By: Glenn Withiam
Having listening skills is essential when it comes to achieving excellence in service, but people tend to consider this as something that cannot be improved, because they say they want to develop their ability to do so, but they do not know how.
Fortunately, it is possible to change and improve those skills. A new report from the Cornell Center for Hotel Research is based on the importance of knowing how to listen in order to improve service. In this report called, "Fostering Service Excellence: What Hospitality Managers Need to Know," Professor Judi Brownell explains her analysis of how managers can help staff members improve their listening skills. The report is available at no cost on the Center for Hotel Research page: www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-15007.html.
It is not known to listen mainly due to two erroneous beliefs. First, people think that's something that's born naturally. Second, people may think that someone who doesn't know how to listen carefully can't learn how to do it. Neither view is true. A third problem is that most people believe they know how to listen more than what actually happens.
Brownell did a study among 83 managers about listening skills, whether applied to themselves or their organization. Respondents to the study mainly agreed that knowing how to listen is vital to the success of a hotel, and also strongly agreed with the assertion that they themselves know how to listen effectively.
However, they were not sure that most of the members of their organization knew how to do so. Perhaps, that's because employees are generally only indirectly recognized as people who know how to listen when it comes to rewards for specific achievements in service.
Although managers were generally unsure of how to improve their own listening skills or those of their employees, they actually did offer a number of good practices related to listening skills in their organization.
For example, one manager said he asks his staff to be "ready to listen" by not ordering them to multitask. Another manager reported that his company conducts annual formal training related to these kinds of skills, while another manager claimed that they were aiming for an open-door policy as a way to improve those skills.
The Hurier model
As Brownell has studied listening skills in detail, he developed a work plan that divides the listening process into six steps: listening, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. The initials of each of the six steps gives the model its name: Hurier. Through the use of this, managers can work specifically on those weaknesses present within their own listening skills or those of their employees.
In the uproar in a hotel or restaurant environment, listening problems can start right with the first step of the process: listening. The advent of computers and other technologies has only increased the potential interference. Training would then include increasing concentration on guests by staff members and having each of them ensure that the information has been received correctly.
Another risk is the evaluation step, which opens the possibility to believe that the comments are personal attacks. Instead, Brownell calls for people to be trained to keep an open mind when evaluating what they are told.
The creation of what can be called: "organization to know how to listen" begins from above. Brownell suggests that managers who want their employees to know how to listen should first focus on effective skills for this regard. By having a "culture of knowing how to listen", the hotel or restaurant can promote in its employees the use of listening skills to ensure excellence in service.
Glenn Withiam is director of publications at the Cornell Center for Hotel Research.
