When a service is offered or sold, customers cannot see or touch the product, so making a sale of services has a greater degree of difficulty than when selling a material product since the seller has to create security and trust in the mind of the buyer to attract attention and the desire to acquire it and this is only achieved by having an effective channel of communication.
However, when the service offered is part of a tourist service, the techniques can be applied differently since it must be taken into account that working for a tourist sector implies dealing not only with local or national people but rather implies doing sales with people around the world where ideas or customs are not the same as that of the seller, here is where the seller has to work on knowing important characteristics of other states, countries or continents.
The problem of this work is that due to this type of situation it is necessary to apply techniques that can favor communication and in this case semiotics and precision models influence these situations, taking the hotel industry as a point of study offering a description of the relationship that exists and how it is applied in which it is intended to show that this process can be carried out under the semiotics of culture.
Keywords: semiotics, precision models, client.
Introduction
Communication is the means by which the sender and receiver disseminate information in order to transmit and understand a message and although we do this in our daily life when we get in contact with a person from another place, some things may not be understood in the same way by both due to the different cultural practices that society has.
But entering a hotel environment is complex because we live with people from different parts of the world on a daily basis, in which it is of great importance to be able to understand the behavior of these people in order to communicate successfully.
What is the main objective of the hotel industry? Satisfy customer needs, that is, provide a pleasant stay to all customers through excellent service from all employees who work within the facilities. One of the things that is part of offering a good service is to develop an opinion, dialogue and communication work between the collaborator and the client, improving the experience with the client, making them feel heard and valued, showing them that their opinion is worth it.
That is why in this essay it will be important to take semiotics as a starting point, which is responsible for us to understand the reality of what we are surrounded by and how precision models influence to obtain more complete information, clarify verbal expressions, identify limitations and also create new options for understanding and behavior.
This essay first addresses the theoretical concepts of semiotics, precision models, the client (tourist). Once we have defined the key concepts, we can delve into how important it is that communication is carried out effectively within a hotel zone and how semiotics and precision models influence to be able to carry it out with the study area as hotel reception since it is the first contact that the client has in this tourist service provision area.
What is semiotics?
Semiotics or semiology is defined as the science that studies the signs around us. According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (2018) it is the study of signs in social life in which this science is in charge of analyzing how people manage to capture, interpret and transmit abroad the meaning of different phenomena, facts or elements. that are present around you.
Ferdinand de Saussure considered as one of the first students of this science considers that semiotics is present through a sign which is formed by the signifier that is defined as that idea that we have in our mind and that we perceive through the senses (smell, color, sound) and the meaning: it is the idea, the concept that we associate when perceiving the signifier based on our experience.
According to Eco, culture should be studied as a semiotic phenomenon since it is considered as "a communication phenomenon based on meaning systems" (Eco, 2000). Semiotics helps human beings to use signs to understand the world and to be able to communicate between yes. Semiotics intends that we understand this procedure of signs that are related when communication takes place and likewise when any type of interrelation with the world around us is created.
What are precision models?
Precision models, also known as metamodel, were described by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in their book The Structure of Magic I, in which they mention that it corresponds to a particular representation that each of us makes of said reality.
People process information that comes to us through all of our senses, which when passing through mental filters are defined based on our experience, beliefs or values, but when we want to go from mind to language, certain information can produce 3 known processes as a distortion, omission and generalization which causes the information process to not be understood or to be misinterpreted.
The goal of the metamodel is that what we want to convey is not lost during the communication process and that by not understanding it 100 percent we can ask more specific questions to understand what the other person is trying to say.
What is tourist?
According to SECTUR, the tourist is the visitor who spends the night in a collective or private means of accommodation in the place visited at least one night. In a few words, it can be defined that the tourist is the person who visits or stays in a place different from their usual environment, their customs and culture.
Research Problem
Today tourism has become a massive phenomenon where all people have the opportunity to travel based on their possibilities, disposition and tastes and that has made it possible for people to have the option of traveling around the world despite the difference in time, language, ways of thinking, etc. Although it is not considered an impediment to come from different places, it has caused that people who work in the hotel industry have to adapt to tourists, that is, they have to adapt to the needs or differences in the way they perceive the outside world for the simple fact of offering a service, which has generated that sometimes when it comes to communicating with the client the information that is intended to be transmitted is not fully understood by the tourist or vice versa.
Factors that lead to poor communication
1.- Language
One of the essential requirements to work in this area (reception) is to be able to speak a language other than the one of its origin, for in the case of the Mexican country the required language is English since it is considered one of the most widely spoken languages by the foreign.
Nobody is born knowing how to speak their native language 100 percent, so when speaking a different language an approach to the native-speaker is produced in terms of language production and understanding. It is important to note that there is a great difference between translating and interpreting in another language, so the important thing here apart from knowing how to listen, speak and write is to be able to interpret what the foreigner wants to understand so that a channel of confusion is not generated.
2.- Hotel concepts
Sometimes people misuse the terms of some concepts because in other places they are used differently, creating a different meaning in the minds of the guests, which has repercussions if we do not clearly specify what is being sold. Eg "double rooms". For some, a double room means the “number of people”, that is, a room for two people regardless of the number of beds in the room and for other people a double room means “number of beds”, that is, two beds in which can enter up to four people.
If a double room means "quantity in people", which has sometimes generated misunderstandings by not clarifying the term in the sale, creating disgust because it is not the room they expected or that the rate is not properly charged.
3.- Culture
Without a doubt, each place has different lifestyles that are adopted due to the history, language, religious beliefs, values, behavior patterns, area, etc., which makes differences in the meaning of some with concepts. It should be noted that there are symbols, words, indications that can be understood worldwide because it is part of a popular culture eg. The signage where it is indicated by a red circle that you can not smoke or drink alcohol, by the simple fact of seeing the image we associate that you can not smoke or drink in that area without having to ask or inquire what you want to imply, without However, there are also those that can only be understood by a certain group of people and that there is a need to ask to understand the context eg.Inside the hotels the famous "bowties" are handled, which are those that are used to indicate if it is possible to do the cleaning or if they wish not to be disturbed or not to clean the room, these are hung on the plates of the The doors of the rooms serving as indicators but not all people understand the meaning, they leave them in a way where they indicate something that they do not want due to the fact of not reading, not understanding or because they forgot, creating claims by affirming that they do not it was what they asked for.They leave them in a way where they indicate something that they do not want because they always do not read, do not understand or because they forget, creating claims by affirming that it was not what they asked for.They leave them in a way where they indicate something that they do not want because they always do not read, do not understand or because they forget, creating claims by affirming that it was not what they asked for.
What has produced this:
Language:
When you try to communicate in the same language and the objective of what you want to say cannot be understood, it becomes frustrating and it is even more so when you want to communicate in another language, so in this case if the other person does not speak the same Language will be very difficult for both of you to understand what you want to convey, although it is possible to use your hands to express yourself and give certain indications, it will not be the same creating a barrier of little understanding, mistrust and grief.
Hotel concepts:
By not clarifying certain concepts at the time of the sale, it can put the seller in trouble and causes displeasure and misunderstandings to arise, this being the cause of the sale not being carried out or that the client demands what the seller already offered causing With this, you have to respect what has already been said or if the communication channel manages to be understood by the other person and accepts that there was confusion in the message, they can reach an agreement.
Culture:
Not having knowledge about certain customs of some countries can cause annoyance and even offend the person because in some matters they may feel that they are being disrespected or that they are being made fun of, a gesture, a gesture, an expression body, a word not well pronounced, etc. It could create an imbalance in communication.
In short, not speaking another language, not clarifying concepts and not knowing about the culture of other places causes the future buyer to question whether or not they want to purchase the service.
Results:
Application of semiotics in perception models
As mentioned at the beginning of the essay, signs in the simplest way are part of our daily life, it is that representative element which is deduced based on what we have been taught and precision models contribute to the communication channel be understood.
Sometimes it happens that people can have the complete idea of what we want to say, but when translating thoughts into words we only express an approximation of the idea, which causes the concept we want to convey to be lose information and that results in our idea being misinterpreted or poorly understood. To retrieve this information, a series of questions is used that can clarify certain inconsistencies to generate understanding on the part of the sender and receiver.
Looking at it from the cultural field, each society has its custom system, of meanings, of representations and interrelation between them and that is part of semiotics and the advantage of seeing it from that point is that culture is always in constant change because it is able to adapt to new circumstances, that is, it is to be able to understand the circumstances of others, not being able to practice it, but trying to put oneself in the other's shoes in these circumstances.
Today the internet is a means of communication that has made it easier to find information about any subject and in hotels there is a database where you can find out where future guests reside, making it possible to inquire in advance about the culture of a certain place obtaining relevant information with this, which achieves two things: 1.- make an improvement in communication and 2.- give you an unforgettable experience by making you feel important to know about your culture.
Conclusion:
Based on what has been explained above, it can be deduced that in fact the application of semiotics and precision models is important not only in the hotel environment but also in daily life. Every day we apply these two techniques without our realizing it and we look for the way that we can establish good communication without difficulties.
References
Spanish dictionary. (2018). Obtained at
Eco, U. (2000). General Semiotics. Barcelona: Lunem. Obtained from
Pablos Solís, GA: Semiotics. Conceptual signs and maps, in Contributions to the Social Sciences, June 2009. www.eumed.net/rev/cccss/04/gaps2.htm
Richar Blander, JG (sf) The structure of magic I. Qautro vientos.
Secretary of Tourism, 2015.
