Course list

In this course, you will distinguish between the various components of a service culture and assess your current service environment. Using a case-based approach, this course will illustrate the importance of developing a strong service culture. You will reaffirm the importance of communicating a clear vision to both internal and external customers and share vision statements for your ideal service culture that reflect your organization's key values. Finally, you will identify workplace challenges and formulate an action plan to close gaps between specific components of your current and ideal service cultures.

In this course, you will identify the responsibilities of a service champion and the personal characteristics that contribute to effectiveness. The key skills required to assess, guide, and motivate service employees' performance are presented. You will practice the competencies required for engaging your colleagues in creating a strong service culture. Self-assessments and tools provide you with direction in developing several of these skills to evaluate your leadership traits, such as your credibility and expression of empathy. A review of communication channels and characteristics enables you to select the most appropriate method of communicating service standards. A final project provides an opportunity for you to apply course concepts to your own organization to facilitate a strong service culture.

What's a “service champion”? What do we mean by a “strong service culture”? In this course, you will identify what great customer service teams do so that you can practice and model the same skills, helping your team move from good to great.

Throughout this course you will practice modeling empathy, communication, curious discovery, and empowering others. This practice will give you the ability to empower others and empower your team to deliver excellent service that can be sustained over time.

In this course, you are introduced to the principles of Servant Leadership and the importance of fostering an ethical service culture. Servant Leaders communicate ethical standards and facilitate a supportive and respectful service culture that contributes to employee empowerment. A number of cases are provided to highlight leadership challenges and approaches. Servant Leaders are distinguished by their focus on listening skills, and you will assess and develop your listening behavior using Professor Brownell's HURIER listening model, which addresses six interrelated components: Hearing, Understanding, Remembering, Interpreting, Evaluating and Responding. The development of a strong listening environment also facilitates service within your organization. Finally, you will examine your current environment to identify opportunities to strengthen relationships and enhance the service experience of your organization.
In this course, you will focus on the key organizational processes that support the development of a strong service culture and exceptional customer service. You will be provided with a number of tools that enable you to select employees who have a strong service orientation and who will be a good fit with organizational values. The processes of orientation and socialization are examined as two powerful means of communicating service standards. You will then examine the benefits of a team-centered, collaborative culture and discuss strategies to facilitate and reward team performance. You will discuss organizational citizenship behavior using specific practices that support continuous on-the-job “training that sticks.” You will wrap up the course by designing an orientation program for new service employees that takes into consideration service-focused principles and practices.
In this course, you will begin by focusing on service intangibles and consider the power of both customer perceptions and experience management in delivering exceptional service. The impact of sharing service stories and the benefits of fostering creative approaches to addressing service challenges are emphasized as participants consider how to facilitate a strong culture of service excellence. Providing phenomenal service requires empowered employees, and along with your fellow students, you will discuss methods of preparing employees to solve problems, make decisions, and address issues of service recovery. Then, you will consider how to best facilitate performance management practices including coaching and mentoring. A compassionate workplace fosters increased satisfaction and productivity, and the course concludes with suggestions for focusing on service employees' health and care.

Symposium sessions feature two days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Hospitality Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium, in which we’ll discuss how both day-to-day operations and strategic goal setting in the hospitality sector have rapidly evolved over the past two years, opening up new space for real-time conversations about the future of the industry. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to various areas of the industry, examining the innovations and accommodations you have all had to make throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and strategizing on future directions. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from across the industry.

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.

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