Paul McCabe: Hello everyone, and welcome to HRT 130: Service
Excellence. Today we’re going to be talking about Module Four: Social Styles. My name
is Paul McCabe, and I’m going to walk you through the four Social Styles that are going
to help you be successful when it comes to customer service. We have a few learning outcomes
that I would like to share with you today.
First of all, you’re going to be able to describe the four Social Styles.
Now, we’re going to be doing some workshops about this as well, and I hope that you had an opportunity
to do the questionnaire in your manual, before you came to class today.
And secondly, we’re going to demonstrate how to use these styles out in the workforce.
It’s going to assist you with being able to determine how you can work with your guests
to ensure that they’re satisfied when it comes to customer service. You can use these
skills in hotels, in restaurants and catering companies, any type of hospitality industry
that you might be working in. These are a crucial part of customer service when it comes
to making sure that your guests are happy at all times. So, I’m just going to jump
out for a second, and I’ll be right back.
And, I‘m back, now I’d like to talk to you about the four personality styles, and
what I’m going to do is show you them on a grid. Now when you’ve taken the quiz,
before you came to class, you would have found out that you sort of have a dominant personality
style that we are going to use in our discussions in class. Now, don’t get scared that maybe
your style isn’t what you thought it was going to be, these are only guidelines, and
certainly, what we want to be able to use is the information to be able to help us service
our guests better. So, lets start talking about the four personality styles.
So, the first one is Analytical. Second one, is Driver. Third one, is Expressive,
and the fourth one, is Amiable. Now each of these has their own characteristics, and traits,
now, we take a little bit more information about these four styles, and understand that
above the line, these two styles are very Task Orientated.
These two styles below the line are very much People Orientated.
Now, to go one-step further, going down, two styles Avoid Risk,
and these two styles are considered to be Risk Takers. So I’d like to spend a few more minutes talking about each of the social styles
in a little bit more detail, giving you some of their characteristics and some of their traits. Now as you
listen to these, you might recognize a few things that you do. Always, I find that when I’m
listening to the various social styles, I’m thinking, “Oh, I used to do that”, or
“I still do that”. So hopefully, we can have some discussions afterwards about how
you’re feeling with some of the information that you’re about to hear. So, lets get
rid of this, and we’ll start talking about our next group.
*Snap*
Alright, lets talk about each style individually, and what I’d like to share with you is some
of the traits and characteristics of these particular styles. The first one that we’re
going to talk about is Amiable. Now, its important to know that an amiable person really wouldn’t
be too excited about what we’re doing here today. They would much rather, meet you in
person, sit knee to knee, have a cup of coffee, and make a connection together. Amiable people
love to work with others, and they’re great team players. But, one of the downside of
the Amiables, is that they can’t always make a decision. And why can’t they make
a decision? Because they are so open to hearing everyone’s ideas and comments they find
it very difficult to pick or choose, because a lot of times, they don’t want to hurt
anybody’s feelings. So, one thing about an Amiable person, is that they are tremendously
loyal, they’re loyal to the people that they work with, they’re loyal to their family
and friends, and, they’re loyal to the organizations that they work with as well. One of the things
that they don’t like, as I mentioned earlier, is risk. They don’t like to be put out
there in a risky situation, they like to understand that everything is going to be calm and everything’s
going to be the way that it should be, and that’s the way they like to operate as best
as possible. And certainly, one thing that a lot of people have trouble with, is they
really, really hate conflict, they will do anything to avoid conflict with somebody else.
Runaway, be a turtle, and turtle-down, so the conflict might just go away for them.
But, understand, that these are great people to work with, you might find, if you go into
somebody’s office, and that they’re an Amiable, they might have some flowers on their
desk, they might have some pictures of their family, with big smiles, and they’re willing,
and wanting to talk to you about that. So, look for some of these clues as well when
you are talking to an Amiable. Once again, that will help you work out their issues,
work out their problems, work together to be successful, and remember, the biggest need
for an Amiable is security.
Now it’s time to talk about our second social style. This style is Expressive. Some of the
traits of an Expressive person, is they’re very people orientated, they love to work
with people, they love to be around people, they’re great in the team environment, they
have a lot of ideas, one thing you have to watch out for, with this, is, they want to
be the center of attention, and with that I just have to take a break for a second,
because I want to take a selfie of myself doing this: Ready, alright, thank you very
much! And by the way, did I tell you that I’m an award-winning teacher. Yes, I have
plenty of awards teaching, I am just one of the best teachers ever, and, I’m very talkative.
That’s what you have to watch out for. Maybe you want to let them talk a little bit. Maybe
you’re going to help them understand what the whole process is about. One of the things
that you have to watch out for with these kinds of people, is they’re very dramatic,
and they can be very emotional. So I hope some of these traits and characteristics are
going to help you be able to work with some of the Expressive social style. And remember,
the Expressive person needs recognition.
Hi everybody, it’s time for our third social style that we’ll be discussing, this one,
is Analytical. I’m going to be very precise with this one. Analytical people, are sometimes
seen as being very boring. They seem to like to work on their own. Sometimes, they’re
not seen as being very funny, or being very talkative. Analytical people can be very indecisive.
Why? Because Analytical people feel there is one way of doing something, and they will
not make a decision until they’ve looked at all of the different possibilities, on
order to do a particular task. Once they’ve made that decision, that this is the proper
way to do it, then they can move forward. It’s almost like baking a cake: an Analytical
person thinks there’s a recipe, there are steps to be taken; I am going to follow the steps.
An Analytical person gets very upset if someone mixes the wet ingredients with
dry ingredients when they’re mixing a cake together before it’s being asked to do that
in the recipe. So, they’re very much attentive to the details. This type of person needs
to be correct. I hope that these tips will help you with the Analytical social style.
Okay, we’re on the fourth social style. This one is called Driver. Now, there are
not too many people with this social style, and you’ll see why in a couple of minutes,
when I start talking about the traits and characteristics. Drivers are very task orientated.
They’re very, very focused, and are working on the bottom line. It means a lot to them
to get right to it. Sometimes when we talk to Drivers, they don’t want to hear our
stories, they don’t want to hear about our day, they want us to get right to the point,
to make sure we spent the right time, now we’re going to move on, and do our jobs.
They like goals, and they like clearly defined goals, and they like everybody working towards
those goals, these people again, are risk-takers, they feel that the only way to get ahead is
to be able to take a risk, and take a chance. They’re very, very efficient. Now, Drivers, can be
very, very short. You might think, “Oh, they’re mean, they’re not being very nice
to me!”, but that is their personality style, and their social style. They want to get the
job done, they don’t have time for small chatter, one of the big things that they want
to be: they want to be in control.
Well, we’ve talked about the four social styles. Let’s review the four styles: Analytical,
Driver, Expressive and Amiable. So now its time in your class, to do some activities,
your instructor is going to ask you to move into groups of like social styles, and start
talking about how you like customer service, how do you like to be treated, we’re going
to take that into the real world, and how we, as customer service agents can service
our guests so they have tremendous experiences in our hospitality environment.
But before I go, I want to let you know of the research that’s been done on these social
styles by David Merrill and Roger Reid. This research was done in 1984, by these two gentlemen,
and was focused in their book: “Personal Styles, and Effective Performance”. As well,
you’ll find plenty of information in your Customer Service Skills manual that was developed
by OTEC, the Ontario Training Education Council.
Again, my name is Paul McCabe, I’d like to thank you for joining me on these social
styles, and good luck out there with your customer service.