High-tech and low-touch or high touch and low tech?
Technology that pushes self service on the promise of making many everyday tasks less arduous has proved to do just that in many cases. However, there is still an ongoing debate as to how much and how far it can be adapted in the hospitality industry.
Proponents of Self-service technologies (SSTs) say it is the way forward; where hotel frontline and service staff are freed from interacting with customers over mundane and/or routine chores, and can instead, attend to more important tasks. Detractors of SSTs claim it takes away the traditional interpersonal ‘high touch-low tech experiences and is contrary to the spirit of hospitality. In the process, two polarized camps, on both sides of the ‘embrace SST’ divide have emerged; one screaming ‘we should’ and the other saying ‘we shouldn’t’.
Research conducted by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has revealed that the introduction of Self-service technologies is influenced by several preferences supported by individual and organisational –level inputs. And this needs to be clearly understood by those in the hotel business when planning to effectively introduce SST.
At the individual level, as discovered by many companies, the biggest obstacle was not the technology itself. It was the reluctance or fear in several customers to use it. COVID-19 however, not only reduced that fear factor, but also accelerated the acceptance level - although not due the convenience in service it brings and one that customer’s value, but simply from a safety-above- all angle, as the pandemic choked customer - employee contact.
The advent of self-service check-in kiosks in the hotel lobby came in response to reduce ‘wait lines’ and to get guests to their rooms swiftly. The guest can slide in their credit cards and receive their room key cards. Pretty soon AI based SSTs such as facial recognition check-in will make it even easier to get to the hotel room.
Hotels that introduce kiosks argue that it resonates well with the ‘fast and furious’ paced lives of the millennials and frees front desk staff to devote more time to guests who need attention. True, and also true, although hardly mentioned, is that at an organisational level, it translates to employing fewer staff and reduced payroll burden. It allows hoteliers to provide certain services devoid of any physical presence of service staff with benefits of significantly lowering operating costs and boosting profits.
Whilst hotels have now begun installing other self-ordering gadgets including smart speakers and robots, there are hoteliers and customers who remain wary about introducing technologies across-the-board in the service industry. In a ‘people looking after people’ industry, where hotel service is largely a human-oriented business, they express fear that the use of emotionless technologies may result in service indifference and irreparably tear hospitality’s delicate role of caring.
To summarize; decreased workload and improved efficiency are economic benefits in an organisational context, perhaps better suited to the ‘no frills’ and ‘no-luxury’ hotels. Robots can be that ‘pull factor’ to attract guests but lack attributes of personalization due to two-way dialogue limitations. They are less prone to making mistakes, available 24/7 and do not resign. Whilst they may be novel, their mono -metallic sounding voices can be off-putting and they can falter when it comes to problem resolution.
All these factors need to be taken into account when considering delivery of desirable guest experiences, driven by SSTs in today’s fast evolving tech world.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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