Mr. Tapling

Technology

The Hospitality Divide: How New Technology Is Making It Bigger

By Mark Tapling, President & CEO, InfoGenesis

It's no secret that there is a great divide when it comes to hospitality. No matter if you operate a hotel, cruise line, resort or casino, there is a distinct difference between those companies that focus on guest service and those that don't. It's only recently that the pendulum as swung back from the commoditization of offerings to a focus on the guest experience. Now, many companies are scrambling to catch up to those that have stayed the guest-focus course in their operations.

This observation begs the question: Why has guest experience accelerated in importance over the past several years? Some say it's the build out of local markets where location and price have reached their zenith. Oversaturation is the death knell for many an operation. But there are still others that realize a focus on guest service and the guest experience has the potential to negate many of the affects of competition, location and price. In fact, many are finding that they can significantly increase revenue by focusing on guest service.

What sets the successful hospitality operators apart is more than budgeted corporate dollars or training. Even companies that have done guest service well in the past find it increasingly difficult to be profitable in competitive markets. The operators that are combining their guest service strengths with new technology are the same organizations carving out powerful competitive leads in their markets. They've discovered the formula that is crucial in hospitality today: Better Service + Better Technology = Increased Revenue.

In this article you'll learn about three new pieces of technology your property can implement. This technology brings the above formula to life for a company that has basic technology in place, such as point-of-sale (POS), property management and table management/dining reservations solutions. What these new, integrated technology pieces represent are unique opportunities to differentiate in the marketplace, get people talking and keep them coming back to your locations.

In The Know

One of the cornerstones of better guest service is information. Lack of information for a manager or guest can breed confusion, incompetence and lost opportunities. Technology is tailor-made to help companies avoid these problems and deliver the right information at the right time, but only if it's set up and integrated properly.

New SMS (short message service) mobile phone alert technology is a great example. By integrating your dining reservations and table management software with an SMS solution, you can let managers know when VIP guests arrive and alert guests when their table is ready all through a message that appears on their mobile phone.

The potential is compelling; important guests begin to get more attention, while all your guests waiting to be seated start taking greater advantage of close by, on-property shopping. It enables things like a manager suggesting a favorite bottle of wine while seating a VIP or a guest buying a curio shop item they would have never even looked at. In both cases, you boost your bottom line with minimal effort.

This type of solution also leverages the prevalence and familiarity of standard lifestyle accessories like cell phones. This type of thinking also allows operators to avoid managing and paying for profit eating infrastructure, like a separate pager system. And for the guest, mobile phones are less bulky, more familiar, and friendlier to the guest.

Because of its guest-centric nature, there are some important market implications related to technology like this. Capturing guest attention and directing it in ways that increase your bottom line, while simultaneously improving your service levels, puts that much more pressure on your competition and increases diverted word-of-mouth business to your location. There is strong business logic operationally, and strategically, to integrate and implement guest-centric technology.

Forget About Lines

Another way to make technology work for you in terms of guest service is to change how your quick serve locations operate. Bistro and buffet style dinning is notorious for long lines. The very nature of these types of locations can hamper property-wide service initiatives and keep guests away from other revenue-generating entities. Kiosks are one cost-effective way to resolve this problem.

While kiosk technology has been around for a few years, its application in hospitality has been confused at best. Identifying the real potential for use in hotel, resort and casino quick serve environments has been elusive. The opportunity lies in enhancing the guest experience, while at the same time delivering an operationally viable solution.

For guests, the ability to step out of line, order what they want, and wait for someone else to bring them their food or tell them their order is ready is a great convenience. The best service is often self service. Likewise, in a long buffet line, if they can pay and get a return time for when they can be seated, your customer is free to shop at other company-owned locations or enjoy other activities at your property.

Increasing profits with kiosks is only partially due to better service. The other half comes from the increased throughput for quick serve locations, more accurate orders, and an optimized labor force.

A word of caution here is that any self-service technology like this needs to be integrated tightly with your point-of-sale system to avoid deflating your profits with increased manager and IT overhead. A simple menu push to kiosks and consolidated reporting should be possible. Your property may also consider loyalty cards and online ordering as part of an overall self-service strategy.

Convenience Means Anywhere

For many companies, there is a challenge in consistently serving guests well across an entire property. Infrastructure is expensive to build out across an entire property. This is another area where technology-specifically, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology-can help improve service.

Although some headway has been made over last several years in mobile technology that makes service more guest-centric (kiosks, tablets and handhelds), cards still have to be lugged around for payment in most cases. This is inconvenient in many environments. But with newly integrated RFID technology, it's much easier to give guests anytime, anywhere purchasing power.

By integrating RFID, POS and property management (PMS) systems you can create a seamless, cashless, buy-anytime environment. Through this integrated technology, guests can use customized bracelets to buy food, items or services anywhere on your property. This cashless convenience promotes increased spending, allows guests to leave their wallet or purse in their in-room safe and gives them greater freedom to experience all that a property has to offer.

In combination with mobile technology, the RFID/POS/PMS integration can have important service implications for a property. Service at remote locations via handhelds and wireless POS terminals can become significant contributors to profitability and the guest experience. You're essentially removing roadblocks to buying and giving guests more convenience. This pays off not only in terms of guest satisfaction, but per guest revenue.

What All This Technology Means

The brief examples above give you a glimpse into new technology that is widening the gap between those companies that have a guest-service focus and those that don't. In the coming months, technology will continue to widen the service and per guest revenue gap-allowing guest-oriented organizations to capitalize on their strengths.

While adopting new technology can involve risk and require some work, it's well worth it. Smart, early adoption of technology enables companies to have unique differentiators in their marketplace that promote guest loyalty.

The difference between spending important budget dollars on something that's a gimmick versus something that will make a significant impact on guest service and spending, however, involves homework. Look at what technology you're using now. Any new technology you're thinking about adopting should clearly integrate in terms of configuration and reporting. There should be a clear integration roadmap and process that isn't made up as you go along. Ultimately, any new technology should make a clear-and measurable-impact on how guests spend their time and how they interact with staff.

Given these guidelines, you should be on the lookout this next year for technology that helps you stay at the forefront in your market in terms of service. As technology continues to improve the guest experience and revenue potential, you'll see a lot more of your competitors move towards integrating new solutions in their operations.

Mark Tapling is President and CEO of InfoGenesis, the award-winning technology company that offers hospitality and foodservice operators feature-rich solutions for mission-critical operations. Offerings include InfoGenesis Point-of-Sale (POS), Self-Service and Reservations. Solution development focuses on guest experience management (GEM), which is about giving guests more convenience and increasing per guest revenue for operators. Industries served by InfoGenesis include hotels, resorts, casinos, cruise lines, sports and entertainment, restaurants and managed foodservice. Mr. Tapling can be contacted at 800-242-5434 or mtapling@infogenesis.com Extended Bio...

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