We are all in the tourism/customer service business

Are you in the tourism business? Does your company affect the tourism business? Before you answer, ponder the following: Do I or any of my employees come into contact with the public, and is it possible that contact could affect someone’s perception of our area?

A couple of years ago, we had some friends visit from out of state. During their time here, they shopped throughout the local area and spent a significant amount of money (at least by my standards.)

Once they returned from their shopping extravaganza, a couple of my friends’ daughters realized the items they had bought just didn’t fit right.

These friends were due to leave before they could go back to the store and ask for a refund or exchange, so they asked my wife to take care of it.

About a week later, my wife was able to return to the local store to take care of the refund/exchange.

To her dismay, the store clerk would not take the return.

While she did have her receipt, the tags were missing from the clothing. The fact they could not accept the return was not an issue for us, we certainly understand the myriad of return policies among retailers. What did bother her, however was the attitude the clerk displayed throughout the entire process.

“It was like it was major problem that she even had to deal with me,” my wife said. “And there wasn’t anyone in the store, so it wasn’t like I was keeping her from making a sale.”

Immediately, my mind asked the question, “What if this had been a visitor to our area?”

The sad fact is that if my wife was treated this way, it was very probable that more than one visitor has been treated similarly.

For an area that is on the tourism upswing, we must all be diligent to give our visitors the best experience possible.

We should be aware of how our employees answer the phone, handle complaints or even act in public.

The bottom line is that if someone has a bad experience in our area, they will tell others. Enough bad experiences, and our thriving tourism industry begins to falter.

Like it or not, we are all in the tourism business. What we do and how we act will affect the industry at some point.

Perhaps the best way to approach tourism is to treat everyone like guests, not visitors. When a visitor comes by, it is usually unexpected. However, when it is a guest, you are prepared for their arrival with an welcoming attitude.

We never know if the person on the other end of the phone line is a guest or not, so it just makes sense to treat them as such. After all, isn’t that what hospitality is all about?


Until Next Time...