Customer service and satisfaction as one of the most important factors in the Thorpe Park

Customer service and satisfaction is one of the most important factors within maintaining a strong image in a working attraction such as Thorpe Park. If a customer is treated with respect upon arrival and is pleased with how an employee dealt with them (ranging from emergencies to questions regarding the attraction and its attractions) then there is a large chance that they will return due to the manners and courtesy the employee portrayed.
For example customer service needs to be maintained to a high standard within the premises, such as when customers buy products such as food or souvenirs, if the catering skills are kept at high qualities then customers will in theory buy more food, the same principal lies for products. If more products are sold then the overall profit of the business is increased, raising success. Another objective example regarding customer service and satisfaction is if a visitor caught themselves up in an emergency and needed urgent help.
Employees are responsible for carrying out specific procedures to give as much help to the visitor as possible; this is another way of gaining customer satisfaction. Specific – this objective can be specifically set to a certain area inside the park, whether it’s on arrival or in the premises itself, each one may have different ways of approaching customers but customers should always treated with respect, even if they are unhappy with what the park has delivered. Employees should maintain to approach them politely and question them if required.

If manners are shown towards visitors and they are satisfied, there is a higher chance the park will be visited by their satisfied customers. Measurable – The only possible way to collect data regarding customer satisfaction is to ask visitors what their thoughts on the parks customer service through surveys or questionnaires. Using this method the business can adapt on weak areas of this service, get a personal view from visitors that can be taken into consideration in the future for an increased customer satisfaction.
Attainable – This objective is most certainly attainable, but could be achieved after measured to elaborate on faults within customer service. Staff can be overseen by executives, this is vital to make sure customer satisfaction is maintained to a high standard. This may also put pressure on the employee to put more effort into their job, leading to them becoming more polite, therefore customers becoming more satisfied with their visit.
Another way this could be achieved is the rate of visitors complaining to the managerial team, the less complaints the higher the standard of customer service, if there is an increase in complaints, managers need to urgently contact employees to fix the problem. Realistic – Seeming as Thorpe Park is such a popular attraction in the United Kingdom, there is no way that this sort of objective isn’t realistic.
A business will not become as successful if the customer service isn’t maintained to a high standard, so this is a realistic objective for Chester Zoo that must be obtained to increase the number of visitors into the attraction. Time-related – It is hard to measure this objective over weeks, months or years, customer service can only be measures as it comes, for the whole time the business is up and running, throughout this time the customer service may fluctuate from good to bad depending on how visitors are dealt with.
Saying this it could also be possible to increase customer satisfaction over week, looking over the strong and weak points of the business, looking at areas to adapt on to increase customer satisfaction. Another vital objective is maintaining the business. The high standard set at Thorpe Park must stay the same and its vital overall income doesn’t decrease. Changes are made at the park frequently to attempt to attract new customers to the attraction, as well as getting the previous customers to revisit the attraction.
This is specific as it may be regarded as an objective for a certain target audience, firstly different methods will be used to attract new customers rather than previous customers, as attracting new customers is a harder task because they have never been previously satisfied by the park. Facilities such as access for the disabled also make this objective specific, the more facilities there are for a wide range of people, the happier the customer, resulting in an increase in revenue for the park.
The level of customers can be measured via survey again, asking customers whether they would return to the park, or market research could be taken place ensuring that a high percentage of customers are visiting the attraction over a time period, which links with time-based. The data collected from surveys and market research can be compared to the previous year’s income, a conclusion can then be brought to say whether Thorpe Park are maintaining the success of their popular attraction.
This then links on with the objective being attainable, which is definitely possible, if it wasn’t then the business would have failed years ago. Figures prove that this is possible with admission fees, which maybe compared to previous years, or even other major competitors, this way Thorpe Park can tell if they have achieved their goals or not. As well as this objective being measured over a yearly period, to ensure full satisfaction data should be collected on a monthly or even weekly basis.
This ensures that the company knows if income is increasing or not, maybe one month may have a rapid decrease in income, this shows the company must change something within the organisation to attract new customers, whether this is introducing new animals or facilities to attract a wider target audience. All these factors must be taken into consideration regarding maintaining the business to its full potential. Core communication is an aim set by Thorpe Park. This regards every possible thing the park does to communicate to various stakeholders within the business and who is interested in the park, whether it is families or schools.
Advertisement strategies fit in well with this objective as they attract different target audiences which in total will increase the total number of visitors to the attraction if the right audience is focused on. If an age group has a low attendance at the park, let’s say young children for example, then the park should adapt on this to ensure that facilities and advertising is made to attract this age group, therefore increasing the amount of young children entering the park.
If more children are attending, then they will bring parents/guardians with them as a necessity, this increases the overall total visitors to the attraction, small logical strategies like this one must be considered during the SMART acronym to make sure goals are achieved and full potential is attained. This could be measured by collecting data dealing with the percentage of the different age groups attending the park, stakeholders are contacted regarding the advertisement, the business has to find information on how different age groups are attracted to the park via advertisement, e. g. oung children are attracted by the installation of a new play area designated for that certain age group. This data could also be collected using a questionnaire, asking visitors how they were brought to the park, and was it through an advertisement strategy. Also they should be requested to write any improvements that could be made to the park for enhanced visiting. This follows on to how this objective is attained, data is collected via the questionnaires and then should be adapted on to choose the right advertisement to the right age group, therefore increasing the visitors to Thorpe Park.
For example children may prefer humorous advertising, showing more entertaining images with bright colours to attract that age group, whereas the older generation prefer information with less humour to attract them, this could be made via the internet or radio, market research could also be made beforehand to show which platforms ages acquire their advertising, this would lead to a more precise strategy in attracting a target audience. The business needs to update its literature every 12 months or so, this is due to the park creating many new advertisement ideas over time which must be modified regarding market research.
Other competitors must take into consideration, if renewal of this literature isn’t made then competitors may take the light, this is an extremely important reason to update advertisement, showing the realism within objective setting within Thorpe Park. Advertisements should be modified yearly as stated, but also could be changed in shorter time periods, this ensures that attraction strategies are different to other competitors, and avoids fraud from other main competitors to copy your advertisement ideas if Thorpe Park were to be successful.
Also if literature is updated on a regular basis, customers feel like that the organisation is making an effort for them, it shows a positive image which attracts customers as the park is being updated constantly including new facilities giving customers something to look forward to commencing their visit. If advertisement is maintained at a high standard, more visitors attend the attraction which leads to an increase in profit. This shows how important it is to set aims and objectives to ensure customers are receiving high quality service and are persuaded to revisit the zoo.