Customer service as an act of(f) balance: lessons for the tourism and hospitality industry

Abstract

This article reports on corporate customers' perceptions of a telecommunications organisation in South Africa and the lessons learned for the tourism industry. The purpose of the research was to explore reasons for the decline in customers' perceptions of overall quality of service at Telematics SA from a systems theory perspective. The Three State Triangle model (Henning, 2009) was presented as the three dynamic states of all living systems, including businesses and industries. The states were identified as Stable equilibrium (Se), Explosive instability (Ei) and Bounded instability (Bi). The model was applied to interpret the findings and offered a way to interpret customer experiences at Telematics SA. Qualitative research was the chosen method of inquiry. A card game was the conversational instrument used to conduct 10 in-depth interviews with Virtual Private Network customers. Purposeful sampling fitted the rationale of the study. Content analysis was done to identify coding categories, while touch-point validity confirmed that the findings were aligned with the systems theoretical concepts. The research methodology can be applied as a qualitative diagnostic tool in different business contexts, while the Three State Triangle model reveals the underlying dynamic processes in organisations. The research results are applied as lessons to be learned for the continuous improvement of products and services of businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry. Businesses should not get stuck in old strategies and policies but adopt a state of Bounded instability where innovation and renewal is possible.

Keywords

• balance
• customer service
• systems theory
• bounded instability