Importance of Formal and Informal Communication in Customer Service in Travel and Tourism

Running head: CUSTOMER SERVICE IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Customer service in travel and tourism
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2CUSTOMER SERVICE IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
In today’s world, the importance of customer service is undeniable and that is acknowledged
by the business leaders operating in various industries. As the hotel business is totally dependent
on the satisfaction level of the customers and the ability of the employees to provide services to
the customers; there is immense importance of customer service policies in the hotel businesses.
It can be seen that three major elements of customer service are expanding the definition of
services provided to the customers, knowing the demands of the customers and the last one is
developing a customer friendly approach within the business organization (Quintanilla & Wahl,
2015).
While building a customer friendly approach within the organization maintaining
communication and relationship among the employees of the company and the target customers
is vital for ensuring the best interests of the business organization. In this scenario, it can be said
that communication plays a significant role in building and sustaining a good relationship among
the employees and management of the company with the customers of the company (Rhee &
Yang, 2015). Communication within the workplace can be of two types and those are formal and
informal communication. It can be said that formal communication is a sort of communication
that is predefined by the management of the hotel when a new employee joins. In the induction
training the new employees of the hotel gets to know how a formal communication takes place
between a customer and an employee of the business organization (Tuntirattanasoontorn, 2018).
The aim of establishing a formal communication system within the workplace is to convey
messages from the top leadership of the company to the employees of the grassroots level. It can
be said that the management of the hotel should use both formal and informal type of
communication within the business organization in order to experience more productivity along
with profitability (Mohammed et al., 2016). In this regard, it should be mentioned that in the

3CUSTOMER SERVICE IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
workplace, especially under hotel environment informal interaction or communication more
appropriately serves the purpose of the management (Pan, 2015). It is seen that informal type of
communication within the workplace actually helps to sustain a relational communication with
the customers of the company. Informal communication can take place in any stage of the
workplace, be it among the employees or with the customers of the company. The major aim of
sustaining an informal communication within the organization is to maintain a cordial relation
with all the stakeholders of the organization and also to maintain a good relation with the
customers of the company. Presence of informal communication within the workplace can
effectively help to maintain a sharing of knowledge that can effectively increase the
effectiveness of the general workforce of the hotel which will contribute to the profitability of
the enterprise (Luturmas & Indarti, 2016).
In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention that informal communication within business
organization is all about maintaining relationships which is necessary in the service industry as
the profitability and reputation of a hotel majorly dependent on the relation between all the
stakeholders of the company including the target customers. It is seen that in the workplace
informal communication can pick up where formal discussions end and establishing a good
informal communication serves various purposes within a hotel organization. it is a matter of fact
that in today’s world, communication is vital than ever as in today’s market due to increased
rivalry in the market of operation all the business organizations are trying to gain competitive
advantage on each other and this is increasing the importance of maintaining a good system of
communication within the workplaces (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014).
It can be said that to attain customer satisfaction within the hotel there should be presence of
both formal and informal type of communication. It can be said that by establishing formal