Maintaining Professional Relationship in Hospitality Industry

Our today’s tutorial is from our amazing hotel & restaurant job training guide “Hospitality Career Opportunities: Learn Secrets to Get Jobs in Hotel, Restaurant & Cruise Industry“. Grab this superb EBook from HERE. Anyway, from this tutorial you will learn how to maintain Professional Relationship in Hospitality Industry.

Hospitality industry is all about keeping connection. Every now and then you will need to build up relationship with new guests, coworkers, suppliers etc. If you can build a good network it will definitely help you in your professional life especially when you will decide to move for a new job.

professional relationship hospitality industryHere are some tips that will help you to build and maintain good and healthy professional relationship at your workplace:

  • Listen Others Views: In your workplace, situation will come when you and your other colleagues may not have the same opinion on a particular topic. You could be 100% convinced that what you are saying is right. But your supervisor has different opinion. In such cases you have to handle the situation tactfully. Your colleagues will only trust you if you have very good, strong track record and problem solving reputation. You may also find that seniors are not open-minded to accept junior ones suggestions. These are all very obvious. Try to understand seriousness of the problem. If it is a major one, you better discuss with other rather being strict on your point of view.
  • Be an Active Listener: You cannot impose everything of your plan in hospitality world. Many times in your career as a hotelier you will find things are not going in the way you have planned earlier. That can result some unhappy guests or even some unhappy colleagues as well. The best practice to deal with such situation is to use active listening technique. If any guest or colleague comes to you with complaint then first request him to come with you in a quite location where you can hear him clearly and focus deeply on his problem. Now this is where your active listening skill will work. Never I repeat never interrupt or even say anything or give any response while he is talking. Generally an angry person becomes more frustrated if anyone interrupts in between and also that person start losing his anger as time progresses. So wait for him to finish first then repeat main points behind his complaint. This is the way to make him understand that you have listened and understood his problem. After that, try to give best possible solution on his problem. If the complainer is not satisfied or if it is beyond your authority or you can’t decide how to deal with it then call your superior and give him a complete summary of the situation.
  • Be Positive: Whatever happens try to be optimistic. Human beings never stay happy. Even employees of the best company have problems or reasons to be unsatisfied. So try not to say anything bad about your company, employer, guest, workplace etc. This will bring negative energy among your colleagues. For example, in your workplace, you may find some guests who raise complaint for everything. Instead of criticizing the guest by saying “See! How stupid that man is” to your manager you can approach in problem solving manner. You can ask your boss “This customer seems not happy with the service we have provided. What else you think we can do to make him happy?” This approach describes the situation and higher the chance to turn an unhappy guest to a happy one. In reality, we all have tendency to become frustrated so easily but there are very few who can actually change the system in positive way, do something productive. In hard time, raise your voice from a problem solving standpoint, if possible, approach your supervisor to help him solving the problem. These will help you to build up your reputation.
  • Keep your Professional & Personal Life Separated: Hospitality industry has a reputation of on the job romance as workers have to work closely as a team with colleagues in different times of a day in different areas. It is always good to maintain good, healthy, solid and friendly professional relationship with colleagues but anything beyond that will hamper your reputation and even if the employer follows very strict policy against such then you may be sacked from the job when discovered. In many workplace employers never hire husband & wife together or at least don’t allow them to work in same department. It is often found that personal relationship obstructs job performance. It weakens one’s performance and destroys his/her relationship with others. Always remember that in workplace you are being hired and paid for your service not for making friendship or finding a love partner. Keep such things separated.
  • Leave on a Good Note: In hospitality world, there is a common tendency that people move from one job to another very fast. Always leave a job in good condition. Your future employer may check your previous working history and if you leave any job badly then that potential employer may receive negative feedback about you. If you act unprofessionally to your colleague who knows one day that person may become your boss in another or that same workplace. Even if you behave badly with someone and never met him ever, even then that person may describe you poorly to others that may once be heard by your other colleagues in new employment (Don’t think I am thinking too far – this really happens to many ones). So, whatever happens, try to leave your job on a good note and always maintain good positive relationship with your colleagues. You will always be rewarded positively for that.

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