Face-to-Face: David Topolewski
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David Topolewski, Chief Executive Officer of language training company Qooco chats to Travel Daily about the growing importance of Chinese language skills in the Asian hospitality sector…
1. What problems are currently faced by hoteliers wanting to up-skill their staff in foreign languages, such as Mandarin? How does Qooco address these concerns?
Many hoteliers understand the value of language training but are constrained to address the need. The main concerns we hear from hoteliers are cost, scheduling, and return on investment. The nature of language training requires a long term commitment, typically six months to a year. Using traditional training methods, this would mean recruiting and staffing a qualified teacher to lead the programme, a resource commitment in part of management to set aside classroom space, and detailed co-ordination of staff schedules to accommodate for lesson time; all of which can be very costly. Lessons would likely be held weekly, making it difficult to achieve what Qooco believes to be the most critical element of language learning and success – frequent practice in speaking. Hotels that have tried other language training methods such as e-learning often criticise the high drop offs rates, as staff find the learning methodology too boring or too impractical.
What hoteliers look for in an ideal language training solution is cost-effectiveness and flexibility. This is where mobile learning fits well. Qooco’s language solutions have been proven to improve spoken Mandarin by 85% at a cost that is more than 80% less than traditional methods. In a survey conducted with a boutique hotel chain, it was found that 86% of staff have less than an hour of study time in a day and prefer to study after regular working hours. With Qooco, staff are not constrained to weekly lessons and are able to access lessons anytime, anywhere. This allows staff more opportunities to practice speaking. The result is that staff build confidence and start conversing with guests sooner.
In addressing concerns about drop-offs, Qooco lessons uses gamification to make learning fun and interactive. Lessons are varied and many exercises require the user to be actively engaged in hearing or speaking Mandarin. Having a daily report for managers enables them to intervene quickly if a staff member has missed a day.
Qooco lessons are designed to be highly practical and personalised for the hospitality sector. Lessons simulate real-life scenarios for jobs in the front desk, kitchen, spa, housekeeping, and food and beverage departments. In the same survey, 76% of respondents said that Qooco’s content is relevant to their jobs.
2. The ability to speak Mandarin is clearly gaining importance in the hotel industry. Is the answer not simply to employ more Chinese staff and what are the obstacles associated with this?
Hiring additional staff is costly. It takes time to recruit and assimilate staff and is limited in scale. A much better, and more effective, long-term strategy is to up-skill existing staff. From our experience dealing with hotel managers, we know that a key motivation for hotel staff is to provide them with value-added knowledge that will help them with their everyday jobs. Qooco believes that the staff retention will be improved as a result.
For example, Qooco partnered with the Banyan Tree Group and also The Bali Hotels Association to implement online language training programmes in an effort to uplift their level of service to guests. Staffs across multiple hotel properties have access to the same curriculum, making language training initiatives much more scalable and consistent. What this also means is that staff develop a standardised accent that is more likely to be understood by others.
Mobile training is very cost effective and a fraction of what hotel managers would spend to hire more staff. Learning is continuous and can be easily upgraded to adjust to different levels of difficulty for each individual staff member.
3. How important do you believe it is for hotels to offer native language speakers, and what do hotels risk by not doing so?
Different cultures express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction in different ways. Customer service staff must be prepared to adjust responses in order to react appropriately. To make a connection with guests on a deeper level, it always helps for staff to speak to guests in their native tongue. Language barriers can fuel frustration and is something that hotels should avoid. Satisfied customers on the other hand are willing to pay more, leading to loyalty and referrals. Studies have shown that a hotel that can increase its repeat customers from 35-40% can gain at least an additional 25% in profits.
Service staff that are able to speak to guests in a native language are more able to deliver a higher level of service, thus opening up opportunities for profit. For instance, staff can offer suggestions on where to eat, the best spa packages at the hotel, or which wine would best complement a meal. Qooco lessons are results-driven and designed to equip staff with phrases that allow them to apply their learnings daily.
4. Aside the language issue, how important is it to learn about cultural aspects of the Chinese market?
In the hospitality and service industry, understanding guests and their preferences within a cultural context is highly important. To do this effectively, cultural aspects of service must go hand-in-hand with communications. Language training is the starting point.
For example, a Cornell study shows that Chinese travellers prefer full service hotels with amenities such as hot water for tea and a buffet breakfast. Knowing this, a hotel could leverage the Qooco solution so that language programs can be customised to equip staff to respond to such queries in Mandarin. The same study also shows that Chinese travellers place great importance on purchasing gifts. As such, Qooco language training programs could be designed to place greater emphasis on addressing shopping needs such as responding to queries about pricing, sizing and colour, or even training staff to up-sell certain sales promotions. The beauty of technology is that it is highly personalized. Cultural context and preferences can be integrated into learning with a great ease of convenience and at a low cost.
5. Hoteliers in Asia are currently facing an HR crunch. Against this backdrop, do you think language skills are considered as important as simply filling vacancies?
It is an issue of quality over quantity. Having good language skills is tantamount to service delivery and should not be overlooked. Qooco’s hospitality solutions have been met with great success. It is currently our fastest growing portfolio and goes to show that hotels do recognise the importance of language training.
Language training allows staff to position themselves as a reliable source of information; equally important, language training allows staff to better connect with guests. Something as simple as greeting a guest with a “hello” spoken in a native language goes a long way in enhancing the guest experience. The hotel industry is a very competitive market and hotels that make the effort to create a more positive and memorable experience for the guest, have much to gain in terms of customer loyalty.
6. Do you think that Mandarin will eventually take over as the ‘global’ language?
For most Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan, English is still the priority in terms of hospitality language training. Mandarin however, is definitely increasing in importance and is the second most sought-after language for Qooco programmes by our hospitality clients. The rapidly growing number of Chinese tourists has led to the increased need for employers to up-skill staff in Mandarin language learning. South Korea recently reported that Chinese tourists overtook Japanese tourists in terms of arrival numbers. In Bali, Chinese tourists are now the second-largest source of international tourists accounting for 11% of all foreign arrivals.
Hotels that want to get ahead of the game would be wise to start language training early. Language competency is not something that happens overnight or even in a couple months. It improves with frequency of practice, which is part of the learning pedagogy that Qooco is built on. The great thing about mobile is that learning programs can be started with great ease and speed. Hotels that identify early on a trend towards the increasing number of Chinese guests, now have a solution that allows them to react quicker and more effectively compared to learning methods from the past.
7. What other languages do you see a need for in the future, and is Qooco taking steps to cater for this?
Qooco is currently offered in 12 support languages including simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, German, Russian, and Mexican Spanish. Given the current demographic of travellers in Southeast Asia, English and Mandarin have been a primary focus to date.
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