The latest research insight report from People 1st has suggested that customer service skills are still not up to the standard that employers in the hospitality industry would like to see. The report found that while 87% of businesses said that customer service would be important for them in the next 3-5 years, 53% employers believe that their employees lacked these vital skills.
The insight report found that the case was even worse for sales and customer service roles, where 70% of employees were believed not to have the right skills.
A lot more to be done
Martin-Christian Kent, executive director at People 1st, said that while a lot of work had been done in the past few years to address customer service needs, there was clearly a lot more work to be done.
“In the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics, we offered a whole range of initiatives aimed at improving customer service skills in the UK, and to a strong degree it clearly worked.
“In 2012 the UK was recognised in the Top 10 for the warmth of its visitor welcome for the first time ever – and I firmly believe that the hospitality industry played a huge role in us gaining that accolade.
Ensuring good service is vital
“Employers have clearly recognised that ensuring good customer service is vital to their business and they have adapted to that need. But as customers’ expectations continue to rise, they need to make sure that they also raise the bar.
“With many businesses continuing to say there is a shortage of customer service skills among staff, there’s clearly more work to do.”
Training not improving performance
While the report found that 66% of businesses had trained customer service staff in the past 12 months, it also found that 41% of employers found that performance had not improved.
“It’s a worrying trend when we see employers investing so much money in training and not getting the returns they’d like – and we have to question why that is,” said Martin-Christian.
“Employers need to be looking at whether the training they’re offering is relevant and that there is support for it at all levels, but it can’t stop there. They need to ensure that employees are empowered to make changes in their roles to ensure that customer service needs are addressed.”
Hard-to-fill vacancies
With wide recognition that the industry faces significant skill shortages, the insight report also found that two-thirds of vacancies are considered hard-to-fill because applicants don’t have the right skills.
“While businesses aren’t just looking for customer service skills, it’s clear that the industry is making this a huge priority when it hires,” said Martin-Christian. “I think there’s an increasing recognition that customer service extends just beyond the traditional ‘front of house’ area; it’s providing good service to internal customers is equally important.”
Technology and social media
Martin-Christian said that technology is also having a big impact on customer service for a lot of businesses, with the wide use of social media making sure that employers’ attention is drawn to customer service failings.
“Almost everyone in hospitality has probably seen at least one case of someone either complimenting or – more commonly – complaining about customer service on social media like Facebook or Twitter by now.
“Some businesses are highly attuned to this and are now embedding both social media and visitor feedback sites like TripAdvisor as a natural extension of their customer service offering, which is hugely encouraging.”
The full report can be downloaded from the People 1st website
About People 1st
People 1st is the skills and workforce development charity for employers in the hospitality, tourism, leisure, travel, passenger transport and retail industries focusing on transforming skills in the sector through the development of effective recruitment, training and talent management solutions.
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