Award Date

Spring 2006

Degree Type

Professional Paper

Department

Hotel Administration

First Committee Member

Gail Sammons, Chair

Number of Pages

36

Abstract

Research suggests that effective employee training methods are of key importance in the service industry today. The service industry uses customer service as a means of differentiating its product (Davis, 2005; Farrell, 2005; Feiertag, 2005; Furunes, 2005; Higley, 2004a; Jenkins, 1984; Simons, 2005; Walsh, 2004). “Friendliness and a willingness to serve others are the tools of the hotel trade, and training is the sharpener that refines the tools into hospitality machines” (Higley, 2004b). Training is integral in creating a positive environment for customers. If organizations want to ensure customers have this type of environment, employees must have both service and technical knowledge; the employee must know what he or she is doing (Higley, 2004a). The service industry uses various forms of training in order to ensure employees have the required knowledge and skills needed to create a high level of customer service. In many organizations, employees are spread nationwide making traditional classroom based training ineffective and expensive (Roeder, 1986). Large organizations, in particular, have difficulty reaching thousands of employees consistently and in a short amount of time can be a “logistical nightmare” (Burns, 2005). In order to accommodate the distance gap, companies have created extensive training sessions based both on the computer and the telephone. Research has shown both methods to be cost effective and to have the capability to train a large number of people in different locations simultaneously (Off the road again: Training through teleconferencing. 1992; Reach out and train someone: The many faces of distance learning.2002; Teleconferencing fundamentals.2002; Davis, 2005; Eisinger & Smith, 2000; Gentry, 2005; Higley, 2004a; Jenkins, 1984; Pollitt, 2004; Suttell, 2005). Teleconferencing, computer-based, web-based, and videoconferencing are some common training methods currently employed (Teleconferencing fundamentals.2002).

Keywords

Customer service; Employees – Training of; Teleconferencing

Disciplines

Hospitality Administration and Management | Human Resources Management

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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