THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 54 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006

Brought to you By ChakariNet

Webmasters for http://www.golfwelkom.co.za/

 

Apology Needed

Want the BarefootBenefit? There’s more at the end of this message.

And, just so’s you know - This Tourism Week is

PROUDLY BAREFOOT AND FULLY SOUTH AFRICAN

Been thinking a lot about the nature of service these past few days.

I calculated recently that, in the eight years since I began writing for the tourism industry, I must have spent about 700 nights in hotel rooms - and almost all of them pleasant. In fact in many cases they’ve been more than pleasant because this industry is peopled (mostly) by people who like people.

But sometimes you run up against a situation - it happens - where things go wrong. I believe, though, that, no matter how horribly wrong, you usually can save the day.

Take the worst case scenario. When a bus accident claimed a number of lives some years ago, a number of tourism people got together and brought the families of the deceased out to South Africa, took them to the scene of the accident and then arranged for them to have a holiday at one of our game reserves. The result? Every single one of the bereaved went away saying (and they were asked) “an accident like that could have happened anywhere but, despite the tragedy, South Africa remains a great place and the South Africans remain great people.”

I’ve often asked myself what the essence of this success was and I firmly believe that it’s summed up in just two words: “we’re sorry.”

Probably the two most important words in the passage of human relationships.

Of course the corollary would be that good service is easy to achieve - just make a promise and exceed it. So, by extension, when you fall short, when you fail to exceed someone’s expectations, the solution should be quite simple. Stop, admit to yourself that you’ve done something wrong - and then admit it to the guest.

That gets the egos out of the way and clears the way to putting things right. Which is impossible if you’re defending yourself.

And an apology can never work if it’s accompanied by a defence.

I recently had an appallingly bad experience at a guest house. I’m sure it’s happened to you: threadbare towels, worn bed linen (on those beds that were, in fact, equipped with linen), no tea bags or coffee in the room (mind you, they promised “tea and coffee facilities” - and the room was fitted with an old, grubby kettle); the shower rose flew off its pipe while I was showering - and then, at ten o’clock at night, the water dried up altogether. A pipe had burst. Now any one of those things - or even all of these things together - could have added up to a  Fawlty Towers kind of situation and I could have come away thinking “OK, that stuff happens” - if the owners had just said “oops. We’re sorry.”

But did they? Of course not - they attacked us. Told us they had four stars (I snorted). Told us they had just bought the linen (I laughed). Told us there was “nothing wrong with our rooms. We’ve been in the business for twenny years and we’ve never had a complaint” (I thought I was going to have a conniption. My colleague did).

After twenny years in the business you’d have thought they’d have learned to just stop and say “oops, we’re sorry.”

It might have prevented us from leaving with the promise never to return.

Land Rover G4 Spirit of Adventure

Here I am in the bushveld somewhere near Hartebeestpoort Dam, surrounded by a dozen Land Rover Discovery 3s, seated in my ‘office’ - a table under a tree by an aloe - with four other guys, all of us on our laptops finishing up the day: Owen’s the photographer - he’s downloading his pictures; John and Christine are tallying the scores and Dave’s the DJ and he’s using his laptop to choose the chillest tunes. In front of us, a luxury tented restaurant dressed in G4 black and orange. And if I look to my left, a view across a shallow valley to the rolling hills of… but wait, you’re getting jealous.

Sorry ‘bout that. But you can check out my day-by day diary on my site - http://www.thistourismweek.co.za/. Just click on the link under the G4 Spirit of Adventure logo.

SATSA’s Annual Conference - The Web Cast

Now Media, is web casting the proceedings of SATSA’s annual conference at http://www.nowmediawebcasting.co.za/clients/satsa_agm/index.asp.

http://www.golfwelkom.co.za/

Now why didn’t I think of that? Oppies Golf Course (er, sorry, I mean the Oppenheimer Park Golf Club in Welkom) runs its own 16 room B&B “within an easy wedge of the club house.” It’s “ideal for those who wish to mix business with pleasure” and it’s ideal if you want to enjoy the challenging, 18 hole, par 72 parkland course that was designed by Robert Grimsdell and has hosted a number of major events like the Sunshine Tour’s Powerade Classic and the South African Amateur Championships.

…Have a Great Tourism Week!

 

MARTIN HATCHUEL - BarefootWriter

VISIT THIS TOURISM WEEK

Brilliantly designed by S2 Web Solutions, http://www.thistourismweek.co.za/ offers back issues, useful links and a media room with downloadable releases and high res images. And remember to go to the Products and Services page to download my paper ‘Managing Perceptions - The Care And Feeding Of The Media.’ You’ll see I have a lot to say about managing the media in a crisis situation.

… AND AN INVITATION

I’m always looking for subjects for feature articles in This Tourism Week. Please mail mailto:martin@barefootclients.co.za?subject=Invitation:%20TTW if you’ve got information of broad general interest to more than 6,200 readers in South Africa’s Tourism Industry.

Want the BarefootBenefit?

Visit http://www.barefootclients.co.za/
The BarefootBenefit

BarefootClients provides communications services (copy writing, advertising, printing and that kind of stuff) as well as strategy planning and creative thought for select clients who share our Barefoot On The Beach approach to business.

It’s simple. We believe that successful marketing creates relationships - friendships - between businesses and their customers. Our job is to help you develop friendships with your clients: to make them so comfortable with you that they’ll happily walk Barefoot On The Beach with you … Because business works best between friends. That’s the BarefootBenefit.

Want it? Visit http://www.barefootclients.co.za/

ABOUT THIS TOURISM WEEK

This Tourism Week is a personal e-letter and informed commentary on issues affecting South Africa’s tourism industry. If you don’t want to read it, please e-mail mailto:martin@barefootclients.co.za?subject=TTW%20UNSUBSCRIBE - but if you think it’s worth sharing, please forward this message to your friends and ask them to subscribe.

Please note that the articles in This Tourism Week may only be reproduced with permission.

Want it? Mail me - mailto:martin@thistourismweek.co.za?subject=Permission%20to%20Reproduce:%20TTW.

 

Back issues: http://www.thistourismweek.co.za/

 

This Tourism Week, 63 Wilson Street, Hunter’s Home, PO Box 2690, Knysna 6570

Telephone +27(0)44 384 1810 | Cell +27(0)84 951 0574 | mailto:martin@barefootclients.co.za?subject=Enquiry:%20TTW

 

PROUDLY BAREFOOT AND FULLY SOUTH AFRICAN

 

BULK MAIL SERVICE: CHAKARINET