NOT so long ago some friends of mine came up to Brisbane for the weekend. I showed them the sights: Southbank, the Queensland Museum,
the Downunder Bar, Kangaroo Point etc. Even caught a Broncos match with Hamish once Leanne had headed home (they won unfortunately).
What struck me though wasn't the fact that it rained pretty much the whole time they were up here (and sunny either side of their stay), but rather Leanne's scathing comments on the service they'd received at a restaurant they went to. I can't remember the exact words, but the general gist of it was that she'd rather have dental surgery done by an arthritic dentist using rusty pliers than have to go through that again.
Search an Australian news site for "customer service", "tourism" and "Australia" and it won't take you long before you start coming across articles like
this and
this that bemoan the poor state of customer service in our tourism industry. And it's not just tourism either:
this article complains about the poor service he received in a Canberra store compared to a New York online retailer.
So do we just not get it?
Having travelled widely - albeit mostly in the budget section - I can personally vouch for the fact that we are by no means the worst when it comes to quality customer service. Spend a bit of time in France and see how much help you get from some local hoteliers. Likewise in some parts of Italy, where tourists will always come visit just because it's Italy, and you
have to visit Italy at least once in your life.
In comparison to places like the USA, Greece and Sri Lanka though, we have a lot to make up. While I realise my position as a tour guide meant I got to know tourist operators quite well, the welcomes I got from the crews on Paros and Santorini after six months away meant I'd go back right now if I had the cash. Likewise it was refreshing to dine alone in the States but still have an attentive waiter/waitress that knew when I needed my beer topped up. Likewise in Sri Lanka I never came across a hotelier that wouldn't give me the keys to his house - come to think of it, one actually did!
So how does Australia pick up its act? Australians being so anti-tipping doesn't help - why put in the extra effort when you're still going to get paid the same as Joe Average standing next to you?
One suggestion in
this article by Clive Dormanis that we need to actively train customer service staff in, well, customer service:
So much of the "product" is what we call service. It's not rocket surgery. In my opinion, too many people in the customer service side of tourism are being dragged in off the street without specialist training. And it just doesn't cut it for the industry to be whingeing about the mining industry stealing all its best staff.
This ties in with
what an outsider has to say:
I’m no tourism expert, but I’ve seen too many industries respond poorly to structural and cyclical threats (retail is an example). The main solution has been to cut costs, damage product quality and wreck brands. Company morale falls and staff only turn up for the pay cheque. Decades of hard work are lost in a few years as even loyal customers start to give up on the product. Innovation and great leadership are lacking.
As an observer outside the tourism industry, it seems so much money is spent (and often wasted) on attracting tourists to Australia, and not enough on improving their travel experience and encouraging repeat business. Do enough international travellers to Australia rave about their experience upon returning home? What about domestic travellers?
While we have the natural beauty that makes people want to come here, what we really need to do is start getting people coming back. To do that we need to invest in our customer service staff - there will certainly be some short-term pain, but imagine the long-term gain.
