9 - 15 December 1999

Need to develop a 'service culture' in the industry

by Franco Valletta, MTA Board Member and Chairman-Designate of the Human Resources and Support Services Directorate

Malta's tourism industry must develop a service culture if it is to build and sustain a competitive advantage into the 21st century. This does not mean that Malta's tourism industry lacks a service culture or that there is an absence of service consciousness among or within organisations operating in any sector of the industry but rather it suggests that a service culture is critical to the success of Malta as a tourism product.

The process of developing a service culture requires the concerted effort of every regulating or service providing organisation whose activity impacts on the tourism industry directly or otherwise. The key to developing a service culture hinges to a large extent on the quality of the industry's workforce.

A service culture does not imply being servile or subservient towards the tourist. Rather it means a way of being with the tourist, being prepared to go out of one's way, giving a little more than expected and, most importantly, enjoying this way of being. The values of a service culture promote respect, understanding and a genuine way of dealing with the tourist.

The quality of the service encounter has a direct impact on the customer's level of satisfaction and overall perception of the organisation. It would be correct to argue that it is front-of-house employees who directly influence the customer's experience.

Nevertheless service quality is also contingent upon the support of back-of-house employees to their frontline colleagues.

Malta's tourism industry can remain competitive in the next century if the product, the employee and the customer are treated as assets of equal importance.

The competitive success of Malta's tourism industry is heavily dependent on its ability to deliver high quality, value-added service.

This ability, in turn, is contingent upon the skill level of the industry's workforce. Customers, in making a choice between Malta and another destination, make their decision on the basis of their perception as to whether the destination offers good value for money.

The creation of added service value should be the result of a concerted effort by all stakeholders whose activities impact directly or otherwise on the tourism industry.

One way of adding value is to formulate, in the absence of, and review, in the case of existing, standards of service.

This exercise would require the collaboration of all present at this conference to ensure an upgrading of service across the sectors of the industry.

The Malta Tourism Authority will embark early next year on an exercise to review and, where necessary, formulate service standards for the various segments of the industry.

The aim of the exercise is to establish national minimum standards of service and the process will distinguish between hard and soft standards.Service standards are vital to Malta's tourism industry if it is to offer the best service to its customer. Being the best is bound to be tough but, then, service standards are meant to be demanding. Service standards give the desired critical edge to Malta's competitive position as a tourist destination.

Malta's tourism industry must comprise a network of learning organisations if it is to remain competitive in the global market and if it is to develop a service culture. Learning organisations are able to assess and adapt to their changing environment and are managed by individuals committed to delivering a quality service. Learning organisations are continuously and systematically searching for information on what their customers think and want. Information on the customer is then used to educate and inform the organisation.

Until now the development of a service culture has been discussed at the levels of the organisation and the industry. There is yet another level: education.

Malta's education system, as an agent of socialisation, has a critical role to play in this respect by promoting values conducive to a service culture in the process of preparing Malta's present and future workforce.

The Malta Tourism Authority plans to embark on a series of projects in the next three years aimed at facilitating the process of developing a service culture for the tourism industry.

If we acknowledge that the development of a service culture would give Malta's tourism industry a competitive advantage, then we must, with immediate effect, begin to place increased emphasis on the important role of its human resources.

The process of developing a service culture truly poses a major challenge for the industry's human resources. If we want to sow the seeds for developing this kind of culture, we must not solely rely on understanding what the tourist as customer wants and expects, but we must also bring feedback from the industry's workforce into the equation.

The development of a service culture will largely rest upon the quality of people that are recruited into the industry.