Kevin,+Alyssa

How do culture differences influence employee customer service training? ** Compare and contrast the way employees are taught to greet and treat customers in car dealerships and grocery stores in the United States and Korea. **

Hypothesis
We hypothesize that if we ask employees in managers in both countries about their employee training, then there will be a significant difference between American and Korea. We base our hypothesis on the idea that since we live in different countries, the the training and the way employees are taught to treat customers will be different in that Korea is more formal than America.

Objective
Our main objective is to figure out what kind of difference there are and see if our hypothesis meets with our results. Another side objective to our main is to see if there is no cultural difference and employee training is the same throughout South Korea and the United States.

Method
Each of us will be going to more than two different locations in our neighborhood grocery stores and car dealerships and will interview exactly two employees from a car dealership management, two managers from the grocery stores, and as many employees as possible as well from the grocery store. We will ask them specific questions according to their occupations and record our results. After we will compare and contrast through graphs, charts. Finally we will observe the employees to see if they actually use the techniques they told us. __Questions we will be asking:__ For 21 days Interview Car dealership place (2?) Q: What are the different techniques you use to approach a customer? Q: Are there different approaches to men and women? Q: How are you trained to treat customers? Q: What is the best way to get a customer to make a purchase? -Managers(2) Q: What do you look for when hiring an employee? Q: What techniques do you want to have when it comes to customer service? -Employees(5 or more) Q.What kind of training did you receive before working at this location? Q.Was there a particular curriculum? Q.How are you trained? Q.Is it pressuring? Q.Do you think employee training is important? Why? Q.In your opinion do you think the US/S.Korea stresses too much importance on employee training?

Potential Errors
Potential errors that might occur in our experiment is that there might be strict regulations on wether or not the employees and managers are allowed reveal the training method. Therefore, we might not be able to receive a good amount of information we need in order to compare and contrast the two countries.

Scholarly Lit Summaries
Alyssa Corbitt 2-28-12 Lit Review Customer Service Lit Review  Customer service and the way that we train our employees to greet and treat our customers is different than the way South Korea’s employees are trained. Throughout our studies and research, we will be looking at the different cultures and the way they treat and greet customers and employees in order to create a successful business. After finding scholarly articles the idea of the importance of customer service grew. Through what’s most important, the importance of customer service, job training, customer relationship, trends in public training, and training for retail, the importance of customer service and the effects of it has become evident.  Cygnus Business Media produced an article titled “Why Service Matters” which explains a survey that was performed asking, what was the most important specific offering that a company could provide. The most frequent answer just happened to be “customer service”. Further on, it explains how the only thing that truly matters in a business place is the customer service because “it was all about people power” (Cygnus 1). Customer service is the only thing that customers can control on a day to day base, not the low prices, the best images, or even the objects for purchases. The better off your customer service is, the better of the business is, and if it seems as if something is wrong, improving customer service will help. “Why Service Matters” will help my research and investigation by telling me that the most important part of a business to the customers is in fact customer service. It is what draws the people in, makes them make purchases, and keeps them returning to the business. These specific customers are what makes the employees treat and greet everyone with their smiling faces and friendly greetings as the walk in the door.  In the article, “It Only Takes a Moment to Win – or Lose – a Customer,” Charles Sujansky states, “It may take years for an organization to build a positive, productive, and profitable relationship with customers, only to have one of those relationships destroyed in a mere moment” (Sujansky 1). The article explains how building a relationship with all of the customers takes time and effort, but destroying that relationship could take a second, just one mistake. A company wants to make sure to build great relationships with customers because overall, that makes better sales and better business. Sujansky describes that organizations compete over who provides the better customer service. It is all a competition of whose better then who. In the long run its customer service that brings together workers and management. The article convinces the audience that in order to provide the right customer service you must succeed in two things with your employees. You first must hire employees who have a natural propensity for customer service. And secondly, make sure that the workforce is fully engaged. Charles Sujansky article helps the research project a lot because customer service is important to businesses so they do not lose their customers. After reading this article, I understand that different places will treat customers different, even if they are the same company. This will improve my investigation because I now know that I will have to go to more than one company if I interview a store that is part of a chain.  David Knoke and Arne L. Kalleberg published the article, “Job Training in U.S Organizations” to explain their thoughts about employer-provided training and the organization in general. Many variables play a role in the job training provided by certain organizations. One key variable is the organization’s size. The larger the organization the more training, and more formal training, is provided. The cost of the training and gathering information for the employees is another variable. The larger organizations are more likely to pay for a more expensive training then the smaller ones. Cost includes the search, the hiring, the retention, and the compensation. Lastly, the gender and race variable is played. Men are more likely to get trained better than women. Also if you are a part of the minority, training will be less for you than the other races. This article provides me with background knowledge of how the United States decides how much training it will provide along with the factors that are included when deciding who gets to be trained well and who doesn’t. This plays a role in my research because I am now aware of the different varieties of employee training that I may run across in my interviews.  “Why Do Customer Relationship Management Applications Affect Customer Satisfaction” written by: Sunil Mithas, M.S Krishnan, and Claes Fornell, explains what a customer relationship management application (CMR) is and how it helps customer service. CMR’s are applications on a firm’s customer knowledge and customer satisfaction. It allows the companies to recognize the importance of managing customer relationships and customer assets. They are able to gather customers contact employees to record relevant information about transactions. They also share their knowledge about customers with other customers to serve themselves as defining services and suit the needs of their customers. This article has helped with research because I understand how the CMR’s work and how the firms are able to understand their customers and how to satisfy them properly. This comes into effect when learning about the different styles of different firms and how they treat their customers.  James Mitchell wrote the article, “Current Trends in Public-Employee Training” to explain the types of training. In the article, he explains how in the government, “the process of learning must be speeded up through planned and intensive training” (Mitchell 292). There are two types of training that is looked at for employees. The first one is in-service training which is the breaking in of the new employees and testing them out to see what they understand. The pre-service training requires public service and receives the attention of educators and public personnel administrators. At the end of the article, Mitchell explains that the public-service training is here to stay and that it is too important to be replaced or forgotten. This explains to me that there are different types of training that can happen, whether it is on the job, or before the job happens. Depending on which type an employee might receive, may influence the way that the customers are treating by that given employee.  Paul Nystrom’s article, “Training for Retailing” is all about how training has evolved over time. As there were many methods of training and satisfying customers, the family system was the first type of training used. It was one of the more effective ones because it made sure that everyone was doing something right, and that the styles did not change as years progressed, it stayed in the family. The family system required the sons to take over the fathers jobs, therefore go into the same field as the father. The only problem that occurred had to adopt sons from other families. After the family system, the apprenticing system became more popular. This is where someone worked for the company and took notes and practiced the style of working that occurred. Then the guild system arose, which dealt with trade and production. Training also ended up being the idea that the older people would train the younger ones how to do their job, so therefore they could eventually replace them. Over time, training became less and less more important and only the essentials were taught. Over the years, training and the system of training has evolved to make it not as important. This is important when dealing with the different age groups of employees. Some may have been taught using a different system then the others. Training is very important still in our world.  These scholarly articles have helped me realize that there are different ways employees have been trained and are different styles of customer service. Each is important in its own way. My research needs to continue to find information of customs that Americans learn during training for treating and greeting their customers. I also need to find out any specific training techniques or programs that American specifically uses that maybe other countries do not. Overall, these articles will help us compare and contrast the different ways employees are taught to treat and greet customers in car dealerships and grocery stores in the United States and South Korea. Works Cited Cygnus Business Media, INC. "Why Service Matters." Cygnus Business Media 4 Jan. 2012. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. Knoke, David, and Arne L. Kalleberg. "Job Training in U.S Organizations." American Sociological Review. 4th ed. Vol. 59. American Sociological Association, 1994. 537-46. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. Mitchell, James M. "Current Trends in Public-Employee Training. "Journal Of Educational Sociology 14.5 (1941): 292-97. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. Mithas, Sunil, M.S Kirshan, and Claes Fornell.  "Why Do Customer Relationship Management Applications Affect Customer Satisfaction. " The Journal Of Marketing 69.4 (2005): 201-09. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. Nystrom, Paul H. "Training for Retailing." National Marketing View. 4th ed. Vol. 1. American Marketing Association, 1936. 353-58. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. Sujansky, Charles. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"It Only Takes a Moment to Win- or Lose- a Customer." Material Handling Management 7 Dec. 2011. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.

Kevin Kim 2-28-2012 Lit Review <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The education of employees, managers, and CEO’s is the most significant ingredient to a successful business. South Korea and the United States have very different cultural backgrounds, therefore in order to observe similarities and differences, these articles will help us determine how employee training and education helps not only the individual find work, but help the business as well. Alyssa and I will explore the training and educational programs the employees receive in Korea and the United States and observe how their success in their training effect their performance in their work place. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> According to a research done by Korean Women's Development Institute (KWDI), women who are more active participants in training activities, they have a higher rate of satisfaction in their workplaces; "they have a greater positive awareness of success and future prospects in their occupation" (Burke & McKeen, 1994).Although most women have positive reactions to these training programs, they are still being discriminated against in educational training. Many institutions outside of Korea have been implementing education training programs focusing mainly on females as a means of rectifying the gender inequality employment. According to Hall and Bright, half of the female working in England gave a positive response to a training program designed only for women. Even though these programs resulted in positive feedback, Willis & Daily (1997) believed that there might also be similar conflicts within the female community. This paper describes the inequality of gender in training programs and how that can affect how one works in their occupation. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> A blogger concerned about the Interdisciplinary and Vocational training in South Korea wrote an article about a program conducted in a Korean university name Soongsil University. They provide a program called the Soongsil Institute of Fusion Technology which educates and trains their students in their occupation. In the modern age, students are fighting and competing for the same position in their field. However, in this program they put extra emphasis on preparing the students to become workers in emerging fields. For example, renewable energy is becoming one of the fastest growing markets in South Korea. Instead of students fighting against each other for the job position, the program teaches them different small and medium jobs int he field and "distribute" them. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Finally, in the New York Times, and article about President Obama recent donation to community college career fund came to notice. The original plan was to built and fund 10 billion dollars for community college, but now Mr. Obama decided to just fund 2 billion dollars on job training. This will expand the training to meet the needs of employers in high growing sectors, provide the latest certified training and skills to workers, and invest in apprenticeship and other job opportunities. This action will not only effect the lives of the students receiving the education and training, but it will also support the economy, bring business to new heights and create more jobs. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In conclusion, all of these articles helped me understand that customer service, employee behavior and performs is reflected upon the employee's education and training. Our main goal for this project is to interview both male and female workers from both locations (grocery stores and car dealerships). As a result, these articles will help us compare and contrast the two countries differences in the career training and observe how it effects how the employees greet and treat their customers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Works cited <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Interdisciplinary and Vocational Training in South Korea Â« Energy Rebels." Welcome to energyrebels.com - Energy Rebels. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.energyrebels.com/blog/2012/01/23/interdisciplinary-and-vocational-training-in-south-korea/>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LEWIN, TAMAR. "Obama Budget Seeks Job Training at Community Colleges - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/education/obama-to-propose-community-college-aid.html?ref=vocationaltraining>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Research on Female Employees in Korean Corporations." www.kwdi.re.kr. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <www.kwdi.re.kr/data/05forum-4.pdf>. __Feedback__

Results

 * US RESULTS: **