Customer-Service Training, in Mexico
Yikes! I did it! I just led my first real training in Mexico. I say "real," because although I've taught 4 sessions of a masters-level university class, it didn't feel fully "mine," because I was sub-ing for a professor. In this case, I contracted with my first autonomous client in Mexico. I'm halfway through giving a customer-service training to a staff of 16 reception people, waiters, and cleaners in a small, luxury hotel in Guanajuato.
From my discussions with the General Manager I knew the clientele were Mexican, U.S., Canadian, some European (mostly German), and Japanese.
I told the participants at the beginning, how pleased I was to have the opportunity to work with them, because I deeply believed that focusing on their abilities in customer service would help them gain more success, reach a higher level, and earn a higher salary. I do believe that. Excellent customer service is still so rare in Mexico that those who do give it, immediately stand out.
We started with self-introductions. I asked each person to please stand and introduce themselves and tell us their role in the hotel. One by one, I gave them feedback. In most cases, I asked them to do it again, slowing down especially when saying their name. Latin names consist of several names (First name, father's last name, mother's last name) and I'm sure are easy to understand if you are from the culture, but can become a blur to the outsider. I asked some to also speak up because their voices were so soft.
The manager had told me he wanted them to be more approachable and warmer with hotel guests, and not to answer with just a "yes" or "no." Some, he said, felt intimidated by the well-off status of the guests (the higher-cost rooms are $300 U.S. a night). So I focused on warmth: showing warmth with your body language, taking initiative and approaching clients. I told them of my experience once in the States, of chatting with a colleague at a conference and hearing her describe her different houses. She had a house in California, a house in the Sierras, a third in Hawaii. With each house, I suddenly realized my body was crowding into itself; I was slowly but unmistakably withdrawing from her. Smiling, of course, nodding, but withdrawing. How could I have a conversation with someone who had three houses? How could I even be in the same room?
I was making the point that feeling small is a universal experience that everyone goes through somewhere, sometime, but the main point about customer service is thinking about the other person and their needs, not yourself.
I hope I didn't come across condescending. I do think "feeling small" is universal; on the other hand the gap between the employees' standard of living, and those of the hotel guests, is much wider than the gap I felt with my colleague.
When we were discussing body language, I learned that the Mexican custom in hotels and restaurants is for employees to keep their hands behind their backs. I was told this after suggesting in a role-play to practice opening the arms and revealing hands.
After the session I discussed this with the General Manager. He gave me full permission to share my expertise and not feel bound by hotel custom. But we agreed, a habit like how you hold the body didn't begin with employment at the hotel; caution, passivity--stances that apply everywhere in life, but start in the body--are learned in the home and family, years before adulthood.
It's so complicated! Maybe coming across more openly and confidently WOULD be seen as rude or inappropriate in Mexico. On the other hand, many of the clients are not Mexican and don't necessarily admire deference. My hope is that at the least, the participants will see more options and feel more open to trying different approaches. I'll have another session tomorrow; more will be revealed to all of us, I'm sure.
From my discussions with the General Manager I knew the clientele were Mexican, U.S., Canadian, some European (mostly German), and Japanese.
I told the participants at the beginning, how pleased I was to have the opportunity to work with them, because I deeply believed that focusing on their abilities in customer service would help them gain more success, reach a higher level, and earn a higher salary. I do believe that. Excellent customer service is still so rare in Mexico that those who do give it, immediately stand out.
We started with self-introductions. I asked each person to please stand and introduce themselves and tell us their role in the hotel. One by one, I gave them feedback. In most cases, I asked them to do it again, slowing down especially when saying their name. Latin names consist of several names (First name, father's last name, mother's last name) and I'm sure are easy to understand if you are from the culture, but can become a blur to the outsider. I asked some to also speak up because their voices were so soft.
The manager had told me he wanted them to be more approachable and warmer with hotel guests, and not to answer with just a "yes" or "no." Some, he said, felt intimidated by the well-off status of the guests (the higher-cost rooms are $300 U.S. a night). So I focused on warmth: showing warmth with your body language, taking initiative and approaching clients. I told them of my experience once in the States, of chatting with a colleague at a conference and hearing her describe her different houses. She had a house in California, a house in the Sierras, a third in Hawaii. With each house, I suddenly realized my body was crowding into itself; I was slowly but unmistakably withdrawing from her. Smiling, of course, nodding, but withdrawing. How could I have a conversation with someone who had three houses? How could I even be in the same room?
I was making the point that feeling small is a universal experience that everyone goes through somewhere, sometime, but the main point about customer service is thinking about the other person and their needs, not yourself.
I hope I didn't come across condescending. I do think "feeling small" is universal; on the other hand the gap between the employees' standard of living, and those of the hotel guests, is much wider than the gap I felt with my colleague.
When we were discussing body language, I learned that the Mexican custom in hotels and restaurants is for employees to keep their hands behind their backs. I was told this after suggesting in a role-play to practice opening the arms and revealing hands.
After the session I discussed this with the General Manager. He gave me full permission to share my expertise and not feel bound by hotel custom. But we agreed, a habit like how you hold the body didn't begin with employment at the hotel; caution, passivity--stances that apply everywhere in life, but start in the body--are learned in the home and family, years before adulthood.
It's so complicated! Maybe coming across more openly and confidently WOULD be seen as rude or inappropriate in Mexico. On the other hand, many of the clients are not Mexican and don't necessarily admire deference. My hope is that at the least, the participants will see more options and feel more open to trying different approaches. I'll have another session tomorrow; more will be revealed to all of us, I'm sure.
posted by Louisa at 5:47 PM
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