Help

[Rian]

Hey there!
I am doing certificate III in tourism (international retail travel sales)
and i have a question that i am stuck on?

"explain why poor service is set to "kill" a buisness silently"
Anyone have some advice?

thanks

 

[Bundy Bear]

People just won't book again, but won't make a noise and complain.

 

[Addisongreen]

Sorry about the big post, but I thought that it would help, the red bold and highlighed bit below talks about how customers won't just not come back, but they will also tell on average 9 of their friends, so you can lose another 9 customers before they have even become customers.....



Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is one of the most frequently cited examples of companies truly committed to integrated marketing and communications across all levels and aspects of the organization. “We have always had a philosophy that we treat our employees the same way we expect them to treat our external customers,” says Cheryl Hughey, director of the company’s leadership training, people and leadership development department.”

Southwest is integrated to such a degree that at orientation, new employees are fully indoctrinated about the airline, its culture, its mission and what the Southwest brand stands for. A cross-section of employees comprise a “culture committee” that focuses on special events such as picnics, as well as well-chosen incentives and recognition, to show employees how much they are valued. The company also works hard to ingrain its “Share the Spirit” philanthropic efforts into its corporate culture—rallying all 31,000 employees around shared charitable activities for the neediest people in Southwest’s communities.

Low employee turnover is closely linked with high customer satisfaction. The CEO of Southwest can be found aboard airplanes, on tarmacs, and in terminals, interacting with employees and customers. He believes that hiring employees who have the right attitude is so important that the hiring process is sacred, and both customers and shareholders see the difference.

People Performance Management (PPM) is an emerging field focused on achieving sales and other business objectives by forging a strategic link between external and internal marketing. No marketing strategy can achieve optimal efficiency without motivated employees and resellers committed to delivering your business promises. PPM is the process of "engaging" all employees including both non-customer contact employees (warehouse, drivers, clerical) as well as those that have front line employee contact like retail shop assistants or call center teams. Studies by the Forum for People Performance Management (North Western University Think Tank) show that:

Non-customer contact employees who are engaged with a online rewards system like Power2Motivate can increase corporate sales performance by as much as 22%!

PPM starts by establishing clearly defined "employee performance objectives" that are aligned with the overall corporate goals. If all employees work towards achieving their goals they will clearly be helping the company as a whole to meet its overall objectives. Corporate alignment and engagement in their jobs represents a powerful force that will dramatic improve customer perception of that company and in turn increase overall financial performance.

It's a fact that companies with engaged employees deliver greater corporate performance results than those that don't.

It's a concept that is actually lived out every day - when you have a bad experience with a brand or service that either did not live up to the brand promise you feel let down and more often than not you will do what? Not repeat the experience. For sure, but more often people will by nature tell 9 others about their bad experience. If you are a hotel or a retail store and you upset a customer by not meeting their expectations you now stand to lose 9 more customers.


If your company has engaged employees with clearly defined policies for ensuring that your organisation exceeds customer expectations, how many new customers could you win? The difference today between winning and losing is your employees (your biggest asset or your biggest liability - the control is in your hands to determine which way this goes!)
To further qualify this point the Forum has conducted significant studies that showed:

• Organisations with engaged employees have customers who use their products more, and increased customer usage leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction.
• It is an organisation's employees who influence the behavior and attitudes of customers, and it is customers who drive an organisation's profitability through the purchase and use of its products.
• In the end, customers who are more satisfied with an organisation's products are less expensive to serve, use the product more, and, hence, are more profitable customers.
• To bring this into a better example the Forum conducted research on the impact of employee performance within the hotel industry with the following summation:

This study combines results from an extensive survey of employees and customers at a hotel chain with the actual spending patterns of customers. Results show a direct, measurable relationship between the employee and customer perceptions of the hotel brand and customer spending behavior.
The main findings of the study are:

• The key drivers of brand value to customers can be identified and linked to customer behavior. The dimensions that drive brand value to hotel customers are fast and efficient check-in, employee efforts to satisfy customers, hotel options and amenities, and precision in service. These drivers of brand value are consistent across a set of six hotel locations studies.
• Perceptions of employees with respect to brand value are similar to those of customers, but lack the uniformity across hotel locations. This represents an inconsistency in employee attitudes and, consequently, customer experiences.
• Customer perceptions of the brand and the dimensions that influence it have a direct and positive impact on how much money customers spend per hotel visit. A 10% increase in one key driver, the extent to which employees try to satisfy customers, translates into a 22% increase in customer spending.

Incentives play a key role in helping to drive higher levels of employee engagement - companies are starting to see/realise the value of "human capital" including the need to not only retain their employees but truly engage them to maximize employee satisfaction as well as end customer satisfaction. Incentives play a significant role in help to align employee attitude and action with these goals.