MANAGING A SERVICE- RELATED

BUSINESS
Culture of service: The Disney Culture

The challenge for tourism and hospitality stakeholders
is to ensure that it’s costumers are satisfied during the
“service encounter”.


The concept of service in tourism is best exemplified
by the Walt Disney Company, the magnitude and and
range of their product offerings emphasizes
happiness. Not as an intangible products but
something that can be experienced and seen
throughout all contact with their costumers .

Guestology, a term originated by Bruce Laval of
the Walt Disney Company, means that “all the
organization’s employees must treat costumers
like guest and manage the organization from
the guest point of view”

This courtesy is now a norm in the hospitality
industry.

This method focuses on the employees who are
a part of the fantasy and are present to create
happiness.

The philosophy driving this culture is
“comprehensive approach to employee relation”
The service encounter

The term service encounter is often used to
“refer to the person- to- person interaction or
series of interaction between the customer and
the person delivering the service..”

An encounter is the period of time during which
the organization and the guest interact. The
length of a typical service encounter will vary
from one service provider or organizational type
to another.
Moments of truth

This is a very similar to the concept of a
customer’s journey which is used to monitor and
evaluate tourist behavior based on multiple touch
points.
Moment of truth stages


Pre- Purchase. This includes all aspects
related to interaction between a visitor and an
organization before purchase. These is
characterized by by behaviors such as need,
search, awareness and interest in product/
services. This is the stage where the customers
are selecting among alternatives and
substitutes.

Purchase. This covers actions related to the
actual purchase including, but not limited to the
final selection of a product, the mode of
payment, as well as the attitude of the staff and
the environment where the sales take place. At
this stage the consumer are comparing their
expectations to their actual experiences.

Post- Purchase. This refers to interactions that
happen after the sale. This is an important
phase that can lead to either customer loyalty or
dissatisfaction with the product or service, this is
where the consumer compare the expectation
they had and the experience they had during the
Pre and purchase stages.
The Tourist Experience

“organizations need to create memorable experiences to
remain competitive. But guest satisfaction can be defined
in multiple ways and is influenced by several factors
posing challenges on how to best stage experiences.”
(Pine and Gilmore 1999).

According to Hawkins and Nikolova, people purchase
products according to their lifestyle and demographics and
kotler emphasizes that those can be disrupt depending on
the characteristics of the following:

Intangibility

Perishability

Variability

Simultaneous consumption

According to Jennings and Weiler, The tourist
experience is also influenced by individual
motivations and preferences; shared
experience; knowledge of the destination and
it’s attractions; as well as uncontrollable issues
such as weather, traffic and intermittent internet
connection.

Stakeholders involved in tourism activity:
 Host Communities
 Local government agencies
 Tour operator
 Front line employees

Opportunities for management

Predictive analytics

Target marketing

New product development

Collaboration

Financial growth

Competitive advantage