The Power of Words: A Case Study of Service Language in an Australian Five-Star Hotel

Abstract

Service organisations rely heavily on employees’ abilities to communicate well with guests and adapt their communication to situational requirements of encounters. Considered a critical soft skill, effective interpersonal communication is mainly dependent on processes of dialogue between employees and customers or guests, and consequently, employees’ spoken communication skills and their use of service language. Although critical to superior service design and management, the diverse ways in which employees talk and interact with customers or guests often receive limited managerial attention. This case uses empirical data from five-star hotels to present a detailed scenario of how hotel employees use service language in the fictional case of Hotel Millennium. The service language model underpins the case as a theoretical framework, enabling students to critically analyse the complexity of talk and interaction used during service encounters by applying the various constructs of the model. This will allow students to explore strategies to enhance service language in service design, delivery and management and ultimately improve the soft skill of interpersonal communication.

Appendices

Teaching Note

This case study illuminates the complexity of spoken communication in hospitality service delivery, known as ‘service language’ (Scerri, 2015; Scerri et al., 2017).

Case Summary

The main objective is for students to critically analyse how service language works and takes shape and how the service language model replicates the use of spoken communication in service delivery. Students are asked to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of service language integrated throughout the case study and isolate components of the service language model such as the factors in the meta-zone which influence service language. This is an analytical case study that offers opportunities for students to explore:

• The opening and closing sequence as ‘verbal bookends’ to service encounters

• Transactional and non-transactional forms of service language talk

• Contextual factors which influence service language

• The process by which service employees adapt their service language to different encounters or people.

Teaching and Learning Objectives

In the backdrop of the concepts of the guest experience, service language and communication, the teaching objectives of this case are for students to:

• 1. Appreciate the importance and complexity ofspoken communication(service language) in service encounters.

• 2. Critically appraise the impact ofspoken communicationon guests’ overall service experience.

• 3. Appreciate howspoken communicationcan be influenced/affected by changing guest circumstances and/or diverse situational requirements.

• 4. Critically reflect on the role and use of theservice languagemodel as a framework forspoken communication.

Target Audience

This case study has been developed to give undergraduate and postgraduate students a contemporary look at an age-old issue: the practice of communicating effectively in a hotel environment with customers from diverse backgrounds, who may be visiting a hotel for multiple purposes with different expectations. Interpersonal communication skills and spoken communication skills are a must for students and practitioners seeking to enter the hotel sector in an environment of heightened competition. The case study is applicable for students studying service design and management or customer experience in hospitality, tourism or other servicerelated disciplines, and can be used as an applied training tool to enhance applied interpersonal communication soft skills.

Teaching Approach and Strategy

There are many ways in which the case can be used. Perhaps it is most beneficial when used during the early stages of any generic customer experience course or training program, and is more relevant to those who are in the early stages of a hospitality career rather than senior management. It provides a general and fictional description of a hotel in the city of Sydney: a hotel that is doing well mid-week but needs to increase occupancy overall and thus embarks on a journey to expand its customer base. Lara, the protagonist, in this case, is charged with helping to make this transition in a process aligned with organisational development. During her investigation, Lara finds a mix of good and not so good elements incorporated into the scenario.

The case study presents facets of the service language model throughout the narrative. It is helpful to use this case study to get students/participants thinking about the ‘service journey’ concept, the psychological process surrounding any customer interaction and the many elements and challenges of communication, but especially verbal, spoken communication.

Prior to introducing the case study, it is crucial to deliver a short input session explaining to students/participants that as people who are responsible for looking after guest needs, they need to:

• Understand the process that customers go through every time they experience service of some kind;

• Review and understand the role of customer expectations;

• Understand that customers are different and have varied expectations;

• Outline or discuss the importance of appropriate communication in service delivery, primarily verbal, spoken communication.

Once you have drawn out the concepts and ideas as indicated above, you can then have participants work on the case study. They should:

• 1. Read the case study individually – allow 10–15 min approximately.

• 2. Highlight the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ elements in the observations and scenarios. This could be done as a whole group brainstorming session first. Alternatively, the students/participants can be asked to reflect on the scenarios in a brainstorm mindmap format individually. Allow 10 min approximately.

• 3. Ask the class to reflect on what can be done to improve the ‘negative’ elements in the observations and scenarios. Allow 10–15 min approximately.

• 4. Then, divide the participants into groups and ask them to discuss the questions posed.

  Allow 20 min approximately.

• 5. Finally, the feedback session would include each group presenting their thoughts and ideas based on one question.

This activity sets a foundation for a more critical analysis of service language. The facilitator can discover what students already know and what they have learnt from each other as part of this activity and can check misconceptions. Collectively, the group can reflect on the case before a theoretical framework of the service language model is presented and discussed more formally.

Alternatively, the case study can be provided in an examination format with the inclusion of a small number of the discussion questions.

Theoretical Framework

The detailed overview of the theoretical framework below, including Table 7.1, indicates which discussion question the part of the theory relates to. The question/s are shown in bolded brackets.

Table 7.1 Service Language model summary by subcategories

Service in commercial hospitality is an interactive process of communication. As hospitality service encounters particularly involve high levels of interactional complexity, service providers are required to interpret and respond to individual customers. In particular, service employees use a spectrum of spoken communication processes to shape customer experiences and develop situational service encounters (Scerri, 2015; Scerri et al., 2017) (Q8). These communication processes are an essential part of interpersonal service quality. As such, the service language model (reproduced as Fig. 7.1) represents how customer service unfolds through talk and interaction, as well as the contextual factors that influence this service language. The model can be used to conceptualise and improve customer experiences in different contexts (e.g. Scerri & Presbury, 2020), and is particularly relevant to the achievement of high-quality hotel service (Q7).

Interpreting the Service language Model

The service language model is comprised of five major categories. These categories are the service languagemeta zone, the verbal bookends, interactional – conversational domains, and the reading – qualifying – adjusting mechanism. Service language usage is represented as highly complex and multi-faceted, centralised around the dynamics of frontline service provider to-guest interaction and conversation (Q5, Q6, Q8). Structured opening and closing sequences bracket the course of communication developing during the service encounter (Q3).

Between sequences of opening and closing, interaction and conversation are complex and variable. To inform and enable this interactional and conversational complexity, frontline service providers enact an internal process of reading, qualifying and adjusting prior to, at the point of or during the course of service encounters (Q8). Moreover, frontline service providers’ language usage at points of interaction with guests is contextualised by constructs that are both static and dynamic in nature (Q1, Q2). This is represented by the outermost layer of the model. Although both located within the meta zone, the dynamic zone is contained within the static zone, representing the dominance of hotel managements’ jurisdiction over service language(Q4).

Indicative Responses to Research Activities

Essay/Presentation

• Students can discuss types of interpersonal communication, including verbal, nonverbal, visual or written communication. Students may also identify sub-types of communication, such as and spoken communication as a part of verbal communication.

• For each type, students should argue why the communication type is important for service design and delivery, with a focus on the hospitality industry. Students may refer to service management theory such as service quality, service co-creation or service recovery.

• Students should refer to credible sources of information throughout the essay or presentation.

Project/Communication Training Strategy

This activity can be completed as an individual or collaborative group project or assignment.

• Part A: Training education material. This may include, but it not limited to, communication guidelines or standards for employees, a training handbook or an orientation seminar. Students can integrate scripted dialogue or strategies to encourage styles of desired spoken communication that reflect the chosen organisation, including transactional or non-transactional service language. Students are applying the service language model and other service management theory/literature where relevant.

  Students are communicating with an employee audience.

• Part B: Business report. Following structural requirements of a structured and professional business report, students must analyse and justify the strategies integrated into the training education material regarding credible sources of information and the service language model. The audience is the management of the chosen service organisation.

Conclusion

The service language model offers a multi-faceted lens for understanding spoken communication as an essential soft skill in the tourism and hospitality industry. This is particularly important because many service organisations provide only general training and standards for communication behaviour, such as verbal scripting for everyday service encounters and ways of opening conversations with guests. However, employees are also expected to integrate dynamic forms of service language into their service delivery to enhance guests’ evaluations of service encounters and adapt encounters to different situational requirements. An understanding of the complexity of service language better equips students entering the tourism and hospitality industry, as well as those who will develop and coordinate service management practices.