Swiss tourism puts forward a friendlier face

The Q stands for improved services in an industry suffering from a bad reputation swissinfo.ch

A quality management scheme introduced five years ago by the Swiss tourist industry is beginning to bear fruit.

Hundreds of shops, restaurants, hotels and ski lifts now participate in the programme, helping the industry rid itself of a reputation for poor and unfriendly service.

Sandra S, who was employed as a “mystery person” as part of the Swiss Tourism Federation’s programme, says she was impressed with the service and lessons she received at a ski school in the Bernese Oberland.

“The ladies in the office were competent and very friendly, and processed their customers’ requests quickly,” she reflected. “Our instructor was quite nice too.”

Her task was to assess the quality of services provided by the ski school during an unannounced, anonymous visit.

Criticism

Her final report will also be based on how well the school responded to written correspondence before and after her visit, and how it replies to customer suggestions and complaints.

The ski school is one of more than a thousand businesses, involved either directly or indirectly in the tourist industry, participating in the quality programme.

“[We introduced the programme] when we realised that neighbouring countries had really improved the quality of their tourism industry,” Nina Volken of the Quality programme told swissinfo.

“We weren’t making any progress [as far as quality was concerned] so it has given us a chance to catch up.”

“Q”

There are three levels in the programme and the ski school has attained its first “Q” for quality and has taken a step towards a second “Q”.

For the first level, participating companies have to undergo an audit and compile an action plan defining where service can be improved. One staff member is then trained to work as an in-house quality coach.

The focus in level two is on management quality through the external monitoring by “mystery persons” every three years.

The third level – a “Total Quality Management System” – is expected to be introduced later this year.

Catching up

Volken says it was mostly members of the Swiss hotel and restaurant industry – which had developed a reputation in the 1990s for poor service – who were the first to enrol in the programme.

Today, the type of businesses displaying the stylised blue “Q” has broadened to include cable car and public transport companies, tourist offices, ski schools and even village bakeries.

Even though tourists may not yet understand the meaning of the “Q” label when they see it, the Swiss Tourism Federation is convinced of the benefits for both businesses and their customers.

More profit

The federation argues that “better quality means more profit” by encouraging guest loyalty, reducing costs by avoiding a repetition of mistakes and creating more motivated employees.

Now that the label has been established within the industry, Volken says the federation’s next goal is to increase public awareness so that tourists learn to recognise the “Q” quality symbol.

swissinfo, Dale Bechtel

Key facts

The Quality label was introduced in 1997.
More than 1,000 Swiss businesses participate in the programme.

In brief

There are three levels involved in the quality management programme, as defined by the Swiss Tourism Federation in cooperation with the Research Institute for Leisure and Tourism at Bern University and the Frey Academie in Zurich:

Level one – the promotion of quality awareness with the aim being a continual improvement of service.
Level two -focus on management, based on the model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
Level three – the establishment of a Total Quality Management system tailored to tourist operations. This has yet to be introduced.