World Tourism Organization
Vilnius, Lithuania
4-5 November 2004
Quality Offensive in Swiss Tourism
Karl Koch, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Berne, Switzerland
Summary
Quality in tourism has many dimensions. Through quality management, efforts are being made to take account of the growing importance of individual aspects of quality. A programme with various instruments was designed for Swiss tourism with the aim of systematically promoting and securing on-going quality development. The programme consists of three levels: in level 1, the focus is on quality of service and in level 2 on management quality. It is not until level 3 that familiar TQM systems are adopted. Some 2500 companies have received label I and 400 label II. 4700 quality coaches have been trained. Quality assurance is a private activity in Switzerland. The government supports the programme through subsidies. This article provides a brief overview of the entire programme which covers all aspects of a tourism service package, ranging from tourism information through the hotel trade mountain cableways.
1.
Principles of quality management
Quality is gaining in importance in all areas of modern life. In tourism too, guests require "products" where they are sure of getting top-quality, value-for-money services. The further reasons for systematic quality management in tourism are widely documented: growing competition, lack of willingness to provide a service, growing loss of individuality by standardization of products, adverse price-performance ration etc. However, quality in tourism is an extremely complex phenomenon: Illus. 1 Quality dimensions in tourism
Quality in tourism
Hardware
Environment
Software
Facilities Functions
Aesthetical aspects
Landscape Adverse effects / pollution
Consumption of resources
Service Information
Hospitality
Source: Based on Felizitas Romeiss-Stracke: Service-Qualität im Tourismus, Munich 1995 To satisfy more demanding and fast-changing customer wishes, various tools on "Total Quality Management" (TQM) lines have been developed, whereby: • • • Total stands for the inclusion of all areas of the business and all staff: principle of staff briefing Quality stands for the consistent gearing of all activities to the quality requirements of internal and external customers/guests: principle of guest-led action Management stands for the responsibility and initiative of the top management as regards systematic quality development and assurance: principle of management responsibility
TQM also involves the principle of process orientation, thus emphasizing that each product or service is the result of a process, with each step being linked to the one before and after it. The quality of the individual processes makes for the quality of the whole, and in time, quality standards are raised by means of the permanent cycle of planning – implementation – reviewing – correction.
Illus. 2
The quality development wheel
Quality standard
Quality development Correction Planning
Review
Implementation
Quality assurance
Time
Total Quality Management comprises three aspects: • • • Quality target, ie. the self-set high standard of service to satisfy the wishes of particular guest segments and of staff Quality development, ie. active cultivation of this standard of service and its constant improvement Quality assurance, ie. the conscious monitoring of the standard of service as well as reactions if anomalies gradually creep in.
2
Approach of critical incidents
From a guest's point of view, tourism services are always the product of a whole package of individual services. Like a chain, these services are all linked: advance information from a Tourist Centre, the train journey to the destination, stay in vacation hotel, eating in a restaurant, mountain-railway excursions and lastly the trip home. Each individual service leaves its mark on and influences the holiday experience. Also at the level of the individual hotel, a guest experiences the whole service package as a chain in which one service is linked to the next: information, arrival, check-in, moving into the room, eating in the restaurant, check-out. These service chains which are specific to guests provide an aid for systematic checking of a hotel's services and processes, showing where practical quality improvements can be made and promoting the introduction of appropriate measures. Providing services and direct contact with guests are exacting tasks because each guest has his specific expectations, needs and opinions. However tactful staff may be, the odd mistake or misunderstanding is virtually unavoidable.
Such occurrences are described as "critical incidents"; these are defects of varying degrees in a service chain which result in failure to satisfy guest expectations and hence trigger dissatisfaction. Illus. 3 Service chain with critical incidents and good service
On the spot After
Before
Information/ Reservation
Journey
Food Accommodation
Entertainment
Journey home
Post-vacation goodwill acivities
Local information
TransActivities port
= Critical incidents = Good service
Guests tend to remember critical incidents and do not hesitate to talk about them. Research has shown that it takes seven positive points to compensate for just one guestcare slip up. Managers would do well to put themselves in the guests' place on a regular basis, taking their remarks and reactions seriously, communicating with them direct and systematically reviewing individual sequences and processes for critical incidents. Service chains are a useful tool for tracking down potential critical incidents and deriving "good service" from them in the shape of in-house quality standards.
3.
Quality program in Swiss tourism
The Swiss government financed the major tourism umbrella federations to develop a programme that gives tour operators and destinations the possibility of checking the quality of their management and service and taking targetted action to optimize them. The "Quality Seal of Approval for Swiss Tourism" programme is aimed at raising quality awareness in all destinations and individual hotels, thus ensuring quality of service in Switzerland, the tourism and vacation country par excellence. Practical tools were developed to help destination and tourism managers to tackle quality management.
3.1 Multi-level quality development
The "Quality Seal of Approval for Swiss Tourism" programme is divided into several levels and can even be expanded into a TQM system: • • Level 1: Promotion of quality awareness through "quality viruses", the aim being ongoing, systematic development of quality of service. Level 2: Promotion of management quality through quality management systems, the aim being ongoing, systematic development of management quality. Precondition: meeting of Level I requirements.
•
Level 3: Establishment of Total Quality Management, the aim being preparation for a TQM system tailored to tourist operations.
3.2 Quality Seal of Approval instruments: 1st level
To obtain the Quality Seal of Approval, the four instruments for promoting in-house quality of service (which were specially designed for this programme) must be systematically implemented (Illus. 3). These are: • Service chains: service chains should be checked for potential critical incidents in respect of key guest groups. "Good service" should be set out in the form of quality standards and the necessary measures derived from them (see chap. 2) Quality profile: the operational fields of crucial importance for quality of service should be reviewed for quality awareness (by way of a cross check). Six quality aspects can be chosen from the ten listed below: • knowledge of guest expectations • further training of staff • care of aids and facilities • taking account of special wishes • knowledge of guest satisfaction • knowledge of staff satisfaction • attentive guest service • putting mistakes right • teamwork • cooperation with associated hotels Complaints: a questionnaire must be used to check how complaints are dealt with so that appropriate measures can be derived from them. Action Plan: The measures with the highest priority formulated in the service chains, quality profile and complaints instruments are combined in an Action Plan for the year ahead.
•
• •
Illus. 4: Instruments and procedures for obtaining the Quality Seal of Approval
Programme instruments
Self-developed instruments, using an in-house quality coach wherever possible
Service chains
(critical factors, good quality)
Action Plan
(key measures)
Complaints
(systematic analysis)
Quality profile
(stock-taking analysis) Passing on of documents
Verifying Unit
After one year:
Review of results for 1st year and new Action Plan for 2nd year
Verifying Unit
After two years:
Review of results for 2nd year and new Action Plan for 3rd year
Quality coaches who fit the prescribed qualification profile are taught how to handle the instruments and prepared for implementing a quality management system in their own hotel. Guidelines, transparencies, a video, floppy disk and help desks are available to simplify this demanding task. The completed documentation (service chains, quality profile, questionnaire about complaint processing and Action Plan) are passed on to the Verifying Unit for study. Its preliminary decision is submitted to the regional Quality Commission which awards the Quality Seal of Approval. After one year, hotels are asked to review the results and to update their Action Plans.
3.3 Quality Seal of Approval instruments: 2nd level
Quality Seal of Approval Level II builds on Level I and is based on the comprehensive model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM 1995).
Illus. 5: Overview of Quality Seal of Approval Level II
Quality Seal of Approval Level II
Action planning
Action planning Results
Benchmarking
Management Profile
Staff satisfaction
Guest satisfaction
Quality trainer Quality Seal of Approval for Swiss Tourism Level I
Mystery Person
Instruments
Seminars Level I
The overall programme comprises the following requirements and instruments: • • • • • • • Quality Seal of Approval Level I is a prerequisite. The quality coaches trained in Level I receive further training to enable them to become quality trainers. The hotels undertake to assess their own quality awareness in the various organizational fields with the help of the management instrument. The hotels also undertake to systematically check staff satisfaction as well as guest satisfaction. A Mystery Person checks and assesses the hotel on the basis of prescribed criteria. The findings are assigned branch-specific benchmarks and represented in the form of a "Quality House" (see illus. 6). From this, the hotel develops quality improvement measures which are embodied in an Action Plan.
Illus. 6: The Quality House: integration of findings and action planning
Staff satisfaction
Guest satisfaction Mystery Person
Management profile
Integration of all findings
Action planning, implementation
3.4 Results
The quality offensive in Swiss tourism is already in top gear. Some 2500 companies have received label I and 400 label II. 4700 quality coaches and 400 quality trainers have been awarded a dipoma. Level III is in the pipeline (66 labels). It is to be hoped that those involved will make the most of the opportunities offered by the quality promotion programme to further develop a quality culture.