Table of Contents
The hotel industry comprises various forms of businesses that provide accommodations in lodging, food, and beverages in addition to a vast variety of interrelated and organised services intended for public use. While the intense competition within this industry is reflected through every business aiming to provide “Service par Excellence” to their customers to increase their market and profit shares, one sector that differentiates itself from the rest is hospitality.
The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse the relationship between the personality characteristics of Hotel salespersons/employees and its impact on sales and customer satisfaction. In order to accurately categorize varying employee personalities into distinctive groups, The Big Five Model of Personality was used. On the other hand, a qualitative data collection method involving direct one-on-one interaction with individual participants was employed to better assess the relationship.
The direct interactionincludes in-depth interviews with two employees of the hotels Taj Gateway and TGB in Surat, Gujarat. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that personality characteristics have a direct and causal effect on the sales and customer satisfaction of a hotel.
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Keywords:Personality traits,Hotel Sales Manager,Hotel Industry, Big Five Factor Model
Introduction
The Hospitality Industry has grown as one of the key drivers of growth among the rest service sectors in India. The dynamic and complex environment of this global industry has significantly contributed to the rapidly advancing competition faced by its businesses. With the industry undergoing exponential increases in newer hotels being developed annually, businesses have turned their attention towards focusing on providing quality service to increase customer satisfaction. While providing quality services is a major area of emphasis in every business model, it is important to recognize that this factor cannot solely improve customer satisfaction, thus necessitating the need for possessing competent employees that can enhance the customer experience.
In an industry that is highly dependent on customer-employee interactions, it is absolutely vital to employ individuals who are not only skilled, but also suitable and personable for their respective job. There are six major areas within a hotel in which employees face the highest volume of customer interactions: Meal Preparation (kitchen managers, cooks, assistants), Meal Delivery (food-service managers and waiters), Accommodation Services (housekeeping), Guest Check-ins (receptionists, telephone operators, liftboys), Administration (hotel managers, clerks) and Facilities Maintenance (keepers, drivers, technicians).
These roles are all reliant upon staffing employees who have the best-suited personality traits, are the most skilled, and can behave accordingly with customers when facing difficult situations. One key trait that is of extreme importance is the degree of adaptability in such situations, which has been determined to directly correlate with an individuals’ sales performance. A higher degree of adaptability to manage and avert crisis while being able to connect with others can significantly increase sales and customer satisfaction, whereas a lower degree could prove to be destructive.
To identify which personalities are most commonly associated with each role and which one’s result in the most success, the Big Five-Factor Model was used. The above–mentioned issues are just a hint/suggestion of much larger part and to elaborate further, this paper sheds light on various impacts on hotel sales due to personality characteristics of hotel staff through Big five factor model and increase the sales. This study is further divided into different sections, followed by literature review, methodology and interpretation of interview.
What do you Mean by Personality Trait/Characteristics?
As quoted by Edward Diener and Richard E. Lucas‘Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.’One challenge that sales and marketing managers commonly face within the hotel industry is not just the need to meet the increasingly high and ever-changing customer demands and expectations, but to also earn customer trust and loyalty in the form of repeat hotel visits Wuest et. al., (1996); Domini and Guzzo, (2010). While many customers rely upon brand name- recognition and quality of service within the industry when choosing a hotel, additional reports suggest that a high level of customer trust and satisfaction from the hotel staff can also promote better, longer-lasting loyalty Deloitte, (2010).
Ferris and Judge, (1991) report that a more traditional way to identify the proper personality dimensions is to ascertain a person’s capability to fit within an organisation. This study extends the research by correlating job satisfaction and organizational commitment with personality dimensions, which means if the staff are not allocated according to their skill and personality type the productivity of the organisation decreases as the staff would not be able to perform their best due to lack of skill in that particular area.
Barrick and Mount (1991); Dion et al. (1995); Lamont (1977) analysed that the personality of a salesperson affects in managing the relationship, thus influencing the customer’s opinions about the quality of service provided by the salesperson, which links purchasing behaviour and individual personality traits and results in the shape of a better and long-term growth.Brown,et.al, (2002) examined that customer orientation is higher in the personality hierarchy. In the various departments of hotels, specific behaviours/traits of staff are needed to achieve high performance, which enhances the performance ratings of the hotel. The two models are applied to assess the personality characteristics of the hotel staff, making it easy for the managers to allocate their duties and give the staff an overview of their performances.
Trait theory
Pederson et al. (1988) explored that while there are several approaches that can be used to study different personalities; one that is most commonly used is the Trait Theory, which represents a quantitative approach that examines the relationship between personality of a staff and sales of a hotel. Dion et al., (1995); Solomon, (1992) the theory stated that there are multiple characteristics to define a person, the most common example of such traits are whether a person is extrovert or an introvert, whether he or she uses practical thinking or emotions to solve the problem.
According to this theory, various types of characteristics can be categorized into three traits: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits (Allport, 1963). Cardinal traits are ones that completely dominate and comprise an individual’s personality, and are often the most recognized. Central traits consist of intelligence, honesty, shyness, and at times, anxiety. Secondary traits generally surface in certain situations that evoke a response or attitude that is not commonly used (Allport, 1963).
Big five factor theory/model
Barrick and Mount, (1991); Digman, (1990) A more widely recognized and accepted classification theory amongst sociologists and psychologists is known as five-factor personality classification. As inferred from the name, this theory has five major domains that form the framework of individual personalities Gosling et. al., (2003); John and Srivastava, (1999); McCrae et. al., (1998).
The Big Five factors can be interpreted differently: McCrae and Costa (1985); Norman (1963) first factor of Big Five model is extraversion which is also known by being firm, sociable, assertive, and active. According to Furnham and Fudge (2008), extraverted salespersons/employees have a significantly higher correlation associated with improved sales performances as they are able to better connect and develop deeper relationships with other customers. As a result, this not only improves their overall likability and the public image of the hotel they represent, but it also consolidates their ability to convince customers to buy additional services provided by the hotel. In contrast, if salespeople get too preoccupied with such social relationships, having an extraverted personality can potentially hinder their performance (War, 2002). Doing so could render them incapable of actively promoting the hotels’ services as they have the responsibility to fulfil the customer’s interests.
Guilford and Zimmerman (1949); McCrae and Costa (1985) The second factor is agreeableness, which is described as trusting, flexible, soft-hearted, good-natured, cooperative and tolerant. These various dimensions of agreeableness are expected to be some prior source, capable of influencing positive performance behaviour. This is not restricted to brick and mortar salespeople,agreeableness plays main role in determining the effectiveness of hotel staffs as most of the components of agreeableness especially trustis needed in building and maintaining long term relation with their guests/customers.
Norman, (1963) third factor is Conscientiousness which is stated by trustworthiness, responsible, organized, resourceful, hardworking, achievement-oriented and persistent. Conscientious employees are highly dependable/reliable, overall achievement oriented whereas employees with non- conscientious personality are complete reverse, they are careless, undependable Thoresenet al., (2004a). There findings concluded that the relative effectiveness of conscientiousness would be greater for less challenging jobs (e.g. selling more convenience goods).However, effectiveness of conscientiousness would be lesser for the job having high level of consequences(e.g. advanced technology).
Digman (1990); Norman (1963) The fourth factor is openness to experience, which can be described as curious, original, broad-minded, imaginative, and artistically sensitive. Individuals who are more open to newer experiences have a more positive stance and perspective when approaching newer ideas and tasks, while those who are not as open to newer experiences prefer less-repetitive tasks. Costa et. al., (1992) explored six different dimensions related to this domain, which includes fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values.
Barrick and Mount, (1991) The fifth factor of the Big Five Model is emotional instability and neuroticism, which can be categorized as being tense, angry, anxious, depressed, and stressed. These traits can be measured from extreme high to extreme low points, such that individuals having high emotional instability may likely perform poorly, whereas those with low emotional instability may perform well in jobs that require greater emotional stability. For example, hotel staff/employees often require a greater level of stability as they frequently have to deal and interact with customers that have differing cultural values, beliefs, and social orientations. For a more accurate depiction of each trait and its respective scoring scale.
