabs (at night/in some areas)?
• What are the most interesting activities happening at specific times of the year?
• What are cultural rules that must be followed?
• Is there anything else that tourists would need to know to consider Berlin as a destination? What’s the special feature of the destination?
• How can we present our destination in a way that it is prestigious for tourists to come to us specifically? What makes our city unique and desirable for tourists to visit? Travelling has always been about prestige up to some extent, but through the rise of social media and the internet in general the need to show beautiful photos, tell stories of how much fun it was etc. has grown significantly. This might be a matter of validity.
• In what format is the information most attractive for them?

For a vast variety of tourists these are the types of questions they need to answer in order to take a destination into consideration. To ease the process for potential customers it would for example make sense to not only have it on the official website of the destination itself (for example visitberlin.de ), but also brief the partners in order to deliver some or all of this information on their website as well, or at least provide a link to the official destination website.

Tourism destinations experience unique challenges when it comes to guest satisfaction and guest loyalty. To a big extent this is due to the fact that service delivery is performed by others than the destination marketing organization itself. Customer satisfaction results as the product of a multitude of service suppliers, for example airlines, hotels, tour operators (in case there is one), public transport, restaurants and more.

An important part of journey mapping is understanding the stakeholders’ point of view and including their involvement in the service delivery. Collaborating well with stakeholders ensures a seamless and smooth guest experience, opposite of sending guests through different service provider silos.

Loyalty from customers who engage in tourism differs from the loyalty of customers who purchase regular consumables. This is due to the fact that travel is something that people are highly emotionally involved in, even more in a vacation context. Holidays are often something rather rare and special for people. Therefore expectations are high, especially when people spend a lot of money on it.

Adding to that, when considering visiting the same place twice there’s always competition with other destinations because they have the “charm of the unknown”. Something one hasn’t seen before. Depending on the individual target group of a destination, there is the amplifying factor of not being loyal to a destination in order to try/see/learn something new. To get loyal guests, it is crucial to not only satisfy them but to delight them, to fill them with enthusiasm in a way that they want to come back for new experiences.

How to create a customer journey map for the tourism industry

A good tourism journey map consists of more than just a step description and a satisfaction score. The following types of information contribute to different lanes within a journey map and can help you relate to your guests' experiences. For an extensive journey map it usually makes sense to use a digital tool. To make the choice easier for you, we built this list of the most popular platforms for journey mapping .

Dramatic arc

The dramatic arc shows the engagement of a persona as they make their way through a journey. We all know the importance of how our favorite films and movies use dramatic sequencing to keep us engaged and immersed in an experience, but how does this apply to a family holiday, or a vacation to a destination.

How do you want to influence our customers at both the level of the heart and the head? Is the arrival at your destination dramatic, spectacular, or is it slow and suspenseful? Perhaps arriving in a new location will have a high level of engagement and anticipation - if this is paired with a complicated and stressful customs process, how will this impact people's first perceptions of a location? Probably not in the way you want them to.

Dramatic arcs can help us to identify these critical moments where negative emotions and high engagement occur so you can focus and minimise stress for your customers. By taking a macro view of the dramatic arc, we get a vision of the engagement storyline that tourists have when they visit your location, allowing you to design experiences that will excite, relax, engage and enthrall travellers.

Storyboard images

Humans are brilliant at understanding and empathizing with images. Look at the situation from the perspective of your customer, take photos of the room, the food, the bus ticket and the map of the city. Whatever your guest interacts with, look at it and take a photo. Collect their impressions and visualize them. This makes it easier for you and your team to comprehend the journey of your guests, from their eyes. Find and insert images that show the situation of the customer at every step of the journey.

Communication channels

Customers have a multitude of channels that they use to interact with and get informed. Visualizing these channels in the customer journey helps you to keep an overview of all the channels and maybe even to think of new marketing channels.

• What information do guests need?
• What information comes from where?
• Is there anyone who has provided your guest with the information about time difference, the map of the city etc.?

Tourism is a product where there is a great complexity of different service providers involved. Keeping an overview and visualizing the different communication channels is important so that you are able to understand what information guests have received, and from whom.  

Backstage processes

In many ways we can see a tourism experience like a performance. Where the actors are your guests, businesses and services are the supporting roles and your town or city is the backdrop to their experience. However, using this analogy, guests are largely unaware they are part of a well coordinated performance.

So how is this performance coordinated? All of the backstage processes that go into service delivery. Whether it's the work that goes into producing captivating promotional materials or the development of communication and processes that weave the journey between different service providers together.

The seamless customer experience is built on the foundation of a well managed sequence of backstage processes. On the level of a single service provider, say for example an airport there is a vast range of different processes that exist to keep the customer experience smooth and uninterrupted. It is crucial to be able to map these processes out so that connections can be made to customer experiences as well as efficiency refinements within your organization. Many different processes are going on at the same time and need to run smoothly in the background to ensure a seamless customer experience.

Circling back to the example of a tourist board, where it might not be relevant when only looking at the organization exclusively. Mapping out backstage processes can be extremely valuable when creating a repository of journey maps organized as a hierarchy, where journeys of different scales can be connected and stored together.

This makes sense when multiple service providers and organizations are willing to work together to create a great customer experience. In general a journey map hierarchy consists of one high level journey map that visualizes the step by step journey of a customer’s vacation or business trip experience. Most probably every step of the journey consists of a separate, more detailed journey that can then be created by the individual service providers. Learn in more detail about journey map repositories by watching our Ask Marc sessions about journey map operations and journey map repositories or by reading our article on the what and why of a repository .

Example journey map from a travel experience

Challenges when introducing customer journey mapping in the tourism and travel industry

The challenges of introducing journey maps within your organization will depend on what kind of tourism organization you work with. There are a great number of  factors that can influence an organization's willingness to adopt a customer-centric journey based approach to customer experience. These can include the maturity level and size of an organization, an openness and willingness to embrace change, financial constraints as well as a curiosity to engage with customers and understand life from their eyes. Because of this range of variables it can be difficult to make general statements about the typical challenges, however we will outline a few that are the most common ones encountered.

Understanding the importance

One aspect that often poses a hurdle in small tourist businesses is the understanding of the importance of journey mapping. People may wonder why it is relevant or necessary to the development of their business. Often, the collective perception is that the target group and their experiences, pain points and expectations are known. “We’ve always done it like this and it has always worked, our customers are happy. So why should we change anything?” – this is a common understanding of customer experience in small and medium-sized hotels or DMOs. This fixed mindset approach can be a hurdle as there is little willingness to improve the status quo.

Silo thinking

On the one hand, siloed thinking and working within an organization can be a challenge that tourism operators experience. Silos often play a crucial role in challenging an organization to put the customer at the center of their services. Working together, across organizational silos is necessary in order to spread service design in the whole organization.

On the other hand, siloed thinking also exists between operators which may make the experience cluttered. The tourism experience for a traveller is a bundle of services delivered by many different service providers. The challenge is to get all the different service providers and build a seamless experience together. Showing them the importance and together working on a solution. Building a strong network is the challenge, where journey mapping might help to establish a common language and therefore foster customer experience management.

Established processes in an organization

Established cultural practices of ingrained processes can be a roadblock for change. This can depend on the maturity level of an organization, especially in organizations that have been established over many years, change is not always easy. However there are several approaches that can ease the growing pains of change. For example finding champions within your organization who support and encourage new ways of working can help with awareness and support. It can also be helpful to have clear and active communication channels with employees that emphasize why and how new methods of working are beneficial and necessary. Show them interesting parts of customer research, visual outputs that assist understanding and engage them in how their role has an indirect or direct impact on customer experience. At the very least awareness is a great first step towards change.  

Personas are dynamic

It must be considered that in today’s tourism environment that customer needs and expectations are fluid. You cannot conduct research to develop a persona and expect it to be valid for the next ten years. People change and personas change. Their (un-)conscious desires and pain points change over time, not least due to steady innovation and technical progress. For example, digitization has changed people’s way of living, working and travelling abruptly and completely.

Booking online, wayfinding, online payment of tickets, audio guides, translation services and a lot more. Also new markets have arisen from the industrial and technical progress made by previously less wealthy countries, such as China or India. With the continual progress being made by other countries, markets will continue to shift, change, and new markets will arise. Therefore, it is crucial to constantly stay on top of new developments and keep personas up to date.

In the end it’s all about the people who work in an organization and how the management tries to embed it in an organization. When people see the benefit of putting customer centricity at the core of the organization the basis has been set.

Tourists have high expectations of their trips and expect everything to go smoothly. As people are very well informed and compare offers and reviews before going on a journey, the tourist market has become a lot more competitive over the last decade. But the fact that competition is getting stronger is not only due to this, but also because of globalization on all levels.

To ensure a seamlessly great experience it is important to look at the touristic product holistically and take all steps of the journey into consideration when collaborating with partners, stakeholders and employees. Journey mapping helps to get a company-wide shared understanding of guest’s pain points, needs and expectations. It has the potential and the power to embed a human-centric approach in your organization if you are willing to pursue it.

And now, what's next?

Now it's about implementing what you've just learned: Create tourism journey maps to understand the guests experience and innovate your services.

The journey mapping tool Smaply lets you easily create tourism and leisure journey maps, guest personas, and ecosystem maps.

Sign up now, it's free!

Isabel Grillmayr

Isabel has a multifaceted background that seamlessly weaves together business acumen, sustainability expertise, and a profound understanding of tourism management. A true marketer at heart, she is driven by her passion for crafting exceptional experiences through service design, all while prioritizing sustainability and fostering innovation. Currently pursuing a master's degree in sustainability management, Isabel's commitment to shaping a more responsible and forward-thinking business landscape shines through her inspirational articles.

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