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Abstract

Communication in the service encounter is an important determinant of a smooth and effective interaction between hotel service staff and customers. This study investigated 579 hotel service providers and 326 customers to provide empirical data on roles of service providers, topics of conversation, perceived control, forms of address, and gender differences. Factor analysis and MANOVA were performed to identify dimensionality and compare service providers and customers. The results demonstrated communication comprises two roles within the service encounter: task and process. Further, conversation within the service encounter was found to comprise role related, personal, and "small talk" topics. Significant effects were found for service providers and customers on most items with service providers consistently rating items more highly than customers. In addition, sex of subject was significant with females rating the items more highly than their male counterparts. The study assists in understanding the dynamics of the service encounter, especially the communicative role. A general message to emerge from the study is that customers want efficient service delivered with a minimum of fuss.

Keywords

Key words: Service encounter role theory topics of conversation.

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The Hospitality Service Encounter: the Role of Communication

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