Principles of effective communication within the team of a high-class hotel. Hotel Guest
Psychological features of guest service in accommodation facilities
| Introduction | 5 | |
| 1 | Psychology of service in the hospitality industry | 8 |
| 1.1 Psychology of service | 8 | |
| 1.2 Rules and standards for communication between staff and clients | 10 | |
| 1.3 Professional communication skills | 15 | |
| 1.4 Informing the client | 20 | |
| 1.5 Staff position (psychological problems). Attitude towards the client | 22 | |
| 1.6 Ways to attract potential clients | 25 | |
| 1.7 Customer satisfaction assessment system. Service quality audit | 28 | |
| 1.8 Service quality analysis | 30 | |
| 2 | Fundamentals of the theory and methods of personnel assessment | 34 |
| 2.1 The role of HR | 34 | |
| 2.2 The role of personnel assessment in the hotel business | 44 | |
| 2.3 Types of personnel assessment methods | 50 | |
| 3 | Problems of psychological compatibility: psychological types and team formation | 66 |
| 3.1 Psychological personality types of personnel | 66 | |
| 3.2 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in working with clients | 78 | |
| 3.3 Rules for composing teams: assignment model | 84 | |
| Conclusions and recommendations | 90 | |
| Bibliography | 94 | |
| Appendix A. Psychological Profile | 97 | |
| Appendix B. Extraversion – Introversion | 98 |
Introduction
Every single client experience is unique in its own way, so the industry needs people who are willing to take on challenges and can deal with them here and now, who can predict difficult situations long before they become real problems. As you know, the main task of the hospitality industry is to satisfy the requests and needs of customers. It should be noted, however, that despite the comprehensive legal framework designed to facilitate the creation of a system of requirements for quality of service, in practice there are a lot of different problems associated with serving each individual guest. And in in this case The problem of the professional skills of each hotel employee involved in service comes to the fore.
As is known, each employee is competent to the extent that the work he performs meets the requirements for the final result of this professional activity; assessing or measuring the end result is the only scientific way, in our opinion, to judge competence. In hospitality, the criterion of professionalism, based on the automaticity of skills, can be considered the ability of an employee to freely and constructively solve professional problems and perform assigned functions in accordance with professional qualification requirements and the specific needs of each specific guest (the ability to effectively make situational decisions). This determines the relevance of the topic “Psychological features of guest service in accommodation facilities.”
In our opinion, it is appropriate to talk about a specific type of competence in hospitality - “extreme professional competence”, when a person is ready to work in unexpected conditions. The practice of managing hotel enterprises shows that employees who possess these and similar psychological qualities are more ready than others to work with various groups of tourists coming from different countries, to act effectively in non-standard, extreme situations, and to retrain when radically new service technologies appear.
Target thesis: to identify the compliance of employees with their positions, their interaction and psychological compatibility to improve the quality of guest service in accommodation facilities.
An object research – the process of serving guests in accommodation facilities.
Item research - psychological features of guest service.
The purpose of the study is realized by solving the following tasks :
– determine the type of communication between staff and clients;
– develop professional communication skills and ways to attract potential clients;
– characterize the basics of the theory and methods of personnel assessment; – analyze problems of psychological compatibility.
Research methods: statistical data analysis, document analysis, observation method.
The theoretical and methodological basis of the thesis was the research of domestic and foreign authors such as Papiryan G.A., Kabushkin N.I., Chudnovsky, A.D., Chudnovsky, A.D., Egorshin A.P., Inkin B.M. ., Starobinsky E.K., Sorokina A.V., Cuming M.V., Walker D.R., Marr R., Dessler G., Stauskas E.K.
At the moment, the problems of developing effective behavioral skills in the professional activities of hospitality managers have not been completely developed in science. For a long time, the main emphasis in developing professional skills in serving tourists in the process of training hotel staff was on the technocratic component of the service and management process. It was considered important and a priority to teach an employee how to correctly perform various technological operations, for example, setting a table, serving dishes, making reservations, cleaning rooms, working with information systems for managing hospitality enterprises, etc.
However, practice shows that the humanitarian component, i.e. The process of communication with a guest accounts for up to 80% of emergency situations, the behavior of staff in which determines the guest’s perception of the quality of the services provided. Therefore, today there is an urgent need to reconsider the approach to training hotel staff, and at the same time to training specialists for the hospitality industry in educational institutions. The new concept should be based on teaching humanitarian technologies: ways to regulate emotional states, conflict resolution, the basics of ethnopsychology, etc.
It should be noted that the most relevant today in the formation of professional skills in serving tourists among hotel staff is the study of the psychological foundations of vocational training and professional education of specialists in this field.
1 PSYCHOLOGY OF SERVICE IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
1.1 Psychology of service
The provision of services in the hospitality sector, in contrast to the sale of goods, has several specific features. First of all, it is inseparability from the source and object of the service.
A service is provided to one person by another person or by a company, which again is represented by its employees. Therefore, a service contains much more content related to communication, attitude and psychology than a product.
American psychologist Will Schutz identified three basic social needs in humans: the need for involvement, the need for security and control, and the need for close emotional relationships.
Much of what a person does is driven by these needs. Based on this, it can be argued that the first basic need of the client, which must be taken into account when setting up a service, is the need for a favorable attitude.
To understand a person's behavior when choosing who provides them with services, it is necessary to distinguish between two things: the service itself (and, if possible, try to understand what particular need the client wants to satisfy) and how it is provided. The latter, in fact, represents the relationship that the client meets and enters into with the people (firm) providing him with the service, so that one act of service contains two most important components - the service and the attitude towards the client.
There is one completely unique product that every person needs, and this product cannot be sold anywhere so concentratedly as in the service sector, and therefore in the hotel business. The name of this product is respect.
A service is a process that occurs between the client and the person or organization providing the service; it is deeply individual and even to some extent intimate. The service is consumed at the time it is provided. If the buyer is not satisfied with the product, he can exchange it for another or return the money; This is not possible with the service. Most often, it is impossible to objectively demonstrate to the client whether a service is good or not; only one criterion works - whether he likes it or not. A disappointed customer does not complain, but simply changes the seller. Disappointment is not a problem of the physical qualities of the service, it is a comparison of expectations and impressions received. It is clear that service quality is primarily a matter of contact or interaction.
Respect is manifested or lies in understanding, and therefore in anticipating and taking into account the desires or problems of the guest, especially those that he did not expect.
One of the attractions that encourages people to visit upscale hotels and boarding houses is the difference in everyday comfort - the desire to live for several days in a more upscale living environment than usual. This may be especially attractive for participants in conferences and seminars that are paid for not only by the participants, but also by the organizations.
Similar motives attract a person to a restaurant: high-class (not everyday) cuisine, emphatically polite service, aesthetics of eating and table conversation, increased prestige in the eyes of others, the opportunity to present oneself and look at the public, etc. Such non-trivial desires and motives attract the guest to make a choice in favor of this or that hotel, this or that restaurant.
The reception is the first thing a hotel guest sees (hears on the phone), so everything must be flawless. So that the Guest does not have to wait long (at the counter, on the phone or in the lobby). So that check-in according to your reservation goes through “without delays”... So all you have to do is fill out a simple registration form or just sign (and the staff will fill it out themselves). Get the keys without any problems and be sure that things will be delivered to your room.
Question: How to properly handle incoming calls? Are there any nuances or features here compared to outgoing (or so-called “cold”) calls?
Answer:
a) Of course there is. There are many different tasks. It is necessary to take into account the context: incoming calls at the reception can be quite diverse in topics and situations:
- sometimes you just need to “give information”
- sometimes - to “encourage” you to make a reservation (in this case, calling can be very different people: a potential Client or, say, an office manager booking a business trip for his boss),
- sometimes - order a taxi for a hotel resident who called from the room or from the city,
- or something broke in the tenant’s room,
- sometimes one of the agents calls, etc.
This first feature.
b) Second feature: At the reception, an employee may be forced to do several things at the same time, and at that moment they call. And the Client, standing opposite, begins to get angry that the conversation with him was interrupted and he is waiting. And behind this Client there are two more, and they wonder “why is it so slow when there are only 3 people”...
Another example of an error: The client ordered a taxi from his room and went downstairs to the reception, warning that he was already here and waiting for a taxi. But the girl at the counter was torn apart and “not tied up.” And when the taxi driver arrived, the girl called the number. And, naturally, I didn’t get through. The client is naturally angry: “You said he’d arrive in 10 minutes.” The girl replies: “I called your number...”, etc. In general, a scandal.
And a lot of other “emergency” situations. Each of them should have its own speech module, etc.
Moreover, the Speech Module Constructor should contain ready-made phrases for each such case. Contact us.
V) Third feature: when the business process at the reception is not organized (example: “fill out the form”, although the Client booked online; “fill out the form” instead of making a photocopy of your passport and then punching it in), with large flows, non-separation of functions at the reception and guest relations and etc. creates overlays. And they willy-nilly fall at the reception.
Operations have different durations: “give the key”, “make a payment”, “answer the call”, etc. Since they, due to the very specifics of the process, “fall” chaotically, “traffic jams” in the business process are very likely.
G) Fourth feature: different load at different times of the day. And errors are possible at the junction.
Question: What do you think: Should front desk employees be trained in telephone etiquette? What exactly is telephone etiquette?
Answer: Of course they should. But not etiquette in general, but etiquette built into the context of the business process (see above).
Question: Is it possible to divide clients by type, to make it easier to communicate with them?
Answer: Certainly. Firstly, they are already divided: Clients, agents (who, in a sense, are also Clients), conference and seminar providers, etc.
Within each group, it is better to divide not into “types of people”, but into situations that need to be able to work out. Work at the reception with Clients is fast. Contact time is short. If you think about “types”, there will be both a brake and a breakdown.
Question: Should front-line employees have clear instructions on how to conduct conversations? Should the receptionist have a list of questions and answers already prepared?
Answer: Certainly. As well as “behavior algorithms” in non-standard situations. And trainings that bring these skills to “useful automatism.” Contact us.
Question: How important and necessary is improvisation during incoming conversations?
Answer: Need not. And in many cases it is harmful.
Question: What are your tips on how to deal with objections correctly? (Explain the essence with specific examples.)
Answer: Agree with them (this is called “rationalization”). The client is not malicious, and we are not seeking the truth with him. If the Client is not drunk, is not disorderly, etc., I see no reason why he should object to any issue. What kind of objection might arise at the reception? Even if some kind of problem occurred due to the Client’s mistake, the maximum that can be done is to say what exactly happened (and even then, if the Client is angry only because he does not understand the reason for the failure), and then say that everything it's the little things and the customer is always right.
If the Client disputes the invoice, you must invite him to the office in a friendly manner and make a reconciliation. That is, if possible, do not sort things out where other Clients are.
Question: How to deal with non-standard questions? What is the responsibility of a receptionist?
Answer: Electronic has a proprietary standard:
“When we encounter a non-standard request or do not know the answer to a Guest’s question, we do not refuse (we do not use phrases "We don't do that to anyone", “That’s not how we do things” etc.), but we always answer: "Please, I will check this with... (and name the position of the corresponding specialist ) and I will inform you within ... minutes".
During N minutes from the moment an unusual situation arises, we transfer the request to the administrator and immediately inform the hotel Guest exact time answer.
If the Guest’s request still cannot be fulfilled, we immediately apologize and invite an administrator.”
If we talk about competencies and work standards, they are spelled out in detail in. And not only the reception.
Question: Miscalculations and mistakes: how it is forbidden talking to a hotel guest?
Answer: Equally. Moreover, from above. A guest, by definition, has a higher status than any receptionist. It is no coincidence that we write the word “Guest”, like the word “Client”, with a capital letter.
You can go to the same tripadvisor and look for negative reviews of foreigners on the service of some Russian hotels. You will see a lot of things that answer the question: what should staff be taught and what should they not do.
Everything that an employee “should” and “should not” is included in the Corporate Standards of the Reception Operator (in). Here are just a few of them:
- "What would you like?" ,
- "You are wrong" ,
- "Trust me" ,
- "Don't know" ,
- "They didn't tell me"
- "I thought it wasn't urgent",
- "This is not for me"
- "Don't be rude to me!",
- "Sorry, this is not part of my job responsibilities".
- "I called but didn't get through" etc.
The guest is not mistaken. Even when the Guest wrote "Kharasho" - this is not a mistake at this moment. Even if the Guest said “Put it down” - this is correct at this moment.
If a hotel guest seems unusual to us, we will simply remember the nearest planning meeting or estimate in our mind how many suitcases fit in the trunk of a taxi. Respecting privacy, we will not show excessive curiosity about the customs, traditions or clothing of the Guest by any look, gesture or movement.
When a Guest makes a complaint, we never explain “why this happened,” but act as follows:
a) listen calmly, silently, looking at the Guest’s chin (regardless of height), without interrupting or assenting (nothing: “I understand you,” “You see...”, etc.);
b) when the Guest completes the conversation, we accept the remark in just “two points”:
- “Yes, of course. Thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience.”(Apology)
- "I'll contact (the service...) right now"(Function)
c) if the issue cannot be resolved immediately, we inform the Guest about the exact time of the response (“Sorry for the inconvenience, in ... minutes I will fix it / find out ...”)
Even when the Guest is not around, we do not have personal conversations. This way, musicians don’t make unnecessary sounds during pauses.
There is order in our workplace. Order means nothing superfluous and nothing personal. And when there is nothing unnecessary or personal and everything is clear - this is comfort. We create understanding and comfort even where they only dream of order."
The full version of corporate standards for reception staff (and not only) is contained in. Contact us.
Question: How important is correct speech in a conversation, do “callers” pay attention to this?
Answer: Of course it is important. Even if they literally “don’t pay” attention, many people actually get nervous when they answer out of shape. Examples are given above.
Question: There is an opinion: “the customer is always right.” How does this phrase apply to the first conversation?
Answer: Of course, he's always right. Even if the Client is inaccurate in the first conversation, this is the job at the reception to explain everything to him.
The process of serving a guest at a hotel can be represented as follows.
The first employee that guests often encounter at a hotel is the doorman. He greets guests, opens the door of an approaching car, can help with placing luggage on a trolley and is responsible for the safety of guests. Not all hotels have doormen. The doorman position does not generate income for the hotel and is expensive to staff. Therefore, only the largest hotels can afford to have a doorman service.
When a guest's check-in is complete, a bellman comes to show the guest to their room. The messenger service performs a number of important functions. The bellman explains the location of the hotel departments, details of the hotel's operation, and conducts a final check of the room upon check-in.
Bellboys are an integral part of a large hotel.
Garage service, doormen, hotel security and bell service play a key role in creating a hotel's image. No other hotel staff has as much time spent with the guest as the housekeeping staff. Showing kindness and hospitality towards the guest, professionally trained staff successfully promotes a number of hotel services. The ability to persuade, patience and unobtrusiveness are invaluable skills that hotel staff should have.
The maid service in most cases is the most functionally significant department, since this department is responsible for cleaning the rooms, halls, corridors and interior spaces in which customers are received and served.
Maids and head maids must clean areas quickly and with high quality common use, residential rooms, toilet, bathroom, so that the guest, getting into his room after moving and a long tiring journey, immediately feels cared for by the staff and the comfort created.
Methods and methods of cleaning in hotels are constantly being improved and developed, but the main criterion for assessing the work of staff is the impeccable cleanliness of the rooms and the hotel as a whole, the accuracy of the staff themselves when performing cleaning work, the correct and skillful use of cleaning materials and equipment.
An equally important task for the staff of this service is to be able to maneuver the time when performing cleaning work, so that less of this work is performed in the presence of the guest. How less guest will witness the working environment on the floors, the less often the service staff will “catch his eye” with cleaning materials and equipment, the less the maid, while cleaning the premises, will leave “traces” of her work in the corridors (rags, brushes, buckets), the higher the service culture will be.
Additional services are provided with the aim of creating maximum convenience for guests staying at the hotel and better meeting their requirements. Delivery technology additional services should provide for the rational placement of services in the hotel in order to simplify and reduce to a minimum the procedure for placing orders for services.
Hotel services that are involved in the provision of services must work in close cooperation, which eliminates cases of guests repeatedly asking the same question. If it is impossible to provide services, the reasons must be explained and, if possible, equivalent services must be offered.
One of the most important qualities required for hotel workers, which indicates a high human culture, is politeness, correctness, tact, good manners, and restraint.
The specificity of working in a hotel is that its employees have to constantly communicate with new and unfamiliar people, with a huge variety of guest personalities.
A hotel employee must be able to distract himself from minor troubles, maintain goodwill and friendliness in communicating with people. He must have sufficient willpower not to detect negative sentiments towards a guest or visitor, even if they behave incorrectly.
Positive qualities of employees should be manifested in appearance, the ability to conduct a conversation, answer questions clearly and correctly, the ability to prevent everyday troubles and conflict situations. They are also manifested in a respectful attitude towards the customs, traditions and national characteristics of other peoples.
Swaggering, vulgarity, familiarity, etc. are absolutely unacceptable in the behavior of hotel staff. in relations with residents.
The specifics of the hotel worker profession require a high level of speech culture. This is the ability to conduct a conversation, the ability to express one’s thoughts clearly, concisely, accurately, grammatically correct, without unnecessary words, in a polite form and proper tone.
Staff of all categories of hotels who come into contact with residents must wear uniforms, in some cases including a personal badge indicating their first and last name. Hotel employees are required to strictly adhere to the rules of wearing uniforms when serving customers. Uniforms help a visitor or resident to easily find a hotel representative, ask a question or request for a service, assistance, or provide any assistance.
Task No. 1
The front desk received a complaint. When checking into the room, guest Nikolai Alekseevich Filippov discovers that there are no towels in the bathroom. Provide a written response to the complaint.
Task No. 2
Develop and issue service instructions for registration and accommodation service employees on actions in non-standard situations -
When checking out, the guest forgot documents and a large amount of money in the room. The maid found the documents and money and contacted the front desk manager.
Standard for task 2
INSTRUCTIONS
Actions of the Administrator in non-standard situations when a guest checks out
1. When a guest checks out, check that the guest has returned the room key
2. After the guest checks out, it is necessary to send a maid to this room as soon as possible to check for forgotten things or valuables, as well as damage to the room and its equipment. In case of forgotten things, incl. valuables and money, take measures to immediately inform the guest or his contact person about the things found and about the methods of transferring these things.
3. If valuables and money are found, you must immediately notify the Senior Manager, and in his absence, draw up a report with the signatures of two hotel/hotel employees (maid and Administrator)
Task No. 1
Guest Nikolai Vasilievich Kozlov appeals to the reception worker with a complaint about the air conditioner not working in the room. Provide a written response to the complaint.
Task No. 2
Develop and issue service instructions for registration and accommodation service employees on actions in non-standard situations - the guest behaves inappropriately - makes noise, pesters other guests, etc. The guest is a citizen of Russia
Standard for task 2
INSTRUCTIONS
Actions of the Administrator in case of inappropriate behavior of guests.
1. In case of violation of the rules of stay of citizens at the hotel, the Administrator is obliged to warn them about the inadmissibility of such behavior.
2. In case of failure to respond to comments, the Administrator must:
C. In case of violation by Russian guests, call the security guard. In the absence of a security guard, inform the Senior Manager.
D. In case of violation by foreign guests: inform them about drawing up a Statement of Violation of Stay foreign citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation and transferring it to the appropriate authorities. In the absence of a positive reaction, proceed as indicated in paragraph A.
Sample act
To the Consulate______________ in St. Petersburg
To the Representative Office of the Russian Foreign Ministry
in St. Petersburg
to the Migration Service of the _________________ district
St. Petersburg
On violation of the stay of foreign citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation, _____________________ drew up an act on violation of the rules of residence in the hotel ___________________ of the following citizens:
The accommodation violations were as follows:__________________________________________
These violations resulted in a number of complaints from guests ______________________________
With this Act, the hotel notifies the Consulate of __________________ in St. Petersburg that in case of repeated violation, the specified persons will be evicted from the premises until the end of registration in Migration Service _______________
district of St. Petersburg, about which a separate act will be drawn up.
We also apply for visa cancellation for these citizens
Signatures, date
Task No. 1
Guest Evgeniy Ivanovich Krasilnikov appeals to the front desk employee with a complaint: he booked a room with one double bed, but due to an error from the previous shift, only a room with two beds was available. Provide a written response to the complaint.
Task No. 2
Develop and issue service instructions for registration and accommodation service employees on actions in non-standard situations - there has been a power failure in the room.
Standard for task 2
INSTRUCTIONS
A regular customer is a person who repeatedly uses the services of a particular enterprise (in our case, a hotel).
Working with regular hotel guests is one of the most important and profitable areas in the activities of the hotel marketing service. Those hotel industry enterprises that pay due attention to working with regular customers receive fairly high profits that are incomparable with the costs of carrying out this work.
Every modern hotel industry enterprise or chain hotel enterprises has its own approaches and tactics in carrying out this work, its own concept and advertising policy. However, there are basic principles that all participants should use hotel business starting from small ones family hotels and ending with huge hotel corporations. The motto of any hotel should be as follows: “Every guest is the most important for the hotel,” the most important and most welcome, regardless of what room he occupied or what service he used. Hotel employees, by their attitude towards the guest, must show their respect for him and their gratitude for the fact that he chose their hotel, that he pays for their services and their hospitality. There are many signs of attention to a guest, let's consider some of them. To please the guest and make his stay at the hotel enjoyable, you need to know not only his name, but also his birthday, national characteristics, religion, his habits, desires and demands that he made during his past stay at the hotel, and much more that would allow the guest to be served at the highest level.
For the successful development of a hotel, it is necessary to collect information about those who have used the hotel’s services more than once.
Experienced managers create so-called “personalities”, where they reflect the habits and preferences of frequent clients. In some high-category hotels, a profile is created for each guest after his first stay in the hotel. Information about the guest is collected from all hotel services that had contact with him. This information is then summarized, analyzed, processed and entered into the data bank of the hotel computer system. When the client returns again, the receptionist service alerts all hotel services about his preferences and special requests.
This significantly improves the quality and level of service, as it makes the guest feel in a pleasant, almost homely environment.
Most highly appreciated labor will be the guest’s phrase: “I feel at home in your hotel.” You can imagine how nice it will be for a regular customer who usually stays at a certain hotel to receive his favorite newspaper without a reminder or pre-order.
The guest will be glad if they bring him the extra pillow and blanket that he asked for on his previous visit (again, without a reminder). A tall, regular guest will feel your special attention if his bed is set up in advance. A regular female guest will positively appreciate the fact that her room is additionally equipped with a special hanger for a skirt. It will not be useless to celebrate the next arrival of an important person (VIP) to the apartments of your hotel.
In hotels with world-class service, usually the manager or his deputy writes a message to the guest on a company postcard with greetings and wishes for a good time at the hotel.
At the same time, the manager instructs the room-service workers to set the table in the room with a bowl of fruit and champagne, which the guest prefers.
If a guest gets a better room on his fourth or fifth visit to the hotel, even at a discount, he will probably stay here for the sixth time.
Professional hoteliers who deal with regular guests also keep records that describe in detail which maid they prefer to clean their room, what their wishes are in terms of cleaning the room, putting linen and clothes in order. If guests have expressed a desire to assign a certain maid to the room in which they are staying, who knows their needs and habits well, this must be done.
It is advisable to remember the names of regular customers, not only for Reception staff, but also for all personnel directly involved in customer service. The guest will be very pleased if the maid, who meets him in the hotel corridor, greets him by calling him by name. The international standard is to know all guests by the end of the day or shift.
Hotel management should maintain contact with their former guests by mail, informing them of special events, discount offers, birthday greetings, major international and religious holidays. It is advisable to have information about marital status, profession, etc. in the guest data bank.
If a client’s birthday falls during their stay at your hotel, you need to give him maximum attention.
As a rule, this event is accompanied by congratulations and gifts (flowers, pie, cake with candles, a set of chocolates, souvenirs, etc.). It is necessary to make it clear to the guest that he is taken care of as if in his own home.
You should be tolerant of some of the oddities of guests and their sometimes bizarre requests and try to fulfill all their wishes, unless, of course, they cause material or moral damage to the hotel.
Currently, all high-class hotels offering world-class services, excellent rooms, excellent restaurants and bars, excellent health complexes, well-trained staff, have their own “Regular Guest” programs.
These programs are usually handled by special hotel marketing and sales departments.
