Handling complaints of tourists = giải quyết phàn nàn của khách du lịch

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor Mrs Nguyễn Thị Tường M.A., who introduced me to the topic " Handling Tourist's Complaints" and helped me very much to this thesis If I had not received her valuable guidance, comments and criticism, I would not have completed my thesis And I would also like to express my indebtedness to all my teachers at Foreign Language Department, especially Miss Sandy Gannon, Mrs Vũ Thị Việt Hương M.A., Miss Megan Hull for their advices along with their great help with useful and up-to-date materials concerning my field of study My sincere thanks to all librarians and teachers at the Foreign Language Department of Vinh University, teachers of English at Nghi Lộc I, Ngun H high school, ASEM Việt Nam, ASEM Links and people from Phó Th¬ng company, who helped me to carried out the surveys for my thesis I am in debt to my family, my classmates who were willing to help me whenever I got difficult, and gave me the best conditions to finish this thesis Vinh, May 2009 Nguyễn Thị Tó Anh TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LISTS OF TABLES AND FINGURES .v PART A: INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the subject Scopes of the study .2 Methods of study Aims of the study Design of the study .2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.1 Functions of language 1.2 Conversation 1.2.1 Context .5 1.2.2 Adjacency pairs and exchanges 1.2.3 Turn-taking 1.3 Written discourse and spoken discourse .8 1.4 Speech act 1.5 Politeness and strategies of politeness .10 1.5.1 Politeness and face 10 1.5.2 Strategies of politeness 11 1.6 Summary 11 Chapter II: Handling complaints of tourists 14 2.1 Definition of complaints .14 2.1.1 Definition 14 2.1.2 Categories of complaints .14 2.2 The causes of dissatisfaction .15 2.2.1 Service quality 15 2.2.2 Dishonesty 16 2.2.3 Safety and Security 16 2.2.4 Hygiene problems 19 2.2.5 Maintenance problems 19 2.2.6 Others 19 2.3 Types of customer's complaints 20 2.3.1 Oral complaints 20 2.3.2 Written complaints 20 2.4 Handling complaints 21 2.4.1 The value of complaints 21 2.4.2 Benefits of successful complaint handling 22 2.4.3 The common form for responses to guests' complaints 23 2.4.4 Dealing with serious complaints 24 2.4.5 Dealing with complaints face-to-face 25 2.4.6 Dealing with telephone complaints 31 2.4.7 Dealing with written complaints 31 2.5 Summary 31 Chapter III: Results, findings and suggestions .37 3.1 Objectives .37 3.2 Participants 37 3.3 Results and discussion 38 3.4 Suggestions 42 3.5 Summary 42 PART C: CONCLUSION 46 Recapitulation .46 Suggestions for further study 46 References Appendix LISTS OF TABLES AND FINGURES Pages TABLES: - The rate of tourists' ages 37 - The table of frequency of contacting with representatives 38 - The table of getting problems with transportation 39 - The table of in-resort service 40 - The table of accommodation's quality 40 FINGURES: - Chaos of transportation in Hµ Néi capital of ViÖt Nam - Chaos of transportation in Hå ChÝ Minh city of ViÖt NamPART 17 A: INTRODUCTION Reasons for Choosing the Subject The higher standard of living is, the more people demand to raise their spirit life One of the best ways that people choose most is tourism After a long, hard-working time, everyone wants to relax by enjoying a travel to somewhere out of their usual environment There are many reasons for people to travel such as: leisure, business, visit or other purposes Nowadays, many countries consider tourism as a top priority in national economic development In Vietnam, in particularly, there was 3,6 million international tourist arrivals and 17,3 million domestic tourists and it earned 2,25 billion dollars Currently, over 240,000 Vietnamese employed directly in the tourism industry, about 470,000 indirectly for a total of over 700,000 jobs (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/travel/2008/11/815721/) The numbers above show us the important role of tourism in national economy Besides, it is also a means of spreading the image of a country, raising the understanding among people in the world Visiting a country, visitors are able to discover the history, the culture, people, beautiful spots, food and life style of it The development of tourism industry depends on many factors in which service quality is one of the most vital ones The quality of service is good, tourists will be satisfied and of course, we will keep their loyalty and ensuring that they will come back again However, if there is something wrong during the time they use the services that make them dissatisfied, they can complain that problem to the representatives The question is how to handle those complaints, it is not easy at all, it is really an art During the time of learning tourism - major subject, pragmatics, discourse analysis, we understand about the language in general and the politeness strategies in particular, that is the way using language to make tourists satisfied after their complaints Facing with the complaints of customers, if we can handle them carefully, we contribute to the development of tourism industry of Viet Nam These are the reasons why we want to choose the study "handling with tourist's complaints" Scopes of the study The study focus on the types of complaints and the ways to overcome them Methods of study The study based on the methods: - Collective method -Analysis of questionnaires and synthetic method Aims of the study We the study with the following aims: - To help the fourth- year- students in Foreign Languages Department in Vinh University to understand more about tourism professional knowledge - To provide a reference material for travel agents Design of the study This study is divided into three main parts: A Introduction B Development - Chapter I: Theoretical Backgrounds - Chapter II: Handling Complaints of Tourists - Chapter III: Results, Findings and Suggestions C Conclusion PART B: CHAPTER I: DEVELOPMENT THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter presents the theoretical background on which the study is based It concludes five sections in which: Section 1.1 presents the functions of language, then conversations are analyzed in section 1.2 The differences between spoken and written discourse are pointed out in section 1.3 Speech-acts, politeness and strategies of politeness are presented in sections 1.4 and 1.5 Finally, section 1.6 briefly summaries some previous studies 1.1 Functions of Language In the history of Discourse Analysis, many authors have tried to find out the main functions of language such as: Halliday (1970) with Ideational/ Interpersonal and Textual, Jakobson (1960) with Referential and Emotive, Bubler (1934) with Reprentative and Expressive, Lyons (1977) with Descriptive and Social Expressive However, Brown and Yule's division of language functions into Transactional and Interpersonal seem to be the most suitable ways They proposed that: "that function which language serves in the expression of content, we will describe as transactional and that function involves in expressing social relationship and personal attitude, we will describe as interactional" (Discourse Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1983:1) In other words, based on the two functions we can know the reason and purpose that the conversation is performed and we also realize the participants' relationship as well as their thoughts and ideas Transactional language is that which occurs when the participants are concerned with the exchanges of goods and services In transactional language, the speaker gives the information to hearer to get something (either goods or services) or to offer goods/services together, called message-oriented If he/she receives directions to go to somewhere or of doing something, he/she gets the services/goods Moreover, a prominent feature of transactional language is in written language such as business writing like: letters, memoranda between two companies, reports or bills to request and provide information to carry out business dealing, etc Transactional language is also realized by "turn" (speaker-hearer take turns in conversation), "move" (ask and answer questions), "act" (use language to request or complain) In daily life, people use language not only to express, to inform or receive thoughts and ideas but also to establish and maintain social relationship, called interactional or interpersonal language In other words, interpersonal language occurs when speakers are less concerned with the exchange of goods and services than with socializing Obviously, interpersonal language is relationship-oriented For example: We meet our friends in the morning and greet them "Good morning!", "How are you?", or "It is a fine day, isn't it?" In Western culture, it is very polite to start a conversation with topic like weather However, in Viet Nam culture, people concern more about personal questions and a question may become a greeting like " Where are you going?", "What are you doing?", "How about your family?" We can conclude that in a conversation, participants should share the same knowledge backgrounds or common point of view to achieve a successful conversation In addition, interpersonal language associates with conversation when language is used to open, close and maintain conversation by the attempt to make a good impression on the interlocutor of speaker Basing on those features, we can summarize the comparison between transactional and interactional language in the table below: Transactional Language Interactional Language -Message-oriented - Relationship-oriented - A prominent feature in written - Associated with conversation language - Formed by common background - Formed by "turns", "moves", "acts" knowledge between speaker and hearer 1.2 Conversation Dictionary of English Language and Culture defines that conversation is an informal talk in which people exchange views, feelings and thoughts (1992:79) According to Akmajian.A., Demers.R.A and Harnish.R.M (1988:415), conversation is usually constructed by sequences of expressions by more than a single speaker This structure is rarely consciously apparent to speaker There are many different definitions of a conversation but all of them define a conversation as "an informal talk" and there are at least two people who exchange information to each other When people interact with each other, each person will take part in the conversation which happens in a particular context, interpret the situation, make sense of it and act accordingly 1.2.1 Context Let's take an example: "Where are you going?" In Vietnamese culture, this question may be a greeting form when people meet each other However, this question is also used when someone wants to get information from each other This example shows us the important role of context in interpreting utterances in conversation Therefore, the functions of language should be performed within a context and it is divided into two types: non-linguistic context and linguistic context Linguistic context is the language that surrounds or accompanies the pieces of discourse under analysis That means when analyzing a piece of discourse, we need to look at words, phrases or expressions before of after it For example: The red skirt left the room without saying a word When we read the sentence, we wonder whether the word "the red skirt" is a girl or a skirt We have to pay attention to the words "leave" and "say" and decide that it is a girl because a skirt can not leave or say Non-linguistic context within which the discourse take place include the type of communicative event (joke, story, lecture, greeting, conversation); the topic; the purpose, the event; the setting ( including location, time of day, season of year and physical aspects of situation); the participants; the relationships between them; and the background knowledge and assumptions underlying the communicative event In conclusion, context is the situation in which the conversation is carried out Therefore, to understand the meanings of an utterance, we have to put it in a particular context 1.2.2 Adjacency Pairs and Exchanges - I'm sorry for the bad services and impolite attitude of our employee! - I would like to apology for the inconvenience you received - I'm really sorry that our employee was not polite to you and the bad service you received Solutions: - I will ask a maintenance and room service to be in your room right now and I also note your point at the next meeting of our hotel staff - I'll have your lamp repaired and tell the maid to make your room at once and we will re-train our employee about the attitude to the customers Compensation: - As a sign of goodwill, we will reduce 15% of your room price today for you - To make up for the bad service you received, we will reduce 15% of your room price today for you Situation 4: A customer complains that the food in your restaurant is so bad that she can not eat anything Apology: - I'm sorry to hear that our food is not in your taste - I'm sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with our food today Solutions:  If the food is cheap: - I will tell the chef to cook this dish again for you now - I will have your dish cooked again immediately If the food is expensive: - To make up for distasteful food, we will decrease its price by 10% for you Situation 5: A tourist complains that his room was rummaged out It is a serious problem, so that you should ask the guest to check carefully If there is anything missing, you have to call the police to deal with the problem Apology: - I'm extremely sorry for making you worried - I'm terribly sorry for the problem happened in your room Solutions: 10 If there is anything missing: - We will investigate the security system as well as interview all our employees in the hotel and I will contact you as soon as possible - We will call the police to solve the problem and I will inform you soon if they find out anything If there is nothing missing: - We will interview our employees to see if anyone was seen going to your room and find out what happened - We will investigate our security system and a room service will arrange your room at once - We will enhance the security system and to compensate for making you worried, we will decrease room price by 5% tonight for you 3.5 Summary In this chapter, the data collected from the survey were analyzed to search for the travel experience of interviewees and the problems they may have during the trip Based on the results, some suggested solutions were given in order to make tourists satisfied after their complaints PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation In this study, the main aspects in handling tourist's complaints have been mentioned Among the factor to make tourists satisfied and keep their loyalty, the handling complaints skill is a very important one There fore, nowadays, most tourism business concern about the training this skill for their employees Before the ways to handling complaints are presented, the study has first dealt with some theoretical backgrounds about functions of language, conversation, speech act, politeness and strategies of politeness with the hope that they can provide readers with a brief overview on the important of language in daily conversation and how to use language effectively in conversation Next, in chapter 2, we have pointed out the importance of complaints to tourism business and service suppliers, the causes of dissatisfaction for them to find out what the root of problem is Therefore, they can choose suitable solutions to it More specific, some principles are given to dealing with tourist's complaints Finally, chapter presents and analyses the data collected from questionnaires The data reflected that participants often have problems during their travel and complain about the service quality With the hope to provide some effective ways to dealing with complaints, we have suggested solutions to some situations often getting in real life From these things, we wish that the finding in this study will be some sorts of supplementary information for those who study tourism professional skill and work in this field Suggestions for Further Studies Due to the limitation of knowledge and experience, we would not come up with all aspects of the matter In this study, we have focused on the types of complaints and the ways to handle them, however, if we continue to study this topic, we would like to focus on only complaints that a tour guide, a receptionist or a hotel manager have to deal with The questionnaire is aimed at tourists in Viet Nam, however, the Vietnamese tourists outnumber foreigners There fore, we can not reach the balance between domestic and international tourists In other cases, questionnaires can be given to more foreigners Like handing tourists complaints, dealing with situations, which often happen during a tour, can be an interesting topic for us to study Making customers satisfied is difficult but keeping them satisfied after a complaint or problem is more difficult Doing this well means that we have succeeded in our job REFERENCES Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Lon Don: Oxford University Press Akmajian, A (Ed) (1988) Linguistics- An Introduction to Language and Communication Great Britain: The MIT Press Low, C (2006) Insight Guide Viet Nam Singapore: APA Publication Harding, K (1998) Going International, English for Tourism London: Oxford University Press Duckworth M (1998) Going International, English for Tourism, Work Book London: Oxford University Press Harding, K & Henderson, P (1994) High Season English for the Hotel and Tourist Industry Lon Don: Oxford University Press Lê Thị Mai Hồng (2008) Hồ sơ giảng tích hợp Handout Website: http://course.gditc.cn/jp_xiaoji/2008/fdqt/flash/DealingwithGuestComplaints ppt Retrieved on March 6th, 2009 Website: www.google.com Retrieved on January 13th, February 16th, February 27th, March 2nd, March 6th, 2009 10 Website: http://www.diendandulich.com Retrieved on December 09th, 2009 11 Website: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/travel/2008/11/815721/ Retrieved on March, 7th, 2009 APPENDIX CUSTOMER SATISFACTION QUESTIONAIRES These questionnaires are used for research purpose only Any information you give will be highly appreciated and confidentially treated Your name: Address: Question 1: About you:  Male a Sex b  Marital status  Female  married single Separated/widowed/divorced  under 16 c Age 17-18  25-34  45-54  16-17  55-64 18-24  35-44  65+  d Career a full-time/ part-time employment or self-employed   a student  retired not employed Question 2: Do you often go to travel?  Often   rarely sometimes  never Question 3: Did you experience any problem during your holiday?  Yes  No - If you choose yes, did you contact with your representation?  Always  often   sometimes rarely  never - How satisfied were you with the action taken?  Completely  mostly  partly  not at all Question 4: Transportation: - Which kinds of transportation you like to travel?  Flight  train  car  Others (bicycle, cyclo ) - Have you ever got any problem with?  Check-in arrangements  in flight/train/ car comfort  In flight/train/ car food  cabin crew  No - If yes, please tell in more details: Question 5: - In-resort service: Good Excellent Fair Poor a On arrival: Assistant at resort entrance  c      Tour guide's attitude and manners   d Tour guide's knowledge    b Tour guide's availability and punctuality      - Have you ever got any problems at the resort? If yes, please tell in more details? Question 6: - Accommodation: Fair Excellent Good Poor a Location                    b Reception  c Cleanliness and comfort of rooms  d Waiter service  e Food  g Equipment  Question 7: Imagine that you are a tourist and you are visiting Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province of Viet Nam The tour is good but there are some problems during the tour that make you dissatisfied, how you can complain those problems to the representatives: Situation 1: You have paid a lot of money to book a large room with bed-rooms, and the view towards the sea in order to see the sunrise and sunset everyday Unluckily, when you come to the hotels, you are not satisfied about your room, so you are very angry How you can tell this problem to the receptionist? Situation 2: While you are sigh-seeing, there are many beggars, street vendors always asking for some money or buying their goods that interrupt your group and you feel very annoyed How can you complain this problem to your representative? Situation 3: After visiting, you turn back to your hotel, however, when you come in, your room has not been made, the lamp is broken You talk the problem to the receptionist but she responds very rude, curtly How can you complain this problem to the manager? Situation 4: You come to the restaurant to enjoy the sea-food, however, they are very bad and you can eat anything How can you tell this problem to your representative? Situation 5: After an exciting visit, you come back to the hotel You find that your room was rummaged out How can you tell this problem to your representative? THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! BẢNG ĐIỀU TRA SỰ HÀI LÒNG CỦA KHÁCH HÀNG Những câu hỏi điều tra phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu, thơng tin bạn đưa đánh giá cao phân tích cách trung thực Họ tên: Địa chỉ: Câu 1: Thông tin cá nhân:  Nam a Giới tính:  Nữ b Tình trạng nhân:  Độc thân  có chồng/ vợ  Li thân/ li hơn/ góa (chồng/vợ) c Độ tuổi:  16  16-17 17-18 18-24  24-34  34-44 d Nghề nghiệp: Sinh viên  44-54  54-64  Nghỉ hưu  65+  Thất nghiệp  Nghề nghiệp trọn thời gian, bán thời gian Câu : Bạn có thưịng xun du lịch không?     Thuờng xuyên chưa Câu 3: Có bạn gặp rắc rối du lịch không?  có  Khơng - Nếu bạn gặp rắc rối, bạn có liên hệ với người quản lí hay khơng?      Ln thuờng xuyên chưa - Bạn có hài lịng với cách giải vấn đề hay khơng?  hồn tồn  hầu hết  số  hồn tồn khơng Câu 4: Về giao thơng: - Bạn thích loại phương tiện giao thông nào?  Máy bay  Tàu hoả  ô tô  phương tiện khác (xe đạp, xích lô ) - Bạn gặp rắc rối với:  Đăng kí làm thủ tục  Thức ăn máy bay/ô tô/ tàu  Sự thoải mái máy bay/ô tô/ tàu  Nhân viên  Chưa - Nếu có, bạn cho biết chi tiết: Câu 5: Về dịch vụ điểm du lịch: Hồn hảo thường a Sự đón tiếp điểm tham quan tốt bình      b Sự sẵn sàng    hướng dẫn viên c Thái độ cách xử     hướng dẫn viên d Sự hiểu biết hướng dẫn viên     - Bạn gặp rắc rối điểm tham quan chưa? Nếu có bạn cho biết chi tiết? Câu 6: Về chỗ ở: Hồn hảo tốt bình thường  a Vị trí    b Lễ tân         e Thức ăn  g Trang thiết bị    d Phục vụ    c Sự thoải mái phòng      Câu 7: Tưởng tượng bạn khách du lịch tham quan Vịnh Hạ Long, tỉnh Quảng Ninh, Việt Nam Chuyến nói chung tốt, nhiên, có vài rắc rối suốt chuyến khiến bạn chưa thật hài lòng Trong trường hợp này, bạn phàn nàn với người đại diện nào? Tình 1: Bạn bỏ số tiền lớn để đặt phịng có phịng ngủ, rộng rãi có tầm nhìn hướng biển để bạn ngắm hồng bình minh biển ngày Tuy nhiên, bạn đến bạn khơng nhận phịng ý muốn tức giận Bạn nói vấn đề với lễ tân nào? Tình 2: Trong lúc bạn ngắm cảnh có nhiều người ăn xin, người bán hàng rong bám theo đoàn bạn để xin tiền hay mời mua hàng họ Điều khiến bạn thật bị làm phiền, bạn phản ánh vấn đề với người quản lí nào? Tình 3: Sau rời địa điểm tham quan bạn khách sạn, nhiên, vừa bước vào phịng, bạn thấy phịng chưa dọn dẹp, bóng đèn bị hỏng Bạn phàn nàn vấn đề với lễ tân ta lại có thái độ bất lịch ăn nói cộc lốc Trong trường hợp bạn phản ánh với người quản lí nào? Tình 4: Bạn tới nhà hàng để thưởng thức đồ hải sản, nhiên, đồ ăn chế biến tệ bạn chẳng ăn Bạn nói vấn đề với người đại diện? Tình 5: Sau chuyến tham quan thú vị, bạn trở khách sạn phát thấy đồ đạc bị lục lọi, thứ khơng trật tự mà bạn xếp Trong trường hợp bạn thông báo với lễ tân người quản lí khách sạn nào? Cảm ơn giúp đỡ nhiệt tình bạn! 18 ... 19 2.3 Types of customer's complaints 20 2.3.1 Oral complaints 20 2.3.2 Written complaints 20 2.4 Handling complaints 21 2.4.1 The value of complaints ... handle complaints in order that tourists can feel satisfied after the problems are solved 2.1.2 Categories of Complaints There are four kinds of complaints: mechanical complaints, service complaints, ... language to make tourists satisfied after their complaints Facing with the complaints of customers, if we can handle them carefully, we contribute to the development of tourism industry of Viet Nam