Thorpe Parks Customer Service Essay -- Consumerism Businesses Essays

Thorpe Park's Customer Service Effectual customer service is or should be a fundamental aspect of any organisation that has an objective of success. It is through this process that an organisation can fully understand its customers and ensuring that it is responding correctly to customer needs and demands which are vital if the organisation is to gain competitive advantage. In 1991, freematle quotes: â€Å"Customer service is the final test. You can get everything else right in terms of product, price and marketing but unless you complete the process with incredibly good customer service, you run the risk of loosing business or even going out of business†. Therefore customer service is defined as the course of action whereby businesses endeavour to fully understand the needs of their customers and to respond to those needs effectively and efficiently. It is important that an organisation’s customer service is done effectively and efficiently because business activities carry costs therefore sluggishness will be at the expense of the organisation. Excellent customer service achieves a high level of customers’ satisfaction and encourages customer to return and to recommend the organisation to others. I will be investigating into Thorpe Park, which is in the leisure and recreation industry and how it carries out its customer service. The leisure and recreation industry is a diverse part of the UK economy, spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors, and made up of a number of interrelated components including sport & physical recreation, arts & entertainment, outdoor activities etc. The leisure and recreation industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the UK economy. Introduction to Thorpe Park In 1970, the site was an active gravel pit owned by Ready Mix Concrete and in 1971 work was granted for the construction of a 500-acre Water Park. Thunder River and its surrounding area were developed in 1987, and 1988 saw the opening of the 630 seats Palladium Theatre. In 1989 Canada Creek, incorporating Logger’s Leap, was developed. Since 1991 many attractions have been added. In 1996, X:/No Way Out, the world’s first pitch dark, backward roller coaster was introduced and for two years running, in 1996 and 1997, Thorpe Park was voted the most Parent-Friendly leisure in the UK. Pearsons, who owned the Tussa... ...de above regarding surveys and questionnaires are relevant here. The cost of postal surveys tends to be lower, especially as there is no need to employ an interviewer, but the response rate is also generally low, and organizations will often include some kind of incentive, such as free gifts or entry to prize draws, to encourage participation employees Surveys – increasingly, firms are gathering data on customer service by placing interactive questionnaires on their websites and encouraging customers to use them by offering incentives such as free gifts and prize draws. This is a relatively cheap method of research, given that it is normally relatively easy to add questionnaires onto an already established website. Internal surveys – these are surveys that are conducted amongst the organization’s own Comments/suggestion boxes – these are commonly used by organizations to gather basic information and are typically left on restaurant tables, in hotel rooms and near to tills for customers to fill in while they wait. They act like mini-questionnaires - usually made up of a small number of closed-ended questions, in order to encourage a higher completion rate.