A fully revised and updated new edition of this bestselling and a unique text that explains not only the theory behind the importance of customer service but also acts as a guidebook for those wishing to put this theory into practice. In essence it is the 'whys' and 'hows'of customer service. Fully updated with current statistics, trends, and examples, it is full of references to all the latest research from both academic and practitioner literature. Chapters cover important topics such as the financial and behavioural consequences of customer service, consumer trends influencing service, developing and maintaining a service culture, managing service encounters, the importance of market research, building and maintaining customer relationships, providing customer service through the servicescape, the impact of technology on customer service, the importance of service recovery, and promoting customer service internally and externally. The third edition of this book - like the first and second - is easy to read, very current, and full of references to all the latest research. Chapters cover important topics such as the financial and behavioral consequences of customer service, consumer trends influencing service, developing and maintaining a service culture, managing service encounters, the importance of market research, building and maintaining customer relationships, providing customer service through the servicescape, the impact of technology on customer service, the importance of service recovery, and promoting customer service internally and externally. The third edition also pays special attention to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has altered customer service in the tourism and hospitality sector - a sector that was impacted more than any other due to the crisis. In addition to fresh, up-to-date material, the third edition contains 10 new cases from around the world that focus on how individuals or organizations in the hospitality sector have adapted - and even thrived - during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourism is facing a new paradigm that has been brought on by the introduction of experiences in the development, management, and promotion of tourism. Associating experiences to tourism destination and products allows tourists to relate to their vacations differently and helps to fuel a destination's competitiveness and compliance with new needs and motivations that are being driven by the tourists. When properly design, managed, and developed, tourism experiences can contribute to the destination's overall sustainability by maximining tourism's positive impacts and fostering their spillover to local communities. Planning and Managing the Experience Economy in Tourism is an essential reference book that seeks to advance research on tourism experience as well as investigate how tourism experiences can create and increase tourism competitiveness. The book explores how the experience concept has evolved in the last decade, alongside the needs and motivations of consumers, and how it can be conceptualized, designed, managed, and implemented both at the tourism firm and destination levels. Delving further into concepts like creative tourism, destination attributes, and smart experiences, this book serves as a dynamic resource for travel agencies, tourism managers, tourism professionals, marketers, destination managers, government officials, policymakers, academicians, students, tourism officials, planners, and researchers.

A thoroughly updated introduction to the current issues and challenges facing managers and administrators in the investor and publicly owned utility industry, this engaging volume addresses management concerns in five sectors of the utility industry: electric power, natural gas, water, wastewater systems and public transit. Beginning with a brief overview of the historical development of the industry, the author examines policy issues including the consequences of dealing with deteriorating infrastructure, an aging workforce, climate warming, funding for repair and replacement of facilities, and the demands for meeting the needs of a growing population. In addition to reviewing issues related to various management tasks, he includes chapters on physical and cyber threats and management ethics, liberally laced with real-life examples of utilities' dealings with these challenges. Many tables, figures and boxes expand on key points from the text. Accessible and comprehensive, this thoughtful exploration of the various issues facing administrators and operators in public utilities in the new century will prove a useful overview for students of business and economics, utility staff, and directors of local utility governing boards.

Featuring a lineup of distinguished academics, this collection remedies the absence of scholarly attention to French cinematic legend Isabelle Huppert. This volume deconstructs Huppert’s star persona and public profile through critical and theoretical analysis of her various screen roles—from her very early appearances alongside Romy Schneider in César et Rosalie (Sautet, 1972) and Gérard Depardieu in Les Valseuses (1974) to a number of celebrated collaborations with high-profile European auteurs such as Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Haneke and Joseph Losey, and with more popular auteurs such as Claude Chabrol and François Ozon. Known for a cerebral internalization of characterization, a technical mastery of extreme emotions, and a singular brand of icy intellectualism, Huppert’s performances continue to impress, stun and surprise audiences. By focusing on several theoretical questions that relate to image, identity, sexuality and place, this volume situates Huppert’s star persona in the more practical creative contexts of performance, authorship, genre and collaboration. This volume contrasts complementary critical accounts of her stardom by working across the different periods and territories of her career.

The tenth volume from the successful international conference series on sustainable tourism. Tourism is an important component of development, not only in economic terms but also for knowledge and human welfare. Today, tourism is an activity accessible to a growing number of people. The phenomenon has many more advantages than disadvantages. New forms of economic development and increasing wealth of human societies depend on tourism. Human welfare has physiological and psychological elements, which tourism promotes, both because of the enjoyment of knowing new territories and increasing contacts with near or far away societies and cultures. The tourism industry has nevertheless given rise to some serious concerns, including social costs and ecological impacts. Many ancient local cultures have practically lost their identity. Their societies have orientated their economy only to this industry. Both the natural and cultural – rural or urban – landscapes have also paid a high price for certain forms of tourism. These problems will persist if the economic benefit is the only target, leading to economic gains that eventually become ruinous. It is also important to consider that visitors nowadays are increasingly demanding in cultural and environmental terms. The research papers included in this book focus on finding ways to protect the natural and cultural landscape through the development of new solutions that minimise the adverse effects of tourism.