Customer Service After the Cup

It’s all over and, by all accounts, New Zealanders can congratulate themselves on a Rugby World Cup that will stay in the hearts and minds of fans for years to come.

For the international fans who visited for the cup (more than 80,000 of them in the June to September period), it was the hospitality and spirit of their hosts that made the experience one to remember.

Tournament chief, Martin Snedden, summed up the success of New Zealand's hosting effort in an NZ Herald column, saying: “The key is how people genuinely embraced the notion that great hosting is about taking care of guests first and placing our own needs second.”

Taking care of customers is not something that starts and ends with Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011). Business success is built on delivering an outstanding  and uniquely New Zealand customer experience, whether that’s a great product or memorable service.

Many New Zealand businesses used RWC 2011 as an opportunity to do just that, sending customers home raving about their products/services. The onus is on all of us now to leverage these new relationships and to make sure we build on the reputation we’ve earned as great hosts.

For the tourism industry in particular, RWC 2011 provided welcome relief from what has been a tough couple of years. The focus has quickly moved to the upcoming peak season, one that will be critical for many operators who have struggled through recent economic challenges. Now’s not the time to drop the ball on customer service.

Just like our boys in black, we’ve shown the world what we’re capable of. Let’s take the lessons we learned during RWC 2011, the passion we shared for our culture and country, and the warmth we showed to our visitors, and make these permanent fixtures of our service sector.

As David Ferguson wrote in The Scotsman, “New Zealand has opened the eyes of the world to its delights and I confidently predict that many, many people will return here. Put it on your ‘bucket list’ now. Thank you for your hospitality, New Zealand.”