Category: Management

Travel and tourism means people focused jobs. Whether you’re in a travel agent booking people the best possible deal for their globe hopping plans, or working on the front lines at a hotel’s check in desk, you need to be able to deliver the highest standards of customer service. However, it can be difficult to strike the right balance, and create a natural seeming, helpful and welcoming atmosphere. Mastering this, on the other hand, is key to maximizing customer satisfaction. No matter how beautiful the attractions or exciting the amenities, unresponsive, poorly trained, unfriendly or awkward staff can spoil the memories and mood of travellers faster than anything else.

As a result of this challenge, while much of the tricks and techniques you will learn are perfected by practice, the standards have been well studied and even codified, such that they can be taught in places like a tourism management school. Here’s five management tips to start you off:

1)To sound happy, smile. This is a trick of human psychology that it’s very difficult to hold a cheerful facial expression and not have it rub off on you, so make sure this trick is the first thing you train staff. It will also change the tone of your voice, which makes it useful even over the phone, and makes you extremely approachable, good for nervous people who don’t like to intrude even on people who are paid to be there for them. 2)Personalize. It’s not possible to give everyone a unique experience, and the standards of your establishment will set the tone for everyone, but where ever possible, staff should be trained to think about what individual guests need and want.

3)Know your job and location inside and out. One of the best things that staff at a venue or attraction bring is insider knowledge. This can include everything from being able to give good directions to being able to tell you which menu items are the tastiest. If you’re in management, make the extra effort to let your staff experience things from the guest side for great dividends.

4)Cross train. While everyone should have their specializations, making sure that staff understands the work that the rest of the team their own will help them work together more seamlessly. For example if you have a resort that offers corporate conference space and hosts weddings, some introductory event planning courses help staff who don’t have a direct role with that get guests on the right page before they’re handed off to your in house expert.

5)Listen to the bottom rung. Continuously improving your business, in any industry, not just travel and tourism, means paying attention to the people who are the first line of contact with your customer base. Let them identify frequent guest requests and complaints to help refine the processes of your business based on their feedback. As an added bonus, feeling valued raises morale.

Visit Canadian Tourism College for more information on studying in a tourism management school.

Article Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Tips-For-Mastering-Customer-Service-Management-In-The-Tourism-Industry&id=8091724

Managing a business is definitely a herculean task! – Facing constant competition, looking after the human resources and their productivity levels, building a rapport with the clients – This list is just endless. And in this changing and volatile market scenario, there is a new addition in this endless list – Asset management. Touted as one of the most challenging and demanding task, it requires a great deal of sincerity and caution on the part of the person handling it. Asset management software is an advanced tool, which minimizes the efforts and risks.

For many business owners, employing asset management system still does not exist. Most of them think that it is only for large scale organizations, with multi-million dollars turnover, hundreds of employees and many offices set ups across the world. However, this picture does not fit well in this picture – with the growing volume of digital resources along with other assets have made it difficult for any business manager to concentrate on each area manually.

A modern and technically well-developed tool like license management software manages the IT resources in the company efficiently. It audits and classifies the IT assets irrespective of its location or its version. It provides a handy means for the IT administrators, wherein they can realize which software or asset is out of date, or requires urgent up gradation, or which one is non-functional. It saves the productive man hours of the employees and above all, it helps you to avoid any legal hassles and penalties as a result of software non-compliance.

Asset management software is designed and customized according to the changing requirements of the industrial sectors. Therefore, it makes it easy for the managers to set the software to see that it fits well within the regular work flow. Moreover, some of vendors also come up with a more advanced platform which acts like database management software wherein it stores and maintains inventory data. It also keeps a track of shared databases, so makes it effortless to find any information on any assets.

A sophisticated tool, asset management software also provides a more improved interface which makes it completely simple for the managers to receive an updated and regular report of the total inventory and assets in the company. Any inventory and data configured within the system will go unnoticed – it will audit the entire gird and prepare a comprehensive account consisting details like life-cycle, date of purchase, vendor, manufacturing date, maintenance schedule and details.

In short, any asset, tangible or intangible will be covered under this, you will realize the resources that are absolutely non-functional, and optimize its use to save the finances as well as the productivity of the employees.

Centralization of the database is the most efficient way to have a simple and fast way to deal with any intricacies of asset management. Asset management software with its advanced feature integrates all the departments and creates a centralized system, which makes it simply manageable to supervise and optimize any resource.

Lots of people find studying difficult, but the following time-management techniques will help you study more effectively and efficiently.

Planning. Be systematic in your studying – plan out what you will do when. Whether it is writing an essay or revising for exams, plan what needs to be done and roughly how long you are going to spend on each section of the work. That way, no one thing gets too much attention and another too little.

Each time you sit down to study decide what you are going to do, and for how long. Stick to the deadline.

Avoid overload. You need time for study and time for rest, relaxation, sleep, eating, exercising and socializing.

People who are good at time-management don’t wait until the last minute to complete their projects. Make sure you allow enough time for the unexpected, so plan your study in advance.

If you have exams coming up, plan your revision so you cover all the material necessary, and do practice papers, questions or similar to help you memorise information.

Know yourself. Good time-management means studying at the times of day when you are freshest. If you are up with the lark then this will be early morning and late morning/early afternoon. If you are an owl, try late morning and late afternoon/early evening. Study difficult subjects first, when you are fresh.

Don’t shy away from material which you find most difficult to understand – tackle it when you are fresh.

Physical environment. Stop interruptions. Find a nice quiet place to study, switch off your phone. Turn off the email alert on your computer. In fact, setting up a regular study place will help get you in the mood.

Sit at a desk, rather than lounging on the bed or floor. And make sure you sit in a reasonably comfy chair, set at the right height and with good lighting.

Psychology. Don’t forget the big picture. Why are you doing all this work? To reach your long term goals, so don’t forget them! Good time-management teaches us to links short term activities to long term goals, so that we never lose sight of the big picture. Be positive – you will get there!
Stop studying when you are no longer being productive. It’s not the time itself that you spend on studying; it is the quality of the studying.

If you get tired or bored, switch task/activity – you will pay more attention to something that’s different. Some people have 3 tasks on the go at any time, and rotate around them in 30 minute blocks. Once one is finished, add a new task in so you are still working on 3 topics.

If you are procrastinating, ask yourself why. Perhaps the task is unclear, in which case clarify it. Do you have all the information to hand? If not, make finding the information the first thing you do. If it’s an unpleasant task, it will only seem even more unpleasant the longer you leave it, so just get stuck.

Recognise that you have a limited concentration span – for most people it’s around 40 minutes, so have regular breaks.

Learning strategies. Play to your strengths – we all learn in different ways so find what suits you best and capitalise on it. Try:
* read and then question yourself; pair up with someone else and question each other
* make notes
* highlight key words
* use mind maps
* make a list of questions you need to find the answers to.

Read for comprehension not to get to the end of the chapter.

Alternate reading with more active learning exercises, such as note taking, test questions

If you are still struggling, try this rescue remedy. Stand up and walk around, preferably outside for 5 minutes. Go back to your study place. Set a timer for 10 minutes and start somewhere – anywhere. At the end of 10 minutes you will be engrossed and will have clarified where you are going.

Good luck!

A lot of students are inclined towards creative aspect of a career. They look for careers which enhance their personality and demand good communication skills and out of the box thinking. Mass communication is the right and perfect choice for such students. It has many branches like event management and public relations both require good interacting skills and confidence.

Career in mass communication

In the literal terms, mass communication means relaying information and communication with the mass, i.e. a large segment of the society. The growing role of media has attracted the interest of the youth and they also want to take part in spreading awareness and relaying correct information. One can make change in the society with his or her views and efforts; such a power to manipulate situations attracts the youth and has led to a great demand in mass communication as a career. Here are two small branches of mass communication that hold high scopes have been described in detail:

Event management

Event management is a form of advertising and marketing. Its a very interesting and creative career which has become quite popular career options amongst the youth. Students who want to get into this field should have good managing skills and leadership qualities as this requires team work. One should have a flair for managing events in a creative way. Hard work and thinking out of the box are the only ways to achieve success in this field. One needs to visualize the need of the customer and plan and mange accordingly. No specialization is needed in this field. Students with good communication skills and networking skills can join this field. One gets handsome pays and gets to build a strong social network.

Public relations

Public relations as the word suggests involves socializing with people. It is a viable option for students of mass communications or one can take a diploma in public relations. This is a management function which involves monitoring and evaluation public attitudes. It helps to understand the relation between the company and the public and assess the needs and demands from both sides. There are various career opportunities in public relations like: product publicity, publishing in newspapers, magazines, etc.

Mass communication is a popular career option which has many courses to provide. Two of the most important being career in public relations and career in event management.

If you are thinking about making your career in mass communication or want to make your career in event management or searching your career in public relations, jagranjosh.com is perfect place for you

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

The accommodation and food and beverages sectors of hospitality industry are continuously growing. They are focusing more on providing superior services to customers and exceeding their expectations. The industry offers numerous career opportunities to hotel management professionals who can ensure a high degree of customer satisfaction by providing excellent hospitality services in a professional manner.

The professionals in hospitality industry are expected to

Understand the interrelationships between various departments of a hotel or resort
Perform effectively and efficiently as an individual and in a team
Apply management, leadership and human resources knowledge to enhance the performance of self and others
Apply basic principles of planning, analysis and control in making decisions at operational level
Identify various tourism and hospitality industry sectors and analyze their interdependence
Recognize and adapt to various and changing technologies, systems and computer applications
Support the provision of safety, sanitation, hygiene in food preparation and accommodations
Contribute to the successful operations of the business enterprise
Contribute to exceed customer expectations by providing them high level of services

The hotel management professionals can find employment with hotels, resorts, restaurants, clubs and bars and work in diverse areas, such as finance, human resources, sales, marketing, catering, housekeeping, food and beverage management and general management.

The exact job roles and responsibilities vary widely depending upon the employment, hotel management education and individual work experience. However, they are expected to apply planning, analysis and controlling principles of management, regardless of their job responsibilities.

Building a Career in Hospitality Management (Accommodation and Food and Beverages Sectors)

Prospective hotel management professionals are required to undergo formal education and training in hospitality management – hotel and resort. They are required to at least have a post-secondary diploma hospitality management to find entry-level jobs in this field.

The post-secondary hotel management degree at Centennial College is specially designed for students intending to pursue a career in hospitality industry. This is a basic program that helps students build strong foundations in various areas of hotel management such as:

Front office
Sales and marketing
Food and beverage
Housekeeping
Accounting
Human resources
Safety, hygiene and sanitation
Facilities management

The program combines classroom learning and a hotel and resort field placement. This allows them to put their classroom learning into practice and gain relevant contacts that can be used as references in future.

It covers a wide range of subjects, including:

Kitchen and dining room practices
Beverage knowledge and bartending
Theory of food
Front office operations
Hospitality accounting
Hospitality and tourism marketing
Hotel sales and marketing
Facilities management
Principles of food, beverage and labour cost controls
Hospitality and tourism law and security
Special events practicum

The program equips students with the understanding of the relationships between departments that drive performance in hotel and resort industry.

Enrolment Guide

In order to apply for Centennial College’s two-year post-secondary program in hospitality management – hotel and resort, you will need:

Secondary school diploma or equivalent English Grade 12 or University or equivalent