Stop the stereotypes of the customers, warned the actors of the tourism

Company News of Saturday, July 20, 2019

Source: Ghananewsagency.org

2019-07-20

Ms Eunice Fay Amissah, a lecturer at the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), warned hoteliers and tourism industry stakeholders to stop discriminating against their families. customers when they provided customer services.

According to her, the discrimination would divert customers and potential customers and ultimately lead to bankruptcy of the company.

According to her, statistics show that 68% of customers leave hotels and restaurants because of a bad service experience and that it costs five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing customer.

Dr. Amissah, a licensed home care educator, called on industry players to build good relationships with clients, be proactive and find innovative ways to address their complaints to improve the quality of life. quality of service provided.

She spoke at a workshop on customer service organized by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) in collaboration with the UCC Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, on promoting quality services for customers of the tourism and hospitality industry.

The workshop was part of the preparations for the celebration of PANAFest, Emancipation Day and the "Year of Return".

The year 2019 has been proclaimed "Year of Return" to commemorate the 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved African to the United States and celebrate the resilience of the African spirit.

Thus, hundreds of Africans from the diaspora would go to Ghana and, by extension, to the central region which has many tourist sites.

Participants included hotels, bars, hotels, motels, car rental agencies, restaurants, tour guides in the castles and parks of Cape Coast and Elmina.

Dr. Amissah advised participants to demonstrate good customer service by treating people with courtesy, by committing to providing quality service, knowing the products, respecting the promises made to customers and focusing on customers and not on profit margins.

She also stressed the need for service providers to meet the expectations of their customers.

"Customers have basic needs that must be met, so employees need to be responsive, take the time necessary for clients, treat them with empathy and be ready to provide concrete services to others to win. their trust, "she said.

Dr. Amissah urged participants to always keep good impressions by emphasizing that "Courtesy counts and attitude does the right thing".

Professor Ismael Mensah, director of the Confucius Institute in Ghana, UCC, explaining how to handle complaints from difficult clients and difficult clients, said that the majority of customer complaints resulted from the attitude of employees.

He stated that the handling of customer complaints was essential in the industry, which relied on repeated visits, as it allowed to know which areas of services needed improvement and how to ensure that others customers do not suffer the same fate.

Professor Mensah, who is also a senior lecturer at the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Management, said that the attitude of employees towards customers was a barrier to the development of many organizations and companies.

He said many employees were ruining businesses because of their irresponsibility, rudeness, rudeness and hostile attitude towards their customers.

He encouraged employees to take responsibility for rendering reliable, respectful and sensitive services, understanding and giving sufficient time to deal with a difficult client.

Professor Mensah called on the management of hotels and restaurants to avoid playing loud music that bothered guests, to provide dispensers to hold liquid soaps and to keep their facilities clean to attract more customers.

Mr. Kwame Gyasi, Regional Director of the GTA, said tourism stakeholders have an important role to play in providing visitor services, especially to non-locals, during the year of return. .

He said the workshop aimed to refresh the spirit of current employees in the hospitality and tourism sector, adding that excellent customer service was the backbone of the industry.

Some participants commended the ATG for the training provided to them to help them upgrade their skills in the sector.

They called for a more comprehensive education to improve the level of customer badistance services to enhance the tourism industry in the region that is presented as the hub of the tourism.