Effect of employee's social intelligence levels on their approach to customer complaints: The example of Bodrum

Hotel employees have to communicate effectively with customers, solve problems and satisfy customers during service delivery. This situation makes it necessary for employees to deal with negative situations frequently. Each employee has different characteristics in solving the problem. Social intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and cooperate with people. Social intelligence skills are thought to be an important tool in solving problems in the tourism sector. The duration of interaction with customers in the tourism sector is longer than in other sectors. Negative experiences can also be experienced during this time period. Negative experiences can cause complaints in some cases. Resolving customer complaints is of great importance for the business. Resolving the complaint allows to deal with the current customer, reduce costs and prevent future problems. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of employees' social intelligence levels on their approach to customer complaints. The universe of the research consists of the employees in the hotel enterprises in Bodrum district. In the study, 202 participants were reached with the convenience sampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods. Descriptive questions, Tromso Social Intelligence Scale and Customer Complaints Approach Scale were used to collect data in the research. Data analysis in the research was done in SPSS program. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Correlation and Regression Analysis, T-Test analysis, ANOVA Test, Barlett Sphericity Test, Scheffe Test and Tukey and Bonferroni Tests were used to analyze the data and determine the relationship between variables. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the social intelligence levels of the employees are effective on their approach to customer complaints.