Service industry players should not be strangers to emerging technologies if they want to survive the digital transformation underway. We have a growing world population with new demands for different experiences. Customers are becoming accustomed to a more customer-centric restaurant and hotel experience. It’s going to require businesses to seek to accommodate them with better food and comfort, and this will require even predicting their needs before they arise.
Right now, we’re in a place where few businesses have truly taken to the state-of-the art when it comes to the latest technologies. COVID-19, however, has been a wake-up call as restaurants and hotels have been challenged to consider how they can give their guests the most comfortable, enjoyable experience possible while also abiding by reasonable, legal safety guidelines during a pandemic.
This may have sped-up the process of innovation, after all, since a simple room and bed won’t cut it.
The service industry needs to be more immersive and engaging than it has ever been. And the crazy thing is, all the tools are there for businesses to seize on this. It’s just a matter of knowing what the technologies are and how they can help you succeed.
Here are a few ways the service industry can benefit from the latest technological trends.
Smart Devices & More
Most people are familiar with the option to rent pay-per-view and order room service via TV or phone from your hotel room. But the Internet of Things (IoT) is taking it up a notch.
That is to say, tools in a hotel room of the future are more unified. With a “smart room,” guests can have app-based control of everything from TV to air conditioning with a single mobile device. Certain hotels are already offering tablets to their guests for these purposes.
For a restaurant, this technology could translate to offering digital menus. Many restaurants have already taken advantage of this, creating apps with convenient menus for take-out while dine-in services are unavailable.
In cases where there is dine-in, some restaurants have begun to offer tablets to their guests as well – not only to order, but to play games and movies while they wait for their food.
In either case, both hotels and restaurants have a greater ability to assess the needs and preferences of their customers. The more sensors they have, the more data they collect, the more they can predict customer needs at every turn.
You can offer more personalized services this way to keep customers coming back. It’s all thanks to artificial intelligence (AI)…
Customer-Centric AI
Businesses can dramatically improve their ability to keep customer needs with AI helping them make decisions. In the hospitality industry, this has taken the form of chatbots.
These bots can have instant-message conversations with guests within an app or on a website to gather insights about the customer’s experience. They are also a personable way of collecting information that would otherwise be filled out on forms and seem tedious to guests.
Chatbots can then take tall the information given by the customer and formulate responses and recommendations to meet their preferences.
At a restaurant, the chatbot may take into account a customer’s order history and satisfaction level over time, while a hotel chatbot would assume the role of a digital “concierge” to give customers information on a range of items such as payment options, flights, nearby restaurants and more.
Chains have been faster to adopt digitally transformative technologies in recent years. Places like Chipotle and McDonalds already have tablets set up for customers in the restaurant to completely bypass any face-to-face interaction.
But that is still not the limit to the service AI can provide restaurant customers. A large part of operating in the service industry is responding to customer complaints and doing so in a tactful way.
The progression of AI is such that restaurants will soon be able to deliver quality customer care based on specific customer needs, rather than calling a human manager to put out a fire they might know nothing about.
The beauty of this is that the machine learns more as it goes. The longer and more frequently it can learn about a customer, the better data your company will have, empowering it to satisfy the customer in the future.
The bottom line is that companies can use data to better personalize customer relationships. Ultimately, this can bring in more customers that are destined to keep coming back. Restaurant regulars love going in and having their “usual” recognized. With AI, you’re offering this experience to a wider range of people.
Virtual Tours
If hotels really want to give their customers an immersive experience, they can make it easier for them to book online by giving virtual tours.
Photos on a website should not mislead customers. If they do, it only results in customer disappointment down the line. For satisfied customers who keep coming back, you want to make sure they know what they are paying for.
Restaurants have this option as well, though fewer have adopted it. If you think about young adults perusing for a new happy hour location, or a couple looking for a fancy date night, it would not be a stretch to suggest virtual tours of a restaurant space would add value and deliver warmer leads for your business.
Virtual and augmented reality technologies are still in infancy, but it is exciting to think about the extent to which these tools can be used to improve the customer experience.
Don’t Get Left Behind
Staying ahead of the curve becomes less difficult when you have the right people in your corner.
There has been a huge uptick in remote hiring in the last year, due to COVID-19. And remote workers are in high demand.
Newman’s International Associates can connect you with the right candidate for your needs.
This is a team of international digital experts finding the best talent to keep your company in line with the latest trends.
You can get in touch with an exclusive network of IT consultants and project managers right now.
