12(a)

A healthy communication process between management and employees increases the

odds that workers will be motivated, do their best job and remain loyal to the
organization. While there are many methods of communicating to employees, managers
should think carefully about each choice as each medium has its strengths and limitations.
Electronic
Email and websites are the top choices used by employers to engage employees,
according to a study conducted by the International Association of Business
Communicators Research Foundation and Bucks Consultants. Electronic media excel in
delivering noncontroversial information quickly and cheaply. Employers run into trouble
when using these media to deliver news that ought to be delivered face-to-face, such as
bad news or a more complicated message. The use of social media sites such as Face
book and Twitter is also on the rise, according to the study. However, employers should
remember that social media works best for two-way communication. News that is not
open to discussion should not be delivered via Face book.
Face-to-Face
Face-to-face communication can be time-consuming and expensive, especially if it
involves travel, but it can also be extremely effective in delivering complex messages,
gathering critical feedback for decision making or persuading employees to accept or act
upon unpopular news. While electronic media are popular, face-to-face methods give
employers the advantage of using nonverbal cues such as a smile or nonthreatening
posture. Face-to-face communication also gives employers a chance to listen, which can
be a determining factor in the reception or approval of information.
Research-Oriented Tools
For effective employee communication, workers need a reliable feedback loop and
employers need a tool to evaluate, measure and respond to that information. Surveys,
focus groups and interviews are all ways for employers to collect feedback from
employees. However, the information gained from these research methods is only as
good as the tool itself. Employers should ensure that the techniques used are reliable,
meaning that the tool would deliver the same results if given again, and valid, meaning
the tool measured the intended factors. Once the feedback has been evaluated, employers
should respond to employee concerns promptly and with empathy.
Newsletters
While company newsletters have gotten a bad reputation over the years as company
propaganda, if crafted and distributed correctly, they can be a powerful tool for employee
communication and engagement. The key to effective newsletters is tailoring the
information to the audience and resisting the urge to make the newsletter a publicity piece
for the company. Company news must be balanced with stories about the achievement of
employees, audience-centered tips such as ways to save for retirement and games such as
trivia contests or crossword puzzles.

18
Though we often use the term team as a catch-all for any group of people, there is a
distinction between a work group and a team, and there are conditions when one is more
suitable than the other. Work groups are more efficient when the objectives are clear and
there are only a few options for how to achieve them. A team is best when there isn't a
clear path to the objective, and alternative, creative, or innovative approaches are needed.
When a project needs the expertise of a team rather than a work group, most of us are
familiar with Tuckman's four stages of team –forming, storming, norming, and
performing. However, those labels imply that a work group's development into a team is
a naturally-occurring, passive activity. We assemble skilled and experienced personnel
and often expect them to materialize on their own into a high-performing team when it
really takes the leadership skills of the project manager and project management team to
help a work group evolve into a cohesive, focused team.
An extension of Tuckman's stages is call the six characteristic stages of team
development. These "6 C's" are exhibited by the group as it progressively matures into a
team, and they help the leader to easily understand the team development stage the group
is at and adjust his or her leadership style to foster an environment that'll help it mature
into a team. Another way to think of the 6 C's is that they are a tool for the leader to
engage the group into situations, discussions, interactions, and activities that enhance its
current stage of development as well as help it progress to higher levels of performance.

1. Coalesce
Environment
In the workplace groups are usually brought together by an external authority, such as a
supervisor or manager. Both teams and groups usually have their ultimate goal
established for them. If there are a lot of options or flexibility in how the goal is achieved,
teams are more likely to find innovative approaches to reach a goal. But regardless of
whether a team or group is the best solution, all teams start out as work groups.
One of the key differences between a team and a group is its perception of its goal.
Members of a group view the goal as somebody else's while members of team have
adopted the goal as their own. But this perception and internalization of the goal takes
time, and though the leader can foster this change, he or she cannot force it onto the
group.
Culture
Just as a project is most likely to fail early in its life cycle, team development is most
likely to fail early in the group's existence. Even if the group members know each other
and have worked together before, there's little trust, shared vision, or peer accountability.
Members are not likely to be committed to the leader or goal yet, and most are unsure of
what's to be expected from them and exactly what their roles are.
Leadership
It's important for the leader to be actively involved with the group and set the correct
tone. Group members will get their cues for acceptable behavior from the leader. The
leader needs to be direct and open with information to the group. Team ground rules need
discussed because this helps clarify expectations and gives group members an
opportunity to learn the values of each other. The leader also wants to stress the collective
skills and abilities of the group. Diversity is a key ingredient to a successful team, and the
leader wants the group to know that it's their individual differences that make the whole
stronger. This is important to reiterate throughout the early stages because it is often these
differences that initially spark unhealthy conflict.
Under the stress of tight deadlines and wanting to get things started as soon as possible,
the leader may resort to a task-oriented leadership style by handing out duties and
responsibilities to the group or pushing his or her own decisions onto the group. This
should be done only when absolutely necessary and urgent. Whenever possible the leader
should let the group establish its own tasks and make its own decisions because an
autocratic leadership style will keep the work group from forming into a team. If
decisions must be made autocratically then the leader should explain the full situation and
rationale to the group.
The leader must also be personally committed to the goal in order for the group members
to believe in the goal as well and later adopt the vision as their own. Can a leader (and
subsequently a team) be committed to a goal he or she doesn't believe in 100%?
Absolutely! A vision takes many small steps to achieve, and there are always setbacks
along the way. So even if the goal is not 100% to the satisfaction of the leader, he or she
must believe the objective is the best that can be accomplished right now for the
organization, customer, or project.
2. Conflict
Environment
Uncertainty is prevalent during these early stages –uncertainty in each other, uncertainty
in how to reach the goal, and uncertainty of expectations and roles. Uncertainty breeds
fear and distrust, which are always at the root of unhealthy conflict. If people distrust
each other then it will be impossible for new ideas, alternatives, debates, and differences
of opinions to be logically discussed by the group. Trust between group members and
between the group and the leader is not easily established, and it isn't established only
through quick team-building exercises but instead through consistency in the leader's
actions and words.
Culture
Conflict may arise early because of discussions around ground rules, goals, priorities,
resources, or the activities the members need to perform. There are generally two
extremes at this stage –either the group relishes conflict or it avoids it entirely. Neither is
healthy nor beneficial for the group to progress. Some members may be dominant and
vocal while others are reticent and hesitate to voice an opinion. Because the group's goal
is still viewed as somebody else's (e.g., the organization's goal, their boss' goal, or the
leader's goal), members may be resentful of the work involved especially if they're
already overworked.
Leadership
Conflict should be viewed by everyone as a positive event, because it's through debate
and the exchange of alternative viewpoints that innovation occurs. The difficulty with
conflict early in the group's life cycle is that it's usually centered on issues that have little
value to the project, but these issues still need addressed, and the group won't progress
unless it makes it through these discussions. The leader must establish trust between him
or her and the group. If the group doesn't believe that the leader acts only in the best
interest of the entire group with no personal agenda then he or she will be incapable of
facilitating the group's maturity into a team. Generating trust takes time, but it's
remarkably easy:
Be open, direct, and honest
Be empathetic to others and their views
Do exactly what is promised
Be a good listener
Be unselfish in thoughts, actions, and motives
The leader needs to be the voice of calm and reason. At all costs conflict cannot be
ignored and neither should it be allowed to degenerate into personal attacks. The leader
will likely need to be the referee to make sure the group follows its own ground rules and
to ensure that conflict focuses on the issues and remains impersonal. The leader will
likely have to make sure that debate is balanced and everyone is heard by drawing some
members out. The group needs to understand that conflict need not be negative and that
it's necessary for the group to be successful.
3. Confidence
Environment
When this stage is reached the team members are growing more comfortable with each
other's work styles, skills, strengths, and weaknesses, though there is still occasional
frustration between group members over their individual differences. Until commitment
and community are established, group members are worried first about their own success
rather than the group's success, and this may express itself as impatience with others who
aren't perceived as "pulling their own weight."
Culture
Having made it through the early formation stages, as a whole the group is more
confident that it can reach its goal. Team members are less hesitant about voicing
opinions and ideas. Group members are more trusting of each other's motives, and there
may be some members who are already putting the good of the group first.
Leadership
The leader will know that the team is moving towards commitment and community when
the members begin helping others, mentoring, or assisting each other in activities. The
group may appear on the surface to be a team, but it's still only a work group of
individuals. Trust building is still extremely important, so the leader needs to remain
involved with the group and be optimistic, upbeat, and forthcoming and honest with
information. The leader will also want to make sure the group recognizes its
accomplishments and the progress it's made thus far. Even setbacks are a cause for
congratulations when the group has learned from the experience.
4. Commitment
Environment
Whereas in early stages a significant amount of everyone's personal energy was devoted
to protecting or ensuring his or her own interest or success, there's now a greater focus on
the group as an entity. There is a positive energy about the group, enthusiasm is
increased, and the productivity level is high, but members are generally self-reliant. This
will be the maximum level a high-performing work group will achieve, but most
members will be committed to the goal only through enthusiasm or devotion to the leader
or organization and not because they've adopted the goal as their own.
Culture
A subtle but important change has occurred –some members no longer perceive the goal
as being somebody else's but their own. This is the primary distinction between a group
and a team. When people internalize a vision or goal as their own, they'll do everything
possible to reach that goal. Members are committed entirely to the group's success, and
will begin holding each other accountable and the strength of peer pressure helps keep
performance high.
Leadership
The group requires less decision-making and direction from the leader. The most
important thing the leader can do at this stage is to whole-heartedly support the group,
offer encouragement, continue to remind the group of its successes, and maintain an
honest, optimistic outlook. The leader wants members to become enthusiastic over the
goal through their interaction with other members; otherwise, the goal will continue to be
perceived as the vision of the leader.
5. Community
Environment
There are now pervasive signs that the group is collectively working and striving to reach
its goal. "Community" shouldn't be misinterpreted to mean that everything is rosy. All
teams have and need conflict, and if there isn't conflict then it's probably being avoided,
which isn't healthy either. However, unlike in earlier stages when conflict was strained
and could've torn the group apart, it's now viewed differently as something that can be
logically addressed, discussed, and worked through.
Culture
A true team now exists between the members. There's a real team culture of inter-
reliance, respect, and trust between members, and the team is largely self-directing and
holding itself and its members accountable. Community can sometimes be too strong,
resulting in cliques or groupthink. Both of these defeat the benefit of team.
Leadership
The leader needs to remain active with the team, but more as a consultant rather than
decision-maker, arbitrator, or facilitator. The leader should exhibit trust in the team's
ability to self-manage and self-direct itself, even if he or she thinks the team is making a
mistake. As long as the potential mistake is an acceptable risk, it's better to let the team
handle the situation. If the leader senses that cliques or groupthink is occurring, he or she
may need to interject some new personnel or other changes into the group, even though
that will temporarily cause the team to regress. Groupthink can also occur when members
are hesitant about openly questioning another's opinion or idea, which is why conflict
should not be avoided.
6. Creativity
Environment
The main strength of a team over a group is in its ability to explore and find innovative
approaches to problems, and that is what will be happening when the creativity stage is
reached. The team members have trust and confidence in each other, and are committed
as a team to reaching to their goal.
Culture
Energy levels are high, and team members are invigorated by working together. Ideas are
freely shared and members question each other openly because there's trust between them
that everyone's motives are for the good of the team, goal, or organization. There is an
openness and willingness to question everything. The "old ways" are not automatically
assumed to be the best methods.
Leadership
The team is self-directing, and the leader should be seen mainly as the team's champion
or cheerleader. The leader needs to stay involved with the team, primarily as a motivator,
mentor, and observer, but should avoid being looked upon by the team as the final
decision-maker. The leader should have trust and confidence in the team and should be a
participant in significant discussions, but the leader will not want to continually second-
guess the team.

17(a)

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

The area of employee relations is a complex blend of corporate culture, human resources
practices, and individual perceptions. Maintaining harmonious working relationships is
crucial
to the success of all organizations. Some reasons include the following:
 They improve productivity.
 They ensure the implementation of organizational strategies.
 They reduce employment costs associated to turnover and absenteeism.
 They help employees grow and develop.
Essentially, managing employee relations is concerned with preventing and resolving
problems involving individuals which arise out of or affect work situations. This involves
human resources (HR) practices, policies and programs concerned with maintaining
employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation,
and morale. Companies require a culture that focuses on the”people” resources of the
organization. Therefore, they should ensure that policies and procedures are in place for
effective employee communication, and which will help address employee issues as they
arise. Best practices in employee relations include the planning, developing,
recommending, and implementing of employee relations programs and policies to ensure
the uniform and equitable treatment of employees

17(b)

Factors Influencing Work Relations

The following factors have a potentially positive influence on relations in the work
environment:
 Organizational culture — including collaboration, respect, initiative, common
goals.
 Internal communications — including frequent and meaningful communication of
vision, values, performance expectations, organizational direction and results.
 Conflict management mechanisms — help ensure a fair and accessible system
aiming at win-win solutions.
 Employee empowerment systems — including suggestion systems, employee
surveys, quality circles, and other means to give employees a stake in the
organization’s results.
 Employee recognition programs — help recognize good performance.
 Performance management systems — to deal with poor performance and/or
behaviours.
 Employee–supervisor relations — if they are clear and maintain an equitable
balance of accountabilities between supervisor and employee.
 Social events — can support and promote activities aimed at cementing ties
between employees.

16(a)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about understanding business’ impact on the

wider world and considering how to use this impact in a positive way. CSR can also be
good for bottom line.
It means taking a responsible attitude, going beyond the minimum legal requirements and
following straightforward principles that apply whatever the size of business.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can cut across almost everything business does and
everyone organization deal with:
The suppliers of business and the way organisation deal with them. For example, trading
with suppliers who pollute the environment could be as irresponsible as the business
doing so itself.
Treating with the employees. For the responsible business, this means doing more than
simply complying with legal requirements.
The business affects to the local community and whether business should be actively
involved.
Organisation affects the environment and what we can do to use resources more
efficiently and reduce pollution and waste.
This doesn't mean that we can't run a profitable business. In fact, CSR can help us to
improve our business performance. By looking ahead, we are ready to cope with new
laws and restrictions. We can avoid costs such as wasted energy or paying unnecessary
waste fees. Perhaps most importantly, we can keep winning business from increasingly
demanding customers.

Or

"A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into
their business operations and into their interaction with their stakeholders on a
voluntary basis. “

CSR covers social and environmental issues

CSR is not or should not be separate from business strategy and operations
CSR is a voluntary concept
an important aspect of CSR is how enterprises interact with their internal and external
stakeholders

16(b)
Corporate social responsibility and tourism
In tourism, the concept of CSR is bound up with the idea of sustainable tourism and the
growing movement for ‘fair trade’ in tourism. For many people in tourism, CSR is the
ideal vehicle for involving the private sector in the broader sustainable tourism agenda.
Others, however, see CSR as tokenistic, cosmetic action, designed solely to attract
customers and prevent government regulation.
CSR relates to every management function in tourism, as follows:
Marketing – honesty in brochures, product safety, selling techniques, pricing policies,
‘hidden’ relationships between tour operators and travel agents, and stereotypical images
in brochures;
Human resources management – discrimination, wage levels, the issue of tipping,
employing disabled people;
Financial management – accuracy and honesty of financial reporting, how quickly bills
are paid;
Operations management – sourcing policies, supplier relationships, meeting the needs
of customers with special needs.
At the same time, tourism has many specific ethical issues that are relevant to the concept
of Corporate Social Responsibility, including:
eco-tourism, which raises issues about environmental and cultural impacts on fragile
destinations;
heritage tourism and the question of how to deal with controversial or sensitive episodes
in history;
sex tourism and the exploitation of sex industry workers;
business tourism with its negative environmental impacts;
the timeshare sector with its bad reputation for its selling techniques;
Club 18-30 ‘party tourism’, which raises issues about the responsibility of tour operators
for the behaviour of their customers.
Up to now, most of the debate on CSR in tourism, like that concerning fair trade in
tourism, and sustainable tourism, has focused, rather narrowly, on:
outbound tourism from developed countries, such as the UK;
the impact of tourism on destinations in developing countries;
the tour operating sector;
the environmental impacts of tourism in terms of hotels, airlines, and tour operators,
rather than its social and economic impacts.
Nevertheless, the tourism industry has developed a range of CSR initiatives, some
sector-based, others company-based, including:
The International Hotel Environmental Initiative (IHEI), a hotel industry
environmental management scheme which has more than 11,000 hotel members. Its
publications and advice have helped raise standards of environmental practice in the hotel
sector worldwide, and have helped many hotels reduce their costs in the process.
The Tour Operators Initiative, formed in 2001 with the support of the United Nations
Environment Programme, which is committed to developing sustainable tourism through
its members, who are major tour operators.
TUI (the world’s largest tour operator), which has pioneered environmental practice in
the tour operation sector and has developed an excellent system of environmental
reporting for hotels and destinations.
The British Airways Code of Conduct, which sets out in detail its commitment towards
employees, consumers, and society as a whole, as well as to operating its business
responsibly and honestly. This is in addition to its longestablished system of responsible
environmental management.
15

Ethics in Tourism

As is the case with every economic sector, tourism activities follow the requirements of a
moral legitimacy in the daily work place towards one’s own self, the colleagues, the
customers and the clients. Business and leisure travel causes a wide range of desirable
and less desirable impacts, namely on environmental, socio-cultural and economic level.

While these effects are attempted to be mitigated under the umbrella of a sustainable
tourism development, the industry leaders and the employees often wonder by which
means they can positively shape their surrounding. By whichguidelines can and should
they act in order to behave in a responsible and ethically legitimate way?

The World Tourism Organisation UNWTO as the industry leader provides an answer
to that. Conscious of tourism’s special responsibility as a driver of global interchange and
expansion, it has drawn up the “Global Code of Ethics for Tourism”. Published already in
1999, the Code has yet to reach a broad recognition as a baseline requirement for every
actor in the industry.

In an effort to promote the highly relevant principles of ethical behaviour in the sector,
the following provides a summary of the key understandings of what tourism should be
and strive to stand for:
Mutual understanding and respect between peoples and societies
Individual and collective fulfillment
Factor of sustainable development
Catalyser for the cultural heritage of mankind
Beneficial activity for host countries and communities
Obligations of stakeholders in tourism development
Right to tourism
Liberty of tourism movements
Rights of workers and entrepreneurs in the industry
Implementation of the Code‘s principles

The full Code can be viewed and downloaded here:

UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism

In my opinion, every participant in the industry, especially the promoters and developers
of tourism activities, should be well aware of the implications that their actions will
irrevocably cause.

The Code helps by giving a general guidance in difficult issues – and this clearly makes it
one of the baseline documents to follow in daily (work) life.
 14(a, b)
Managing Through Workplace
Change
Being a manager is a tough job when you have a clear understanding of
your goals and objectives and when your employees are dealing with the
normal stress and turbulence of life. It can feel almost impossible, at
times, when an organization is going through change. You may no longer
be confident that you know what the objectives really are for your team.
And anxiety about the change can drive employees to irrational and
destructive behavior.
How can you build employee commitment and enthusiasm when forces
beyond your control are hurting morale? How can you lead when you’re
not sure where you should be going?
Managing the emotional aspects of workplace change
While some people relish change and seem to delight in the challenges and
opportunities it brings, others are far more hesitant. Many employees, even the
most talented and productive employees, are fearful of change and frustrated by
feeling out of control. A person’s reaction to change can depend, too, on the
stresses and uncertainties they are experiencing in other aspects of their lives. A
change at work may be one stress too many for an employee who has just
experienced a death in the family, or who is in the middle of a divorce. When
change becomes overwhelming, employees show it in reduced work output and
by uncharacteristic outbursts of emotion, such as anger, hostility, or sadness.
Stress is also associated with higher rates of injury and illness among employees.
You may have found ways to cope with the conditions in your organization, but
you need to understand that some of your employees may be less resilient.
Members of your team may need your support and patience as they try to get
through a period of uncertainty. It may be helpful to look at your employees’
reactions to change in terms of a five-step model, variations of which are widely
used in helping people deal with grief and other important life changes:
1. Denial, in which employees refuse to recognize that a change has occurred and
continue to behave as if it hasn’t.
2. Resistance, in which they recognize that the change is real and react with subtle or
overt resistance, and often with hostility and anger.
3. Depression, in which employees feel a sense of loss, and a recognition that what is
gone cannot be recovered.
Overview
Tips for managers on
leading employees through
change at work.
· Managing the emotional
aspects of workplace
change
· Communicating during
change
· Understanding what you
can and can’t control
2 l Managing Through Workplace Change
4. Exploration, in which the resistance gives way to a tentative acceptance, and in
which employees begin to look with interest at the change and explore how they
will behave in the changed environment.
5. Commitment, in which employees accept the change and commit themselves to
its execution.
Your job as a manager is to help your group through the rough spots in the
change process and to keep the group motivated and working toward the
changes that need to be made. By understanding that individuals approach
change in different ways and at varying paces, you may be better able to help
your employees through the change process.
Communicating during change
Because you don’t know the answers, you may be tempted to limit
communication to your team or to wait until the situation becomes clear. Resist
the temptation! Push yourself to be an active communicator.
· Tell employees everything you do know and be honest in explaining what you don’t.
When people hear no news, they tend to assume the worst. Don’t wait until you
know everything. You never will.
· Don’t shy away from sharing tough news or developments that may cause employees to
worry. It’s always better for employees to hear the news from you rather than
through the grapevine. Face-to-face (or teleconference) dialogue is far more
effective than voice mail or e-mail messages. Employees need a chance to ask
questions of you and each other and to process new information by talking.
· Be honest with your team about both your worries and your hopes. Trust can be a
casualty of organizational change. By sharing your worries in an honest and
helpful way, you can help team members talk about their own anxieties and build
their trust of each other and of you. Encourage team members to support each
other during the peaks and valleys of the change process. As a manager, you also
have a responsibility to offer leadership and hope, to remind your people of the
ultimate goals of the change, and to point out opportunities they may not see.
· Encourage employees to come to you with their questions and concerns. Listen, respond
honestly, and express a sincere interest in how the employee is coping with the
change.
· Give employees a chance to participate in the process of figuring out what the changes
mean to the work of your group. Their ideas, even when based on very sketchy
information, can help bring the changes to life and give general ideas some
specific substance. The process of change may be ongoing, and an involvement
in making and remaking plans can bring with it a sense of personal control
3 l Managing Through Workplace Change
within the change that helps everyone move forward with more resilience and
confidence.
· Make an effort to give extra encouragement. Thank people promptly for work well
done. Let people know you understand they’re under extra pressure and that you
notice and appreciate their efforts. Reach out, too, to people in other groups
whose good work supports your group’s efforts, pleases a customer, or makes a
difference to the organization. Nobody can get too much appreciation, and
people are especially needy during times of change.
· Don’t make promises you aren’t sure you can keep. For example, avoid promising
that no one will lose his job unless you know with certainty that this is true. One
broken promise -- even a small one -- can seriously damage trust and credibility.
Understanding what you can and can’t control
During times of change, it’s more important than ever to understand what you
can and can’t control and to focus on those activities that are within your
control. Help your employees do the same. You can’t control the behavior of
your manager or the decisions of the company president, for example, but you
can choose how you react to their actions. Don’t waste your time or your energy
second guessing those above you or wishing peers in other departments or
divisions would behave in different ways. Focus on your own actions, which are
under your control. And don’t waste energy thinking about what is still unclear
in a new company strategy. Focus on those parts that are clear and on which you
can begin to act. This is a powerful and simple model for coping with
uncertainty and change. Once you are comfortable in applying this to your own
work life, help your employees apply it to theirs.

1(a)

Good quality customer service gives the edge over competitors. Regardless of industry,
here are the 9 key principals of good customer service that always make business sense.
1. Attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers
A satisfied customer stays with a company longer, spends more and may deepen the
relationship. For example a happy credit card customer may enlist the company’s
financial services and later take travel insurance.
This is an easy “sell”, compared with direct marketing campaigns, television
advertisements and other sophisticated and expensive approaches to attract new
customers.
2. Customer service costs real money
Real costs are associated with providing customer service and companies spend in line
with a customer’s value. If you are a high value customer or have the potential of being
high value, you will be serviced more carefully.
Companies reduce the cost of customer service by using telephone voice response
systems, outsourcing call centers to cheaper locations, and self-servicing on the internet.
However, companies risk alienating customers through providing an impersonal service.
Some internet banking companies are bucking the trend by charging customers to contact
them. In exchange, customers receive better interest rates due to reduced overheads and
are satisfied with that.
3. Understand your customers’ needs and meet them
How can you meet your customers’ needs, if you don’t know them? To understand your
customer’s needs, just listen to the “voice of the customer” and take action accordingly.
Customer listening can be done in many ways, for example feedback forms, mystery
shopping, and satisfaction surveys. Some companies involve senior employees in
customer listening to ensure decisions benefit the customer as much as the company.
4. Good process and product design is important
Good quality customer service is only one factor in meeting customer needs. Well
designed products and processes will meet customers’ needs more often. Quality
movements, such as Six Sigma, consider the “cost of quality” resulting from broken
processes or products. Is it better to service the customer well than to eradicate the reason
for them to contact you in the first instance?
5. Customer service must be consistent
Customers expect consistent quality of customer service; with a similar, familiar look and
feel whenever and however they contact the company.
Say you visit an expensive hairdressing salon and receive a friendly welcome, a drink and
a great haircut. You are out of town and visit the same hairdressing chain and get no
friendly welcome, no drink and a great hair-cut. Are you a satisfied customer who will
use that chain again? Probably not, as you did not receive the same customer service –
which is more than a good hair-cut.
6. Employees are customers too
The quality management movement brought the concept of internal and external
customers. Traditionally the focus was on external customers with little thought given to
how internal departments interacted. Improving relationships with internal customers and
suppliers assists delivery of better customer service to external customers, through
reduced lead-times, increased quality and better communication.
The “Service-Profit Chain” model developed by Harvard University emphasizes the
circular relationship between employees, customers and shareholders. Under-staffed,
under-trained employees will not deliver good quality customer service, driving
customers away. Equal effort must be made in attracting, motivating and retaining
employees as is made for customers, ultimately delivering improved shareholder returns.
Better shareholder returns mean more money is available to invest in employees and so
the circle continues.
7. Open all communications channels
The customer wants to contact you in many ways – face to face, by mail, phone, fax, and
email - and will expect all of these communication channels to be open and easily inter-
mingled.
This presents a technical challenge, as it requires an integrated, streamlined solution
providing the employee with the information they need to effectively service the
customer.
8. Every customer contact is a chance to shine
If a customer contact concerns a broken process, then empowered employees will be able
to resolve the complaint swiftly, possibly enhancing the customer’s perception of the
company. Feeding back this information allows corrective action to be made, stopping
further occurrences of the error.
If you inform customers about new products or services when they contact you, you may
make a valuable sale, turning your cost centre into a profit centre. This is only possible
when you have a good relationship with your customer, where you understand their
specific needs. A targeted sales pitch will have a good chance of success, as the customer
is pre-sold on the company’s reputation.
9. People expect good customer service everywhere.
Think about an average day – you travel on a train, you buy coffee, you work. You
expect your train to be on time, clean and be a reasonable cost. You expect your coffee to
be hot and delivered quickly. You expect your work mates to work with you, enabling
you to get the job done.
People become frustrated when their expectations are not met, and increasingly demand
higher service quality in more areas of their lives.
Providing outstanding customer service at the right price is the holy grail of most
companies. It is worth remembering that we all experience customer service every day.
We can learn from these and apply them in our own line of work, whatever it may be.
The quality of customer service will make you stand out from your competitors – make
sure it’s for the right reasons!

2(b)

The key to improving service is motivated employees. Ensure that all the individuals in
your business not only know what you expect of them, but also have a vested interest in
the business. Your staff must know why you want to keep customers happy, how to do it
and also be motivated by you to perform quality service.
Steps
1
Learn to listen to your customers first. Really listen to them - ask what you can do to
help them. This is the most important step in preventing problems and the only way you
can solve complaints if they come up.
Quality Management System
Effectively manage all your quality processes.

2
Look at all complaints about your service as an opportunity to improve. Aim to
resolve any complaint quickly and efficiently.
3
Establish an environment where great service is recognized and rewarded and poor
service is challenged and rectified.
4
Have weekly fun staff meeting where good service elements are discussed.
5
Ensure that your staff feels they are an important part of your success.
6
Lead by example. Show respect for every person at every level in your company.
7
Do things regularly to improve the workplace. This does not have to be an expensive
exercise. For instance, if you have a small group, order pizzas one day for lunch for no
particular reason, put a candy jar on the reception desk for anyone to access, put a new
coffee pot in the staff room or buy some gourmet coffee. Little things get noticed and
mean a lot. Happy staff = happy customers.
8
Give your staff a reason to come to work with a big smile on their face and a great
attitude. Paying them competitive wages so they can live comfortably in the area is a
good start. The customer service industry is rampant with poor pay. The jobs are pretty
difficult at times. Be sure you show your employees you care by giving them a decent
wage.

As information and communication technology continues to gain ground and

become more relevant with a positive impact on the economy .The positive impact
of IT system on travel agents, tour operators and on tourists in term of the
usefulness of IT awareness in the tourism industry.

In a simple language IT is the modern way of using computers to communicate and get
information through research, about the knowledge of what we are short of. It is the best
way of communication. IT relates to tourism in many ways hence the only option before
the advent of IT globally if you wanted to travel any where you have to walk from your
house down to the street to get the local agency either as outbound and inbound tourist.

At the agency office you might searched endlessly through the brochure without
immediate success and this can take you few days to do and get you frustrate. But with
the advent of IT this can be done online, sitting on your bedroom as a tourist you can get
all the necessary information without stress, this is just a matter of settling down with
your laptop in your house and log into your desire website. So IT opens up the
possibilities for tourism.

The tourism industry has proved particularly suitable for the adoption of information
technology because of its dependence upon the supply and exchange of information
throughout the production and distribution chain. As an extremely information intensive
industry, tourism is undergoing rapid and radical modern changes. A wide range of
opportunities discover on daily basis through the use of information and communication
technology. Now information technology is being used for a variety of functions in the
tourism industry, ranging from an internal organization role to external communication
between different parts of the industry. The continuous development of information
technology has profound implications for the whole tourism industry.

Today, a wide range of tourism sectors is taking the advantage of the information
superhighway. Technology facilitates the speed and efficiency with which information
of the tourism industry is processed, stored, retrieved, distributed and otherwise
manipulated. Information technology can reduce costs of information handling, increase
speed of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the
control of transactions. It has flexibility of product specifications and greater reliability
of information transferred.

According to Tunkara "in few other areas of activity are the generation; gathering;
processing; application and communication of information are as important for day-to-
day operation as they are for the travel and tourism industry." The most important role
of information technology is the development of competitive advantages by both
reducing cost and enhancing differentiation. The most area that information technology
improves tourism most are in four main areas, the delivery of tourism services; tourism
management, marketing of the industry; with the relationship between the producers,
destinations and consumers, tourists.

Information technology has radically altered the way in which information is transmitted
throughout the tourism industry. Hence, it changes the way in which tourism services
are delivered. Because consumer expectations are rising rapidly, the move towards more
independent and flexible holidays away from package holidays, with the emergence of a
computer literate generation, requires the service providers to find new ways to satisfy
tourists' needs. Thus, it offers new opportunities for information technology and the
tourism industry.

Talking about the benefits of this in the industry we have airlines, tour operators, travel
agencies hotels; car rental, destinations and tourists who always need the information.

Booking for your holiday or hotel reservation is now easier since you can do them
online.

Equally payment can be done online by issuing credit cards and other means of latest
remittance of fees or charges without stress like in Europe, where some people use
Eurostar system when they are travelling. You can search for all the airlines by going
through their websites before you finally make a choice. Also from a thousand miles
you can locate your destination when you are still at your doorstep.

IT has makes all this easier. The introduction of IT in the Gambia has bring a lot of
changes to the industry and it has tremendously exposed the country to the world
tourism market because majority of people visiting the Gambia now get most of their
information about the country on the website.
'Information technology has really brought big and tremendous changes to the industry
because using the technology has no limitation.' Therefore talking about the impact of
tourism in the Gambia, the country is gaining more.

For effective communication and customers attraction grand cable is the best. Wi-fi is
the best for the hotels. Wi-fi is the wireless access, wherever you are accommodated,
you can use your laptop, mobile phone, among others to log online and do your work as
you wish without qualm. This type of service is in used at Kairaba Hotel and some
hotels across the country ,they were excellently installed by QuantumNet ,who always
look for new things in the world of information and communication technology.

Today, information technology (IT) is one of the important resources for increasing the
economic growth. It causes companies to use their input resources as much as possible
in an effective way. As investment in IT capital accounts for an ever-increasing share of
capital investment, it is important to understand how these investments might pay.

Generally, there has been much debate on whether or not the investment in IT provides
improvements in productivity and business efficiencies. IT investment may make little
direct contribution to overall performance of business industry until they are combined
with complementary investments in business activities, human capital, and company
restructuring.

Therefore, according to role of QuantumNet as IT facilitator and enabler, it is valuable

and advisable for companies to increase the impact of IT on overall performance of
companies. On the other word, your investment in ICT will not been in vain ,instead it
will improve productivity with good dividend.