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Tourism is a people business

Published on September 30, 2015   37 min

A selection of talks on Marketing & Sales

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0:00
Tourism is a people business. Tourism reputations are built on the passion and dedication of the people. My name is Rick Turner. I am the director of the Flock, of a tourist attraction in North Devon called The BIG Sheep. I've been running this for 30 years, and we've won national, international, and local awards for customer service and business.
0:21
The BIG Sheep is a farm park-cum-theme park. We employ a hundred people in the main summer season. And the focus is obsessively on customer service, employing fantastic people to deliver it, and ensuring that we get great rave reviews and people come back time and time again. We're the most popular attraction within our area. And I'm going to explain to you some of the ways in which we recruit, retain, motivate, and ensure that the business is continually growing and getting more successful.
0:55
Customer service, it's really not that difficult. All you have to do is figure out what the customer wants and then give it to them accurately, politely, and enthusiastically.
1:06
What is great customer service? And what is appallingly bad customer service? Normally, in a restaurant environment, we tend to recognize really bad service very quickly, and certainly being ignored by waiting staff, by the manager really does upset people. Often, you get no eye contact whatsoever in a pub, or a restaurant, or in a hotel. You're waiting to try and get service. So the flipside of that is great service, is attentive, attention to detail. Making sure that people are recognized immediately when they come into an establishment, and then making sure that there's attentive service throughout that time.