Overcoming the Lack of Customers at Bima Tour.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Semakin berkembangnya industri pariwisata di Indonesia, membuat saya tertarik untuk semakin mendalaminya. Oleh karena itu saya memutuskan untuk melaksanakan program magang di sebuah biro perjalanan, yaitu BIMA TOUR. Dalam proses magang saya sebagai customer service, saya mendapati masalah yang dihadapi oleh perusahaan ini, yaitu kurangnya jumlah konsumen yang datang. Melalui wawancara dan juga penelitian dari sejumlah sumber, saya berusaha untuk mencari penyebab masalah tersebut dan beberapa solusi yang dapat diajukan untuk dapat diaplikasikan dalam perusahaan tersebut dan dapat membantu menyelesaikan masalah yang di hadapi oleh BIMA TOUR.

Berdasarkan hasil analisis, ditemukan bahwa penyebab masalah adalah pertama BIMA TOUR tidak mempekerjakan staf marketing dan kedua BIMA TOUR dan saya tidak melakukan pendekatan kepada pelanggan dengan baik dan benar. Berdasarkan teori, saya mengajukan tiga buah solusi, yaitu: pertama BIMA TOUR sebaiknya mengikuti pameran untuk memasarkan produk mereka, kedua BIMA TOUR harus menambah variasi dari paket tour mereka dan ketiga BIMA TOUR harus meningkatkan dan memperbaiki kualitas daripada staf pelayanan konsumen mereka. Setelah mempertimbangkan kemungkinan dampak positif dan negatif ketiga solusi tersebut, maka saya menyimpulkan bahwa cara terbaik untuk mengatasi masalah yang dihadapi oleh BIMA TOUR adalah dengan

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Tour and Travel in Bandung is growing rapidly along with the establishment

of some new hotels and holiday destinations. Because of the growth of this

business, several travel agencies have been opening for the past few years. They

offer tour packages for families, couples, even for companies who want to give

their employees holiday tours. Therefore, some travel agencies in Bandung are in

a race to become number one and be the first choice when local and foreign

tourists want to go for holidays or businesses.

Being interested in tour and travel business, I did an internship at BIMA

TOUR. My internship at BIMA TOUR started from July 18th until September

9th, 2013. During that time, I observed that the travel business in BIMA TOUR

did not work well. I was positioned as a customer service staff, and my main task

was to handle customers who came to the travel agency and to explain the

services offered by BIMA TOUR. I found that there were not many customers

coming.

During my internship, there were only two or three customers per week came

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that this travel agency has a problem concerning the number of customers. In this

term paper, I want to share and discuss the possible ways to overcome the lack of

customers at BIMA TOUR. I will analyze the causes and effects of the problem

and find some potential solutions that can help BIMA TOUR to increase the

number of customers.

B. Identification of the problem.

The problem that will be analyzed is formulated in the following questions:

1. Why did BIMA TOUR have a lack of customers?

2. How did the problem affect the company?

3. How should BIMA TOUR overcome the problem?

C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study

The objectives of the study are to find out the causes and effects of the

problem and to find the best solutions to overcome the problem. The benefit of

this study for me as the writer is I can learn how to handle a lack of customers

which will be beneficial if I open a business in the future. As for the readers, they

will learn how to solve the problem if they have the same problem as I did. For

the company, BIMA TOUR, the benefit is they will get some inputs on how to

attract more customers.

D. Description of the Institution

BIMA TOUR is one of the tour and travel agencies in Bandung. It was

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Bandung, West Java. BIMA TOUR has done several cooperations with big

companies. The owner of BIMA TOUR is Mr. Rudy. At the moment, the

company employs six employees.

E. Method of the Study

I did both library and field research to do the study. The library research was

done to find theories from books and electronic sources; whereas, the field

research was done through observation and an interview which was conducted in

my internship period in BIMA TOUR.

F. Limitation of the Study

The subject of this study is BIMA TOUR. The study focuses on the lack of

customers who came to BIMA TOUR based on the data I got when I did my

internship from July 18 until September 9, 2013.

G. Organization of the Term Paper

The term paper starts with Abstract, which is the summary of the term paper

in Indonesian, continued by Acknowledgments and Table of Contents. They are

followed by four chapters. The first chapter is Introduction, which contains

Background of the Study, Identification of the Problem, Objectives and Benefits

of the Study, Description of the Institution, Method of the Study, Limitation of the

Study, and Organization of the term paper. The second chapter is Problem

Analysis, which includes causes and effects of the problem. The third chapter is

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fourth chapter is the conclusion of the term paper. After that, there is

Bibliography, which lists the references used for the research. The term paper

ends with Bibliography and Appendices, containing a flowchart, interview

questions, an interview transcription and a tour package brochure of BIMA

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In this final chapter, I will present the conclusion and suggestion of the

problem that BIMA TOUR has. In the previous chapters I have explained the

problem that BIMA TOUR has. I find that the causes of the problem are BIMA

TOUR did not employ any marketing staffs, besides, BIMA TOUR and I did not

apply appropriate approach to the customers. I also find that the problem creates

several effects, namely BIMA TOUR got low revenue and had unhappy

employees. I propose three potential solutions: First, BIMA TOUR should join

exhibitions to market their products, second, BIMA TOUR should add new

variety of their tour packages, and the third the performance or the quality of

customer service staff must be improved by giving them training about becoming

good and qualified customer service.

After analyzing the potential positive and negative effects of each potential

solution, I think combining the three potential solutions is the best solution to be

applied in solving the problem that the BIMA TOUR has. Joining exhibitions

should be done by BIMA TOUR because it is a powerful tool for the company to

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the company will be able to interact with the customers directly and attract

potential customers. Furthermore, BIMA TOUR will learn the market demands

and get the data which the company needs to improve their products and develops

more strategy to promote the products.To join exhibitions, BIMA TOUR will

need more products to display. That is why adding more variety on the products,

in this case travel packages, is also important. This will give more options to the

customers and help the marketing staff to offer the most suitable products to the

customers. In order to make the first and second potential solutions run well,

BIMA TOUR should improve the quality of the customer service staff by giving

them training to become good and qualified customer service. Since customer

service staff is the front line team of the company which deal directly with the

customers, they play an important role to create a good impression of the

company. Good impression will lead to the customers’ decision to close the deal

with this company. In other words, customer service staffs’ role is very important

for the success of a company, especially in getting customers.

In conclusion, all the potential solutions are well connected. With the problem

that BIMA TOUR has, which is a lack of the customers, those potential solutions

can be used to solve the probem. By applying the solutions and doing them step

by step, I am sure that BIMA TOUR will be able to overcome the problem.

Moreover, it can increase the number of customers and finally become a

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Maranatha Christian University

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