Judi Brownell is a professor at the School of Hotel Administration. She teaches courses in organizational behavior and management communication. Brownell has international teaching experience and her on-line eCornell executive courses are taken worldwide. Brownell’s research projects include studies on managerial listening behavior and the competencies required for global hospitality leaders. She has created tools to assess employee-organization fit and the communication of service values. Her current research focuses on listening as it relates to communicating and maintaining service quality standards in the international cruise industry. Brownell has authored several textbooks, published over 80 articles, and serves on several editorial boards. She is also past president of the International Listening Association and has received awards for her research in this field. Brownell has conducted training and consulting for a wide range of hospitality organizations. Among her projects, she has designed assessment centers for hospitality leadership development. A seasoned administrator, Brownell has served as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs, dean of students, and director for graduate studies. She has also been academic area director for both the organization behavior and management communication disciplines.
Developing Service Excellence Competencies
COURSE OVERVIEW
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.
- Assess your personal competencies required for facilitating your employees’ service
- Develop service-focused leadership competencies to engage colleagues in creating a strong service culture
- Select appropriate communication channels by considering the audience, the message, and your overall communication strategy
- Develop clear action steps for improving key personal competencies

How It Works
Course Author

Who Should Enroll
- Any organization looking to provide a consistent high level of customer service
- Managers and leaders responsible for serving external and internal customers
- Leaders and team members at financial institutions
- Hotel and restaurant leaders and team members
- Healthcare facility leaders and team members
- Retail leaders and team members
- Small business leaders
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