An interpersonal communication problem that occurred to my
supervisor and I was during my four month internship at Equarius hotel while
working at the concierge. As an assistant concierge, one of my duties was to
handle transport services where I have to display an excellent knowledge of the
resort’s transportation services in handling inquiries and efficiency in
arranging transportation requests with accuracy to ensure that guests are
provided with the required services.
As Equarius Hotel is under the purview of Resort’s World
Sentosa (RWS), most of the guest enquiries are routed through RWS call centres
located in either Singapore or Manila. During that particular incident, I was
attending to a guest’s transportation needs as I picked up the call from the
concierge desk, a lady from Manila spoke to me and requested to help arrange
for an airport limousine arrival transfer for an Ocean Suite guest. The message
was relayed in broken English and I could barely make out what she is saying.
After some attempts, I managed to obtain some important information
that is essential to make a successful booking, such as the guest’s flight
number and time, date of arrival and terminal location. I have also indicated
such request in the property management system. With no other means of
contacting the overseas guest and the call centre in Manila, there is no other
way to confirm the information at a later time.
Thankfully the guest arrived at the hotel as planned, and
proceeded to stay at the Ocean Suite. However, the problem started to surface
when the guest checked out of the hotel. It also happened that it was my off
day during that time. My manager thus handled the guest’s enquiry. As they were
Japanese guests, their communication with the manager was also weak as they
could not speak proper English. According to my manager, the guests said “My
car, where? To Airport?” . At first my manager thought that the guest wanted us
to book a taxi to the airport. However, she was expecting a departure limousine
transfer.
As my manager could not locate any bookings for a departure
limousine transfer, she immediately called me on my off day to clarify the incident,
as I was the one who handled the arrival booking. After several rounds of
questioning, it turns out to be a miscommunication between the call centre
agent in Manila and the guest, as well as the information being relayed to me
during the previous call. The call centre agent might have heard from the guest
wrongly, or the guest did not actually specify a departure booking at all.
Whatever the case was, the mistake still falls on our side
as we had failed to deliver a service as promised (or as claimed by the guest).
The Japanese guest was furious and demanded to have the limousine transfer.
They were also unable to fit into a taxi because they were a family of six with
many baggage. Therefore, the concierge had to actually arrange an emergency
limousine service at the very last minute for the guest. Nevertheless, their
trip was delayed for quite some time and they almost missed their flight back
to Japan.
Reflecting back on this incident, I had realised the
importance of clear and coherent interpersonal communication, especially on the
verbal communication aspects as neither the call centre agent nor the guest
were able to speak English fluently. Therefore, how should I have handled such
guest requests? Is there a need to remove the intermediary? (ie. the call
centre in Manila). What could I have done differently to avoid such situation?
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ReplyDeleteHi brad, I have changed the blog template slightly to another one. I hope that you're able to view the post. If you can't, please let me know again!
DeleteSorry for the incovenience!
Xianda
22/2/2017
Yes, Xianda, I can access: This is a very apt scenario, one that you detail very clearly. It also gives me more incite into the operations of a hotel.
DeleteThanks for the effort!
Dear Xianda
ReplyDeleteThis is a detailed post that highlight the importance of communication with forgeiners that speak a different accent. This is a real communication problem that could happened to any service staffs that handle people of different nationalities. For the post, I had identified two communication problems that I could provide my humble opinions on.
Firstly, I understand that you found difficulty in understanding the information relayed by the lady from Manila. I suggest that you can ask the lady to drop an e-mail to confirm all the details that was discussed on the phone. This will help to ensure that no important messages are missed out and also act as a prove of the request.
Secondly, the communication barrier with the Japanese guests. Previously when I was working in an attraction selling tickets, I had also met with Japanese tourists who have poor command in English and we could not understand each other properly. In order to resolve the problem, I used Google Translate on my handphone to faciliate the communication. I would key in English which was translate to Japanese for them to understand and vice versa. I believe that this method can work for other languages too (so long Google support it).
In response to your questions, due to the multi-level of communication, it would be difficult to pin-point the juncture where the miscommunication occur. As mentioned previously, an e-mail will be a good black and white document to ensure that you had captured all information that were pass down.
I hope that you would not be discourage after this incident, but take it as a opportunity to learn and grow! I look forward to reading more of your blog post!
Cheers
Hong Yi
Dear Xianda,
ReplyDeleteYou have presented us with a very detailed description of the entire communication issue. As mentioned by Hong Yi, an email supplemented after the phone call would be able to spell out every single detail that needs to be communicated to you over to phone. In addition, you could also inform your colleagues and superiors of the request as you could foresee that a miscommunication was bound to occur with all the communication barriers present.
I am certain that you have learnt from the incident and would be much wiser now. I sincerely look forward to your upcoming posts!
Cheers,
Amirul
Reviewing how the incident has happened, I was initially quite dejected and guilty at the same time even though I had done my job as according to what the call centre agent has instructed me. Never had I expected that the situation to become worse at the very moment when the Japanese guest leaves the hotel. I was also feeling guilty because I felt that I have troubled my manager to handle the situation while I was away. There were many ways that I could have taken steps as outlined by Hong Yi and Amirul, which could have prevented the situation from happening.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, like what Hong Yi has mentioned, I could have used tools such as Google Translate to translate foreign languages into the ones that both the Japanese tourist and I can understand so as to reduce any miscommunications. Likewise, the Manila call centre lady should have dropped a confirmation e-mail to firm up all details mentioned during the conversation. If she did not do that, I will have to ensure that this is to be done by sending them the e-mail confirmation.
Secondly, applying the theory of Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, I could have applied the collaboration mode between my manager as well as to the guest. For such a guest with communication barrier between us, my manager and I should have been more aware and pay close attention to their needs. I definitely have to be more sensitive and proactive in such situation when anticipating guest needs.
Not forgetting the favour that my manager has helped me, the following day I went up and personally apologised and thank her for the help rendered to the Japanese guests while I was away. Not only she did not blame me for the incident, she even taught me a few tips on how to manage such situations and even encouraged me that it is alright to make mistakes.
Thank you everyone once again for the sharing session!