TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION OF TOUR OPERATING AND TOUR

TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION OF TOUR OPERATING AND TOUR AGENT ACTIVITY Lecturer Adelya Aubakirova +7 707 307 0218 E-mail: diyadea@mail. ru

LECTURES 17 -18 CUSTOMER SERVICE – PART II • • • Announcements Customer service strategies Customer service forms and styles Animation services Communication skills of tourism company staff

SERVICE STRATEGY • Client needs – Which needs and expenses of consumers are we servicing? • Ability of the company to meet these needs – Do we have enough knowledge and experience to provide better service? • Long-term profit of the company – How should we service to make profit which will allow us to be competitive and be profitable?

SERVICE STRATEGY • an action plan which defines priorities of strategic goals in service • when achieved it will facilitate to the formation of a favorable image of a tour operator, regular clientele and stable financial position on the market

TOURIST SERVICE MANAGEMENT • Information (catalogues, route schemes, maps, price lists, brochures, leaflets with the information on tourist insurance and transportation, etc. ) • Efficient communication with service providers (address books, telephone books, advertising and information leaflets, hotel brochures, transport timetables, etc. ) • Communication with tourists on route tours through a guide or a company representative escorting the group • Insurance guarantees (selecting the most reliable and beneficial provider of the tourist insurance) • Complying with technological specifics of a tour

CUSTOMER SERVICE DURING A TOUR • Accurate compliance of the provided services with the paid set of services; • Compliance of the advertised level of service with the one declared during the purchase of a tour; • Target orientation of the tours by their content; • Accurate and timely provision of services; • Optimality of service programme; • Animation of the service.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION IN TOURIST SERVICE • quality and culture of service • informative and saturated programmes • unobtrusive service

SERVICE STRATEGY OBJECTIVES • maintaining effective relations with consumers of tourist services; • meeting needs of tourists in reasonable and comfortable tourist product.

• Service depending market specifics on target • Service staff (selection, training and motivation)

WHAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE? • the sum total of what an organization does to meet customer expectations and produce customer satisfaction. Good customer service in travel and tourism can: • Boost repeat business • Create new demand from new customers • Cut costs (attracting new customers is thought to be five times as expensive as retaining existing ones)

FORMS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE • Individual • Group

STYLES OF CUSTOMER SERVICE • Formal (a psychological or social distance between a client and company staff which is natural to the incidental contact) • Informal (trustworthy and confidential conversation between the staff and a client) • Mixed (a standard approach to a client but with elements of informal conversation)

TOURIST ANIMATION • an activity on development and realization of special programmes assuming personal involvement of tourists in game and performance show-programmes, sport and cultural-entertainment measures

ANIMATION PROGRAMMES • Mainly at resort places offering all-inclusive stay • Animation crew deals with tourists during the whole day • Animator must be fit, energetic, know foreign languages, communicative, must have good memory for people’s appearances and names, creative and artistic

TOURIST ANIMATION FORMULA • • use of interest; vivid exposition; involving tourists into activities; variety of entertainment

QUALITY OF ANIMATION PROGRAMMES • skills of animators, • interesting scenarios, • wide range of musical, stage, verbal, plastic, illumination and even pyrotechnic methods

CLUB MÉDITERRANÉE • French corporation of vacation resorts found in many parts of the world, usually in exotic locations. • Club Med staff are called "GOs", or Gentils Organisateurs (Gracious/Nice Organizers). Clients are "GMs", or Gentils Membres (Gracious/Nice Guests/Members). • The resort is known as a village. The resort manager is called the chef de village (Village Chief). • The special feature : GOs and GMs play, dine, drink, and dance together every day and night. Outdoor buffet dining (usually on tables of eight, mixing GMs and GOs), daytime sport-playing, and evening shows with extensive audience participation, are part of the holiday experience.

SHOW-MUSEUMS • Museums with live characters of the certain epoch • Examples: Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm

THEME PARKS • First appeared in Europe • Annually up to 10 million tourists • Examples: Disneyland, Legoland (Denmark), Port Aventura (Spain), Warner Brothers.

FANCY DRESS TOURS • avant-garde directions of the animation tourism • Examples: rest on American rancho or balls in Austria

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS • being able to express your ideas and views clearly, confidently and concisely in speech, tailoring your content and style to the audience and promoting freeflowing communication

APPROACHES TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS • • with well-informed clients with badly-informed clients with hesitating clients with low motivation

DEALING WITH HESITATING CLIENTS • Don’t get irritated or annoyed while answering to a client’s objections, • Identify what exactly is bothering a client • Build the conversation in the way when a client can find the answer himself • Sometimes agree with a client so that to demonstrate objections afterwards • Don’t turn to the next argument if the client has not agreed with the previous argument • Make a resume of the conversation with the client • Don’t get disappointed if the client has not changed his mind

DEALING WITH CLIENTS WITH LOW MOTIVATION • convincing arguments, • identification of a client and place for rest, • neuro-linguistic programming (NLP): using words, phrases which are emotionally close to a client and which are connected with comfortable rest in his mind; using images and gestures which form a client’s positive opinion about the tour on offer. • having a clear view on which destination (region, country, or city) to offer • taking into consideration social-demographic specifics of a client, mainly age, gender and marital status

A GOOD MANAGER … • • A good psychologist Listens actively Has effective communication skills Tactful, friendly and efficient

For the seminar session: Reading: 1. Технология и организация туроператорской и турагентской деятельности, Косолапов А. Б. , Москва, 2010, page 168 -195 2. Туроперейтинг: организация деятельности, Ильина Е. Н. , Москва, 2007, pages 194 -217 3. http: //www. visitstockholm. com/en/to-do/attractions/skansen-openair-museum/890 Independent Research 1. What fancy dress tours would you create for incoming travellers to Kazakhstan? 2. More examples of animation tourism. 3. Animator: job description

THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION! ANY QUESTIONS? ? ?