Improving Non-Verbal Communication

Improving Non-verbal Communication

Executive Summary

Hotel Srdiecko has noticed customer complaints about their personnel that they are rude and the clients did not feel welcome and comfortable in the Hotel. Srdiecko must not only handle these complaints, but also find the cause and solve the problem.

The external specialist from Thermal Wellnes Hotels, which Hotel Srdiecko is a member of their international chain, Matus Eperjesi, found out that the cause lays in the lack of non-verbal communication skills. Non-verbal communication is crucial in the field when customers come to close contact with personnel. It creates from 60-90% of the whole meaning of the sent message and therefore it is important to master in its parts. It is significant to understand the cultural differences, since people can react and perceive the message differently. Hotel Srdiecko is facing the problem how to solve these issues and what would be the best solution. It is obvious that Hotel's staff has to learn and get comfortable in this part of communication.

Possible solutions how to solve the non-verbal communication problem are:

1. Personal training

Employees will attend the course in Dual Training Centrum where they will learn what non-verbal communication is and how to use it real life and apply it to everyday work in the Hotel.

2. Monthly employee meetings

Another possible solution is to organize the monthly employee meetings where the principles of non-verbal communication would be explained. It can be done in two ways. Hotel will either send one or two managers to attend the course and they will then train the personnel or the other possibility is to invite the external lector from European Educational Institute that would do the same

3. Motivation programs

To continue, Hotel Srdiecko could start a motivation plan, where month without complaint would ensure to the all employees financial reward or other kind of reward.

4. Testing and laying off employees

The last and very drastic solution would be testing and observing employees. Every period, employees will go through the tests that would show if they have sufficient knowledge and skills to meet the standards of the Hotel and those who fail, would be released.

I. Introduction

After Hotel Srdiecko became a part of the world wide chain of hotels Wellnes Thermal Hotels it has started to get more popular not only among Slovak tourist people, but also foreign tourists began to visit and spend their vacation in its resort. Wellnes Thermal Hotels offers to its customers the highest quality of service and accommodation and its philosophy is to make its customers feel like home and welcome every minute of their stay. Most of the clients were very satisfied and felt welcome the whole time of they stay, however there were some complaints about the hotel staff. Comments were rather general than specific, therefore it took time find out what the problem was. For instance, American tourists were complaining about the office clerk that she was much bespoken; other family was complaining that one of the staff members they were dealing with was rude, whereas other one looked like on drugs. In order to improve its service Hotel Srdiecko invited an expert from Wellnes Thermal Hotels to define and solve the problem. After studying and observing every day flow, Matus Eperjesi has find out that the problem lays in the lack of non-verbal communication skills among the staff. In order to solve the problem with non-verbal communication Matus Eperjesi promoted to Hotel Srdiecko several courses of action; individual staff training, monthly employee meetings, motivation programs and in the worst case scenario, testing and laying off employees with insufficient skills.

II. Background Paragraph

Hotel Srdiecko was established in 1958 by a family Rubens that was living close by. It was not really a hotel, it was just one cabin for tourists that spent night or two there. Unexpected, Srdiecko became popular not only among regular people, but also many artists and poets spent long time over there. Rubens decided to built more cabins, quit his job in sawmill and with his family start to focus on accommodation business. Soon, he built a building which is a base for today's known hotel Srdiecko. With his family, Rubens has developed well known, sought and popular hotel in a beautiful nature that many are comparing to paradise. However, in 2000 he got an offer from foreign investor, international chain of hotels Wellness Thermal Hotels that he could not deny. Hotel Srdiecko became part of the international concern and reconstruction had begun. Wellnes Thermal Hotels completely rebuilt the hotel from inside to outside to provide its customers not only the highest quality of accommodation, but also the hotel features like restaurant, bar, swimming pool, fitness, sauna and many others have to meet the world's standards. As stated earlier, Wellnes Thermal Hotels focuses mainly on philosophy to make its customers feel like home and welcome every minute of their stay. General Manager once said: "We believe that our customers should be treated as family members. As if they are guests in our own home" (The Story of Crystal Mountain, n.d.). Right after re-opening in 2005, hotel Srdiecko became popular again not only among Slovak people, but also foreign tourists began to visit it more often. Soon, hotel Srdiecko became well known universal hotel where various nations and races meet together which is very challenging for hotel top management to make everybody happy and to keep the everyday flow smooth. The key does not lay only in the beautiful interior and exterior and pretty environment, but also in the staff working for the hotel. During reconstruction, new employees were hired after exhausting process of interviewing not only by Slovak management but interviewers from Wellnes Thermal Hotels as well. Srdiecko staff was carefully chosen to provide the best service possible and to meet every customer's need. Employees were trained how to treat customers with the highest respect, how to greet, serve and overall dealing with clients was presented on these trainings. Employees could start working.

III. Problem Definition

After more complaints were received in the system that customers were unhappy or they were not satisfied with their stay, top