Analysis on the Causes of Customer Complaints in Tourism Service Industry _ Thank you for your warm words of trust

This paper analyzes the framework of customer complaints in tourism enterprises from three aspects: the causes of customer complaints, the behavioral response after customer complaints and the concept of enterprises treating customer complaints, so as to achieve the strategic goals of maintaining good customer-customer relationship, improving customer satisfaction, enhancing corporate image and long-term economic benefits.

Keywords: customer complaints in tourism service industry

introduce

Since 1999 "Eleventh" Golden Week officially entered the lives of China people, Golden Week contains excellent business opportunities for tourism services. However, the continuous mass tourism boom has also brought great reception pressure to service enterprises, especially hotels and travel agencies, where customers complain or complain frequently. How to correctly handle the complaints or dissatisfaction of customers in tourism reception should be a work that tourism enterprises attach great importance to. It is of great significance for the long-term development of tourism enterprises to establish a strategic framework for analyzing and handling customer complaints and maintain a good customer-customer relationship.

1. Carefully analyze the causes of customer complaints.

The so-called customer complaint refers to the fact that customers' expectations are not met, which is manifested in practical work, that is, customers' dissatisfaction and blame for the products or services of tourism enterprises and their derived behavioral reactions. Customer complaints, on the one hand, mean that they are not satisfied with the reality of the products or services provided, and can not meet the initial expectations; On the other hand, it expresses an expectation that enterprises can improve their service level in time to avoid similar situations from happening again.

In reality, the causes of customer complaints in tourism can be divided into two categories: one is the tourism enterprise's own factors, and the other is the customer's personal factors.

(A) customer complaints caused by tourism enterprises' own factors

There are five aspects of customer complaints caused by tourism enterprises' own factors: ① understanding gap, that is, enterprises do not accurately understand customers' expectations, especially rely too much on the "good face" psychology of some customers to induce customers to spend impulsively, while ignoring customers' actual economic tolerance level; (2) The program gap, that is, the customer's expectation is not translated into the appropriate service operating procedures in time, which makes customers feel neglected and causes complaints, indicating that there are great defects in the service design process of enterprises; (3) The behavioral gap, that is, the service provided by the enterprise does not match the service standard, shows that the quality control system of the enterprise has great defects; ④ Perception gap, that is, the service level perceived by customers is different from the service level actually provided, indicating that the information communication between enterprises and customers is not smooth enough; ⑤ The promotion gap, that is, the gap between enterprise advertising and actual service, is more common in the exaggerated propaganda of travel agency enterprises.

(B) Customer complaints caused by personal factors of customers

This situation includes two aspects: first, because customers were in a bad mood and impulsive, such as drunken customers; Second, customers' understanding of the products and services of tourism enterprises is biased. In these two cases, although the cause of customer complaints does not come from tourism enterprises, whether it is handled correctly will have a great impact on the operation of enterprises. Customer complaints caused by personal factors are relatively easy to handle, while those caused by corporate factors are more difficult to handle. The following will focus on this point.

2. Carefully explore the behavior response after customer complaints.

The customer's behavior reaction after complaint is varied, which can be analyzed from three aspects: complaint mode, complaint influencing factors and complaint follow-up behavior.

There are three main types of customer complaints: first, inner complaints, that is, although customers are dissatisfied with tourism enterprises, they do not show it, which accounts for a considerable proportion in practice; Second, private letter complaints, that is, customers only spread complaints in a small range of interpersonal circles, with small spread but great word-of-mouth effect; The third is public complaints, including direct complaints to tourism enterprises, public exposure of media and networks, consumer associations or courts and relevant departments. Although this method is only an example in quantity, it has a wide spread and fast information circulation, which has the greatest impact on the image of tourism enterprises.

3. Influencing factors of customer complaints

The factors that affect the way customers complain can be divided into four categories: ① the types of service failures, that is, whether the losses caused by service failures are large or not; (2) The cost of customer complaints, that is, whether the channels for customer complaints are convenient and how much money and time are spent; (3) the value of customer complaints, that is, how likely it is for customers to complain about their chances of winning, and what benefits they will bring; ④ The psychological characteristics of customer personality mainly refer to the publicity of customer personality. It is worth noting that many people in the tourism industry pay special attention and caution when serving the group of "three teachers and one reporter" and try to avoid such customer complaints. Obviously, the customer's own professional background also indirectly affects the specific choice of complaints.

Four. Analysis of follow-up behavior after customer complaint

There are many follow-up behaviors of customer complaints, which depend on the service recovery work of tourism enterprises and the particularity of their industries and environments. First, customers transfer consumption, that is, after customers complain, they no longer have business relations with the complained enterprises, which leads to the direct loss of customers complained by enterprises and even affects a large number of customers; Second, customers are reluctant to spend, that is, due to business environment and other factors, such as the exclusive operation of tourism enterprises, customers are forced to spend, but their loyalty disappears, and once substitute products appear, they will transfer consumption; Third, customers agree with consumption, that is, customers agree with the remedial measures after complaints from enterprises, and think that enterprises have tried their best to remedy their services, so they will continue to consume. This situation is especially common during the Golden Week. For example, when a travel agency orders food in a remote place, it will give tourists a scenic spot, and if the waiting time for meals is too long, it will give tourists more dishes. Fourth, customer loyalty consumption, customers think that enterprises handle complaints very well, even exceeding customers' original expectations, giving customers a surprise effect, thus further narrowing the emotional distance between customers and enterprises and greatly strengthening customer loyalty.

5. Paying attention to customer complaints is a long-term way for the development of tourism enterprises.

Customer complaint analysis is a key step for tourism service enterprises to do a good job in marketing, which is not only related to the construction of corporate image, but also related to the company's century-old development plan and the vital interests of each employee, related to the long-term economic and social benefits of the enterprise, and has an important impact on creating a good tourism economic environment. Paying attention to customer complaints and being good at solving customer complaints is a necessary management policy for the long-term development of a tourism enterprise. As the vanguard of the service industry, tourism sells only one product, that is, humanized service. Only tourism enterprises with good customer complaint analysis and resolution ability can obtain greater development space.

References:

[1]. Peng Jianjun, Analysis of Hotel Customer Complaints, Guangdong Tourism Publishing House, 20 10.

[2]. Li Liping, Service and Management of Tourist Attractions, Economic Science Press, 2008.

[3]. You Jianxin, Customer Complaint Management, Petroleum Industry Press, 2003

[4]. Zhang Yu, on the hotel customer complaint behavior research, "Shopping Mall Modernization", 2009(9)

[5]. Zhao Liming, Management of Tourist Attractions, Nankai University Press, 2009.

About the author: Hou (1976-), male, from Cangxian County, Hebei Province, is a 2004 graduate student of the School of Management, University of South Australia, Australia. The research direction is tourism and hotel management. He is currently a lecturer in tourism at the International Exchange College of Shandong Trade Union Management Cadre College.