A03-Research and analysis into the ways in which your chosen Travel and Tourism organisation assesses the effectiveness of the customer service it provides to its customers.

BenchmarkingBenchmarking is used by many organisations to set a series of qualitative criteria and see how well they are doing against it. Cadbury World might use benchmarking on their various quality criteria and assess their performance on each one of those quality criteria.

Price and value for moneyPrice and value for money is when organisations want to meet the expectations of their customers by providing them with services that are worth the amount of money they paid. The customers are given their money worth. Cadbury World looks at prices charged at other tourist attractions and the experience gained in these particular attractions. The visitor attraction benchmark itself against other attraction such as Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Blenheim palace etc to see how well they are doing in terms of providing their customers good value for money and make sure that the prices that they set to the public aren’t too expensive and are just right for the services they are offering customers. Mystery Shopper evaluation forms are used by the company to find out if they are giving price and value for money to their customers “as a customer, do you feel that you have had value for money”. Cadbury World charges £10.80 per Adult accompanying groups of more than 15 people whereas Alton Towers charges £19 per adult for a group of 10 people or more, by comparing their prices to this organisation Cadbury World can make some changes in order of gaining more customers, their prices are lower and promote good customer service so many people might see a better value for their money at the attraction.

Consistency and accuracy To achieve good customer service, Cadbury World needs to ensure that it is consistent throughout, this means that the same quality of service should be provided by all internal customers. The organisation needs to make sure that the level of expertise in accuracy and consistency is the same in all departments in order to please the customers. To measure the consistency and accuracy of service given to customers by their employees, Cadbury World leave some comment forms for customers to have their say on the services they’ve been offered, questionnaires are used by the organisation as they prove to be more specific and give them the information they need, they also use mystery shoppers to determine which ones of their employees need further training on consistency and accuracy, in the mystery shopper form given out by the organisation, they ask if the

customers think Cadbury World is successful in: telling the story of the history of chocolate/Cadbury, describing the process of making chocolate, advertising the Cadbury name, to find out if they are consistent and accurate in the service that they give to their external customers. Reliability Reliability is a very important factor of quality criteria. Reliability means the customer can rely on the organisation for whatever they need to be fulfilled service wise. Cadbury World aim to meet its customer’s expectations in terms of reliability, but this needs to be monitored frequently to assess whether these expectations have been met, so the organisation uses training, for instance Cadbury World have a visitor service code which they call the “6 S’s” which help monitor how well they do on reliability as if the customers feel that they could trust the attraction, most of them will come back which will enforce repeat business. To assess how successful they are on reliability, Cadbury World uses informal videos to ask they’re customers if they like coming to the attraction, the feedbacks then tell the organisation how reliable they are...

Staffing levels/qualities to meet the demands of seasonalityStaffing levels and qualities to meet the demands of seasonality is when an organisation has to ensure that they are enough staff working to answer to customers’ needs and Cadbury world have 100 employees of whom 65 are exhibition staff, and the remainder back of house, catering, retail and Administration, “the organisation has 45 permanent staff and around 30-35 seasonal staff who are dealing with customers directly, either in the exhibition, in the chocolate-making demonstration or in the shop and to meet the demands of seasonality they employ more on the high peak season to avoid excessive delays in providing information to customers. There are more customers booking and visiting the organisation in the high peak season so they make sure that they make sure that there is a member of the staff in all area of the building ready to help out customers.It is important that the staff employed to help out in high peak season are trained in customer service practices so that the customer doesn’t experience a reduced quality of service. They assess the effectiveness of these quality criteria by using the Mystery shopper form; have your say website etc…

Enjoyment of the experience When a customer is visiting a tourist attraction, a theme park, holiday, business or sporting trip, they want to be able to enjoy themselves. If the customer comes ways feeling unhappy, it is very unlikely they will repeat the visit/experience. Therefore

Cadbury World need to check that they are providing the quality of experience the customer expects so they can hope to achieve repeat business and increased sales. The organisation has buffer zones which ensures that they aren’t too many customers at the area, the more the customers are able to circulate freely the happier they are and more likely they are to enjoy their visit. Elderly people won’t necessarily enjoy similar activities as a school group so Cadbury World offers a wide range / variety of things to do such as a special tour around Bourneville for the elderly and rides and the cafe for teenagers. The only way Cadbury World can measure their customer’s enjoyment is to ask them using questionnaires and surveys which will determine what the customers enjoy on their trip or what needs they didn’t enjoy, rides etc... This gives Cadbury World a chance to improve on their

Health and Safety When customers visit a tourist attraction, they want to feel that their health and safety has been properly considered so organisations need to monitor the maintenance of facilities and equipments. Cadbury World have to have limits to the amount of people they allow entry into their attraction each day. If the organisation gets overcrowded, the environment will be unsafe and both customers and employees wouldn’t have a very pleasant experience. To overcome overcrowding, visitors can book prior to their visit online or on the phone especially if they travelling in a big group such as a school trip.Another way Cadbury World monitors health and safety is to have clear exit signs which arte international therefore known by everyone so there’s no confusion to people whose first language isn’t English, the organisation makes sure that the customers are aware that the toilets have been cleaned by having notices in there on which the times its been cleaned at are marked; the toilets at Cadbury World are cleaned every 60 minutes this tells the customers that they are in a safe and healthy environment. To find out if the organisation is complying with the health and safety legislation, the attraction bring in health and safety inspectors to make sure that the institution cleanliness and safety is sustained. Cadbury World also assesses the effectiveness of health and safety by using questionnaires and surveys; they also use mystery shopper surveys for example asking whether the customers think that the toilets were clean or ask some general questions about if their customers feel that the number of visitors in the building is adequate, all these research will conclude how the attraction is doing in terms of health and safety issues.Cleanliness and hygieneThe cleanliness and hygiene of a place is how the place is maintained, the state of it, it could be either tidy or messy, it is a major factor for Cadbury World, and whether or not customers want to use the attraction could be down to how clean the

building is. The appearance of the premises of the organisation both inside and out effect how customers feel, for example families with kids wouldn’t want to bring their children in a dirty environment and might tell other people if the cleanliness and hygiene there wasn’t healthy and safe which might lead to less and less visitors attending the attraction. Cleanliness can be included in the toilets where the floors should be kept clean, the toilets should be germ free and sinks, tissue racks should be kept tidy, Cadbury World works hard on their appearances and the first impression they give to their customers. Hygiene is another factor which can effect whether or not customers would want to visit Cadbury World. To assess whether cleanliness and hygiene is established, surveys, comments forms are used to assess it. Comments form are particularly handy for this as the customers can comment on anything they thought needs to be dealt with, e.g.: cleanliness of the toilets. The organisation also uses mystery shopper to uncover whether the litter bins were emptied regularly, all these techniques help the Cadbury World to assess this quality criteria.

Accessibility and availability of the tangible products and servicesJust like Cadbury World, a number of organisation ensure that their products are accessible by means of offering them through a range of media, for example; on-line, phoning customer, mail order etc. Cadbury World uses different methods to make sure they are accessible and available; making their opening times more flexible to attract customers, the organisation makes sure that all members of the public can attend it. Customers must be able to access the building and Cadbury World uses ramps, elevators to ensure that people with disability can move around within the premises, there are also steps used for little children or adults with height issues to make sure that they have the same experience as everyone else and they can still enjoy the experience. Cadbury World is very accessible, they monitor this by being very well sing posted , easily located which means customers won’t go to too much trouble trying to get there, but they also have different means transport which could be used to get to the attraction, for example; coach, cars, buses etc. Another way the attraction makes sure they are available is to open weekdays, week-ends as well as on holidays and half term breaks. The organisation even has put in place some events customers can attend in the half term holidays for example; for this February half term Cadbury World will have various acts on site daily which will include Charlie Farley and Rags and Mark Traversoni... The visitor attraction assesses the effectiveness of the accessibility and availability it provides to its customers by offering them a range of prices, e.g. group booking, school bookings etc. There are also leaflets which would help customers locate and access the attraction, the mystery shopper form is also used by Cadbury World to access their availability and accessibility, the organisation

ask general questions as followed “ do you agree with the opening dates/times”, the answers help them obtain feedback.

Provision for individual needs Provision for individual needs is when organisations make sure that they supply services that will suit every type of customers they have. Cadbury World have a variety of services available for different customers, for example they have special tours for the elderly, ramps, elevators and spare wheelchairs are available for disable customers, there have also a playground for children along with rides “Cadabra”, audio tours in French, Spanish and German for foreign customers etc...The visitor attraction identify the needs of their different customers as they want to satisfy them and experience repeat business; school visits can be educational as well as fun, Cadbury World offers educational talks to school kids on specific subjects like Aztecs, Victorians, Design and technology. There are also different meals available at the attraction’s restaurants, like halal, special meals for vegetarians, children etc...If a customer feels as his needs are being taken account by the organisation, he might come back. Cadbury World uses questionnaires, comment forms and mystery shopper forms to evaluate how effective they are on providing for their different customers. An example of questions they ask on the mystery shopper form is there are sufficient facilities for people with visual impairment the results, feedback they get from these will help them determine whether they are providing all their customer’s needs or if they need to improve their facilities/services... another way Cadbury word assess this quality criteria is by simply asking their customers if they have everything they need...

Methods of obtaining customers feedback

Mystery shopperCadbury World mystery shoppers are independent people hired by the organisation to undertake shopping exercise; they act as potential customers and then report back to the organisation on their findings. It could occasionally by an employee from another part of the organisation not known by the employees in the facility being surveyed. Usually there are about 4 mystery shoppers visiting the visitor attraction each month but Cadbury World has had about 80 visits in 2009.

Questionnaires Another method Cadbury World obtains feedback is through the use of questionnaires. The questionnaires are made by Oxford research agency that carries out 300 visitor questionnaires on mainly week-ends; they cover a variety of

questions which might include the accessibility of the attraction and many other customer service areas; it gives Cadbury World the chance to ask their customers questions in various depths. For educational talks Cadbury World uses the Hamilton House to produce their leaflets and questionnaires. The organisation also carries out their own ‘in house questionnaires’ which especially focus on new sections and different department, access etc… for example rides like essence, the attraction makes sure that the ride is safe and enjoyed by the customers.

Comments forums There are comments forms available from reception in which both internal and external customers can comment on services and facilities. It could be for either making a negative or positive comment which gives Cadbury World the opportunity to receive development feedback or compliments.Letters, emails phone calls are also made to customer houses to get important feedback. The organisation has a ‘Have your say’ website which customers can visit in the comfort of their home to make any comment they wish to.

Informal feedback At the start of our visit to the attraction we had a talk on which we saw the organisation undertake some informal feedback method, Cadbury World has a made a video asking their customers who visits ( families with kids, couples etc…) and also why they are visiting the organisation. Customers are also stopped and asked questions in the building; it’s another informal way of finding out what their target audiences are.

How do they make improvements?Cadbury World gains customer feedback through Viewpoint and they have already begun to look at changes they can make based on the survey results, such as where and how they advertise. It’s a more efficient and cost effective way of getting feedback from their customers. There are Log complaints areas for improvements at Cadbury World, customers are free to make any complaints they like using technology, the managers then draw a plan of action and work on the situation; How they respond to those complaints depends on nature of it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Visit and talk class visit to the attraction

We went to Cadbury world for a talk which was about customer service and the organisation met the needs of their different customers (26th of January 2011)

Heinemann text bookAs level for OCR Travel and tourism

Publisher: Heinemann educational publishersPublished in 2005Authors: Hilary Blackman, Anne Rove, John D, Smith and Sue Stewart

Collins Travel and Tourism text book It was used to find information on principles of the quality criteria, although old, the book is very usefulCollins –Travel and Tourism book Advanced vocational T&T by Tony Outhart and TaylorDate: 2000

Cadbury World website I used the website to find information on travel, meals, and facilities for special need people.

Customer satisfaction survey software To get information on viewpoint and new technology used by Cadbury World.http://www.customersatisfactionsurveysoftware.co.uk/Case_Studies/cadbury-world-visitor-attraction-survey

AO4- An evaluation of the customer service principles underlying the service provided to different types of customer by Cadbury World with recommendations for improvement to meet the organisation values and attitudes

Cadbury’s World set objectives and work towards meeting them, their current vision is to concentrate on delivering Cadbury values, the organisation want to be recognised for the services that they offer their customers, along with their current vision are some other mission statement, for example giving customers a unique memorable and enjoyable chocolate experience which will assure customer satisfaction and make sure that they get repeat business, another way Cadbury World tries to provide for their customers is by Offering them a value for their money .This is an evaluation of how Cadbury World meets its mission statement.In order to see what people’s opinions were to the customer services at Cadbury World, I decided to make a questionnaire which my classmates were to fill in as they’ve experienced how good or bad the customer service was at the organisation. I asked eleven different people then made a tally which I then used to make the following graphs and came out with these results.

Price and value for money The feedbacks I got from the questionnaires I made shows that more than half the people I questioned thought that they got value for money, and 5 out of 11 customers preferred to pay a sum of £16 - £20 instead of £5-£10 0r £21-£25. They seemed to have received excellent customer care and service on our trip. The fact that we only paid £20 for a day trip in Cadbury World with transport included seems like a fair price, the experience was definitely worth the money. Cadbury World provided good price and value for money for their customers and made sure they had a good experience.

£5-£10 £11-£15 £16-£20 £21-£250

1

2

3

4

5

6How much were you prepared to pay

amount of money customers are prepared to pay

nu

mb

er o

f p

eop

le (

11)

Very ex-pensive

Expensive Average Cheap Very cheap0123456789

Was the experience worth the money?

Consistency From the responses I obtained from my questionnaires, about 40% of my 11 customers thought that the Cadbury World’s staff were helpful and knew a lot about the organisation, the external customers found that all their questions were answered during their visit. The majority of people I asked thought the staffs were very consistent, they all seemed to have received correct information but 5 out of 11 of them disagreed as the Cadabra ride was closed along with some other exhibit, this is an example of bad consistency as the customers expected some services which weren’t delivered. All of the people who took part in answering my questionnaires were satisfied with the level of confidence the employees had, they found that the staff enjoyed it and followed the 6’S rules.

Very poor Poor Satisfactory Good Very Good0

1

2

3

4

5

6

How accurate were the answers to your questions during your visit?

Number of people asked (11)

Number of people asked (11)

Reliability 90% of 11 customers thought that the organisation’s employees were approchable, they got help when they needed some and the staff’s body languages were good enough to feel at eased and as if they wanted to help. All my respondents thought that Cadbury World wasn’t at all reliable in having all their expected attractions open. Most students on the trip were looking forward to getting on the Cadabra ride so it was a massive disappointment to find it closed. Although 11 out of 11 customers found Cadbury World to be what they expeceted, the organisation needs to make some improvement in this quality criteria as this could not only cause them a decrease in visitor numbers but also less and less repeat business will occur if the customers’s expectations arent met.

Staffing LevelsCadbury World employ many people to make sure theirs customers get the services and help they deserved so on our trip, it was very obvious that the visitor attraction works hard on having staff all around the premises. The feedbacks I got from my questionnaires were positive. The staff were in uniforms and looked presentable, I asked my respondents “did you think they was enough staff working” and they all replied “yes”.Cadbury World is doing well assuring that they are enough staff working in the premises. My studies show that the external customers are pleased with the appearance, staffing levels and quality that Cadbury World offers them.About 70% of the people I asked experienced good product knowledge from the employees, this means that all the training the Cadbury World’s staff goes through does pay off. Their product knowledge is not at all limited and they seem confident when giving out information.

PoorSatisfactoryGood Very good

How would you rate their product know-ledge?

Number of people asked (11)

Enjoyment 9 out of 11 of the people I asked did enjoy the trip, the main reasons given was “the chocolate”. The day was both enjoyable and educational. Cadbury World presents different services to different customers, for example college students. We took part in different activities and learned a lot about customer service, it was enjoyable. All of my respondents decided that to recommend Cadbury World to other people, this might ensure repeat business and customer satisfaction.

Boring Average Enjoyable Very enjoyable01234567

How did you find your day?

Health and safety The organisation has clear signs for first aid and fire exits, this shows that Cadbury World cares about both their external and internal customers welfare and security. I asked 11 people how they would arte Cadbury World in terms of health and safety and the results have been really positive, 8 out of them thought of it to be good and the rest thought it was very good. The visitor attraction is rated high in this quality criteria, customers feel that they are in a healthy and secure environment, they could decide to come back or even recommend it to some relatives/ acquaintances…

Very poor Poor Average Good Very Good0123456789How would you rate Cadbury World in terms of health and safety?

Number of people asked (11)

Number of people asked (11)

Cleanliness and Hygiene After observing the cleanliness of Cadbury World’s premises on our day trip, I made a questionnaires asking 11 people if they thought the organisation was clean, on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, Cadbury World got rated very high as they’ve all seen evidence of the toilets being cleaned and were all able to use clean utensils from the café and the kitchen. The feedbacks I got were very optimistic; we all experienced good hygiene from the staff’s and the premises, and we had access to clean facilities.

Clean Average

Were the premises clean?

Accessibility and availability I asked 11 of my fellow class mates if they thought the visitor attraction was well sign posted and near a bus or train station, they all replied “yes”. On our way to Cadbury World, there were clear signs indicating the way to the attraction. Many bus stops were in site but Bourneville being only 5 miles away from the City centre means that it’s easily accessible. The majority of my respondents (8 out of 11 of them) felt that they could move easily and safely around the attraction, Cadbury World allows its customers to move freely around the attraction, they trust their customers; they also let them visit and join the tours they want; this could bring the organisation positive outcomes i.e.: increase the level of repeat business they get. Provision for individual needsCadbury World has won many awards for the different services they offer their customers with individual needs so after I asked 11 students on the trip to rate the quality of Cadbury World’s provision for foreign customers that can’t speak English, it didn’t come as a shock that 9 out of them rated it as being more than acceptable. 99% of the people I asked thought that Cadbury World gave good quality provision for wheelchair users, they have ramps, lifts etc… to ensure that all the facilities and services they offer can be used by disabled people as well. Cadbury World does provide for all types of customers they receive every day; the

This graph represents the feedbacks I got from asking a number of students who went to Cadbury World if the premises were clean; as the answers were to be rated from the scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest and I had a lot of people answering 6-10, I decided to put these findings into a graph and show the percentage of people who thought the premises were clean or simply average.

Number of people asked (11)

visitor attraction even make questionnaires and surveys to make sure that they are doing the very best they can to welcome more customers.

Quality of provision for foreign customers that can’t speak English

Quality of provision for wheelchair users (question 22)

Very badBadGoodExcellent

Recommendations for improvementReliability and consistency seems to be one the major quality criterias in which Cadbury World need to improve. Firstly the organisation needs to provide exactly what they were supposed to on the brochures, websites etc…although we enjoyed ourselves on the trip, having closed some rides and exhibitions came as a bit of a surprise because we expected it to be open. I asked 11 people what they thought Cadbury World needed to improve on and 4 people answered “attractions should

Acceptable Good Very Good0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Quality of provision for foreign customers that can’t speak English

Number of people asked (11)

be open”, the organisation needs to take account as it might stop them from losing customers or potential customers through words of mouth, no one would recommend it if it wasn’t reliable. Out of 11 people, 3 of them thought that Cadbury World should appeal to teenagers, it’s very true that they have educational talks and other things for young people but it’s not enough to get us interested, maybe the attraction could look into building a new “play centre” for teenagers where young people would go to socialise and play games such as darts, pool etc… 2 out of the 11 people who took part in filling in my questionnaire thought that the organisation needed more staff and better provision for special needs people, Cadbury World can improve this by maybe employing more bilingual staff , having employees that speak Italian, Chinese, Greek, Korean, Arabic, Polish or even having audio tours in those languages might broaden their customers, and the more visitors they get, the more recognition and profit they’ll make. From the feedbacks that I got from my questionnaire, it is very clear to me that Cadbury World is in fact meeting its mission statement. The visitors who took part in filling in the questionnaires did actually say that the trip was enjoyable, it seems as if Cadbury World is giving its customers a unique and memorable chocolate experience, I asked 11 people what they enjoyed about their day and about 80% answered “the chocolate” so the organization is satisfying its customer’s needs and meeting its mission statement.