The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and the Department of Tourism have embarked on an exciting public-private partnership to promote, develop and sustain greater levels of Service Excellence not only throughout the Tourism Value Chain, but also in terms of greater public awareness.

The Tourism Service Excellence Initiative (TSEI) is ultimately aimed at raising and maintaining Service Excellence Standards to increase the sector’s contribution to economic growth in South Africa and maintain global competitiveness of the industry. 
This means it will influence our reputation for 2010 and beyond.

THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Naturally, a strategic process aimed at increasing Service Excellence standards in a diverse South Africa with its known historical legacy requires a collaborative and participative approach from all industry sectors and Government, as well as relevant sectors of civil society and the broad public.

Furthermore, strong emphasis will be placed on Behavior Change towards Service Excellence in terms of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of all who work in the industry and those who utilize our services (the public).  A five-pillar approach to implementation was dentified and the project started in 2009, with the implementation of Phase 1. 

Phase 1 constituted the research and audit of current service levels within the industry.  Disney Institute was contracted as a Research Partner for this initial phase.  Other elements of implementation will include:
 
Phase 2: Up-skilling of Service Delivery;
Phase 3: Public Awareness;
Phase 4: Measurement and Monitoring of Service Standards;
Phase 5: Consumer Feedback System

The audit phase, now completed, was essential in order to identify the barriers and enablers to Behavior Change on Service Excellence amongst the relevant industry target audiences.  The audit was also conducted with the public to test expectations and understanding of Service Excellence concepts.  The research team visited all 9 provinces in cover the whole of South Africa’s different offerings. 

Once the full report is finalized, it will be taken back to industry for feedback.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH THE RESEARCH FINDINGS
Due to the national importance of Service Excellence and public interest, the completed report will be made available to the industry upon its completion.
Following acceptance of the report, the actual elements and activities of the strategy pillars will be identified and structured based on concrete intervention programs. Of course we are not yet in a position to pre-empt research outcomes and speculate on what their exact nature will be at this stage.
However, they will in all probability be structured as Workplace Programmes intended to raise and maintain Service Excellence standards within all participating organizations, including Government.
Simultaneously, the Research Report will be used to inform our Public Awareness strategy.
Also, the Research will be used to inform our Implementation Needs Assessment to action Report recommendations. 

WHAT ABOUT SERVICE EXCELLENCE FOR THE WORLD CUP?
South Africans are some of the proudest people on earth. We take our spirit, attitude, connectedness and vibe very seriously. Visitors to South Africa may leave with their suitcases stuffed with curios and keepsakes, but what is most precious to them will be the personal stories which they share once they return to the places they call home.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and its prequel the FIFA Confederations Cup™, provide us the chance to showcase the truly world-class experience we can create for visitors to South Africa for the Games. That South African World Cup experience for visitors from across the country, continent and globe is something which we, as a Tourism community, must ensure we provide each and every person who comes to enjoy the beautiful game on our shores.

At the heart of our ability to deliver a world class 2010 experience is our ability to truly play ‘host’ to the world during their stay. This responsibility of hosting extends far beyond the stadiums and airports. It reaches deeper than ticket sales and hotel bookings. It is, in fact, in everything we do and every single moment of contact we have with our visitors. And it is brought to life through our culture of hospitality. 

In 2010 we as a nation must ensure that our Service Culture is not only at par with the any other leading travel destinations in the world, but that it is redefining of the meaning and feeling of a world class travel experience. 

Critical to our delivery of a truly South African 2010 experience is giving a face and heartbeat to the word ‘service’ – taking the concept of service personally. This requires recognition of the fact that there are two fundamental acts of caring for visitors required to make them feel like our guests: 1. being attentive and 2. adopting a ‘make it right’ approach. Each and every South African that a visitor will encounter acts as a reflection of the culture of service and hospitality of our nation. This applies to all South Africans, whether formally working within the hospitality industry or simply as a resident interacting with an out-of-towner during the month of football matches. It is our shared responsibility and duty.

Delivery of service excellence requires taking a very focused, results-orientated approach towards not only raising the bar in terms of South African service standards (which we all sadly know needs to be adjusted upwards), but ensuring consistency of service standards throughout the hospitality sector. There are four areas which we as a country need to focus on to deliver a winning 2010 service culture. 

To begin with and clearly setting the agenda:
1.     We need tocreate awareness of the importance of serving through declaring service excellence as a national priority;
2.      We as South Africa need to define the South Africa service signature as the basis for service culture delivery;
3.      We need to accelerate understanding and skills development of same by putting in place programmes to up skill people in the service   touch points and ensure that we have people with the right kind of attitude and behaviour to be able to make us competitive; 
4.      Supporting this, and critically, we need clear measurement and monitoring standards, as well as a credible feedback system, to make it possible for the sector to monitor service excellence and to address challenges that may arise.

We have promised to host the best ever world cup. Not just by providing infrastructure, but by ensuring we convert all participants into Tourism ambassadors.

NEXT STEPS……
We urge you to become part of this exciting and necessary intervention to ensure a Service Excellence Culture throughout South Africa.