So far we have looked at various aspects of customer service delivered by tourism organisation.
Most of what has been covered has been ‘face-to-face’, involving conversations and interactions between the customer and employees.
However, customer service often involves situations where the customer is not talking directly, ‘face to face’ to a member of staff from a tourism organisation.
For example:
- A customer could look at an organisation’s website for information
- A customer could make a restaurant booking using a telephone
- A customer could use an app to find out about the opening times of an attraction.

Websites, such as Hotels.com, needs customer services as well
So customer service is not only delivered ‘face-to-face’, it is delivered across different mediums, and this might affect the type of service the customer receives.
Obviously, when customer service is delivered face to face it is easier to greet the customer, build a rapport and to identify their needs, but tourism organisations may choose to use other mediums for a number of reasons.
In this section we will be considering how customer service differs if it is delivered face to face, by a telephone or through online or electronic means.

Face to face customer service
Downloadable Content
The above content is also attached below as a PowerPoint for your ease and to support within the classroom.
- Powerpoint (.pptx): U1-1.3-R1-different-mediums.pptx