As we prepare for a new year and our annual Customer Service Awards Program, we visit the question that most business owners are faced with. How important is good customer service to the bottom line? We believe that it is integral to strong sales and growth. Consider that according to the American Society for Quality, “9 percent of customers will leave because they are lured away by the competition; 14 percent will leave because of dissatisfaction with the product; and a whopping 67 percent will leave because of the attitude of one person in your organization.” The statistics tell us that one customer service experience, if it is a negative one, can cost dearly.
Conversely, positive customer service ratings can pave the way for higher profits. According to the Center for Hospitality Research, higher review scores allow hotels to charge up to 11.2% more while maintaining occupancy rates. Again, clear cut evidence in the value of a positive customer service experience.
Our goal is to have positive customer experiences across the board in Seaside. With a unified customer service philosophy among all businesses, visitors will not only speak highly of the town itself, translating into repeat visits, but individual businesses can reap the benefits of these positive experiences, which as evidenced above, include retaining customer loyalty and charging higher rates. So how do we go about obtaining that cohesive service experience among an entire community? We do it with community. Seaside is unique from many travel destinations in its spirit of cooperation and union. At the Visitors Bureau, we have witnessed this time and again in our marketing efforts for the city of Seaside, as it has allowed us to work closely with local businesses. We have seen that the people here not only see the value in working together, they also enjoy it.
Our efforts to help our community form a cohesive service experience for the Seaside visitor will be concentrated in offering relevant and easily available education to Seaside businesses. With that in mind, we will supply a list of educational and growth opportunities in our quarterly industry newsletter. This list gives easy, affordable options for training staff to observe a uniform and effective customer service strategy. Likewise, every quarter, that same newsletter will include factual information about the impact of good customer service in the tourism industry and on our local tourism businesses specifically. And as we mentioned above, our annual Customer Service Awards Program will continue to evolve and grow, assisting local businesses in training and motivating their staff to make good customer service their priority by offering incentives to do so.
If you want to see examples of resources for customer service training, sign up to receive our Quarterly Hospitality Newsletter here.
