The motto of this year's Tourism Indaba WE ARE READY could not be more accurate, especially when it relates to South Africa's overall customer service.
Excellent customer service is paramount to the success of our country's 2010 legacy project both in the short and long term growth of the travel and tourism sector in South Africa.
The national Department of Tourism, in partnership with Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) has commenced with a total of 75 comprehensive Service Excellence Readiness seminars in each province including host cities with the aim to register 250 000 front line staff and 200 training providers within the tourism value chain and will result in improved customer service at no cost to the participants' bottom line.
These seminars are conducted free of charge by the world renowned Disney Institute and only require pre-registration by visiting http://www.tsei.co.za
Understanding the customer's needs and servicing accordingly are foremost amongst the reasons why frontline staff is critical in any organisation.
The tourism sector, through its Service Excellence initiative seeks to improve South Africa's overall customer service at all service "touch points" in the sector with a view to transform this country into a globally competitive service economy and the world’s destination of choice.
South Africa is ranked 62nd out of 124 countries by the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC) on its customer service delivery standards. The inability to provide excellent service levels is exacerbated by issues, which include the lack of customer service culture by some frontline staff, inadequate job training and a lack of urgency, an imbalanced focus on technical job skills as opposed to interpersonal "customer and people" skills development.
These seminars are but one of the short term interventions to improve our service standards in the country especially for frontline staff. They are based on the recommendations of the findings of the service excellence study that was conducted by the Disney Institute on behalf of the Department in 2009.
The national Department of Tourism in partnership with Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and FEDHASA are implementing a comprehensive Service Excellence Training programme, targeting management and staff within the tourism value chain.
The value chain includes the public and private sector within the tourism sector, other affected government departments in the tourism value chain which include the South African Police Service (SAPS), Home Affairs, Transport, South African Revenue Service (SARS) and some sectors like banking and retail.
At the end of the seminars, the participants will receive a Service Excellence badge, certificate of attendance and a card of service excellence guideline.
Media enquiries can be referred to:
Jay Singh
Tel: 012 310 3311
Cell: 082 654 4699
Issued by: Department of Tourism
28 April 2010
