Machines are now replacing humans in service jobs

I am not joking. Machine serving people has now become the new reality, as I suggested in my recent discussion on Multibriefs.com .

Here are just some examples:

• A restaurant with no hosts, no waiters, and no tables
• Burger-flipping robots
• Robot baristas 
• Robot that makes salads
• Self-ordering service - Domino's Pizza, McDonald's, Starbucks, and Wendy's. 
• Food delivery robots
• The robotic butler service in hotels
• The automatic drink dispenser
• Personal assistants
• Self-driving cars

Does it become obvious that the new era of machines serving people has already arrived? I think it is now the time for those who are feeling the panic of being replaced by machines or robots at work to reconsider their career paths. Manual labor will certainly be replaced, and the only way for us to survive in this competition is to become the leaders in the field.

How to shut down bad online reviews

What can managers do to shut down bad online reviews? Here is a real example: 

It started at the Broadway Oyster Bar in St. Louis this February when Mary S., a Yelper, left the business with a one-star rating and a description of the negative experience she received in the restaurant. As a reference, the restaurant is now being monitored by Yelp for any content related to media reports, meaning some reviews have been or would be removed from the business's page on Yelp, but the restaurant has an overall 4.4 star rating from more than 900 Yelpers in March.

Mary went there for a birthday dinner. She claimed that she had a reservation for a party of nine people, but the party waited for two hours before they were finally seated. To make it even worse, because there were three additional people joining the party and the manager was unwilling to work with them, they would have to wait for longer to be seated together or be split up.

She then took the group of 12 people with her to a nearby restaurant, where she and her guests could enjoy a "FABULOUS dinner with EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE"(in Mary's own words).

Then, the owner of the restaurant exercised his rights of responding to Mary's review on Yelp — for every comment left by a customer, managers are usually allowed to post one response. As a matter of fact, managers are highly recommended to post managerial responses to online reviews because their responses have significant positive impacts on the helpfulness of reviews as well as their business's financial performance.

The owner of the Broadway Oyster Bar pointed out the "real" facts on Yelp, including:

• Mary did not have a reservation because the restaurant doesn't take reservations.
• The party was waiting for one hour and half, but not two hours.
• The party of nine was indeed squishing in a table for eight guests, but that was agreed to by the party.
• Shortly after the party was seated, five additional guests (not three) joined the party.
• Without asking for any assistance, the party helped themselves by getting more chairs from another part of the restaurant.
• When 14 people sitting in a table for eight, some guests were actually sitting in the aisles or right next to other guests.
• Because the party had infringed on other guests' personal space and the server found it difficult to serve the party in their current seating situation, the floor manager offered a separate table for those five additional guests, which triggered a fight between a member from the party and the staff, or "a heated argument with F-bombs" in the manager's words.
• Some members of the party ended up staying and not going with Mary to another restaurant.

Later, Mary posted another review to respond to the manager's "real" facts:

• Some members of her party stayed only because they had already ordered food and wanted to wait to take out their order so that they could join the party afterward in another restaurant.
• "The rest of your inaccuracies were not even worth debating."

Now that you have read the reviews from Mary and the manager's response, which side will you take? Who presented the real facts?

More importantly, do you see how critical it is for the owner to respond to Mary's review? In a case like this, managerial responses can provide additional information from the business's perspective, allowing other customers to make an informed purchasing decision with an evaluation of both sides of the story.

In the end, I would like to make the following recommendations for managers who are ready to take an active role in responding to online reviews:

• Listen to what customers say about your business, and treat online reviews as customer feedback.
• Encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews and let them be the advocates for the business.
• Thank those "influential" customers who left positive reviews.
• Stay calm when reading negative reviews; do not get emotional.
• Focus on the facts, but not how you feel or how the guest felt when writing a response.
• When more than one customer brings up the same issue, it is likely that the customer is right.
• When the customer is right, acknowledge that and seek ways to address the issue. It is important to show that the management team is listening and working on the issue.
• Understand the needs and wants of the target customers. Because different customers are seeking different types of product-service mixes, managers should adopt different tactics in responding to online reviews based on the unique characteristics their product carries.

What else should a manager do in responding to online reviews? What are your suggestions?

* Another version of this post was published in MultiBrief.com. 

Managerial responses to online reviews: Strategies should vary across different hotels

Last month, I published two journal articles about online reviews. The first one was about how managers of different hotels should use different strategies to respond to online reviews and published in The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (with Karen Xie and Wei Wang). The second one was a review of current literature about online reviews and published in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (with Karen Xie and Tori Richards). 

I highlighted the important implications of these two journal articles on Multibriefs.com. For example, I recommend that responses to online reviews should vary based on hotel class. In particularly: 

• Budget traveler hotels — provide more but also more concise (shorter) responses by the executives.

• Mid-market economy hotels — provide more responses by the executives.

• Full-service hotels — provide more responses by the executives in a timely manner.

• Above-average hotels — provide more and longer responses by the functional managers (e.g., front desk manager, sales manager, etc.) and reply in a timely manner.

• Luxury hotels — provide more and longer responses by the functional managers.

In the literature review paper, we pointed out what we know and what we don't know about online reviews. Particularly, I would like to see what you want to know about online reviews. Maybe your comments will inspire more research studies in the future to help us further advance our knowledge about online reviews. 

Looking forward to 2017 with a review of 2016

Are you ready for a new year? I know I am. As we are looking forward to 2017, let's review some of the key events and discussions in 2016 as published at MultiBriefs.com.  

Impacts from the major events in 2016

There were several surprising, if not revolutionary, changes in 2016 that need our special attention as we enter 2017. Here are some examples:

• Donald Trump will officially become the 45th president of the United States after the inauguration on Jan. 20. I do not believe his presidency or his comments about illegal immigrants will stop people from traveling to the U.S., but his foreign policies — such as tighter border controls and new regulations or procedures of handling visas for temporary visitors — might have a negative impact. Meanwhile, Trump's infrastructure plan may boost the travel and tourism industry, providing easier, faster and safer access to a destination.
• A growing number of terrorist attacks in Europe have made (or soon will make) it more difficult to travel from one country to another in Europe. Those tragic events also put people in great concern of their safety when traveling inside of Europe.
• Brexit is probably the most shocking news in 2016 for Europeans. This past weekend, Italian voters rejected a batch of reforms, and the resounding defeat has led to the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Now, there is a strong chance Italy will become the second country to separate from the European Union (EU). The collapse of EU would make it more difficult to travel in Europe. The positive spin of Brexit is that the value of the pound is at a historic low, making a trip to Britain a great bargain.
• President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba helps to spur travel to the country.

The economy

• The U.S. dollar remained strong in 2016, and this trend will probably continue in 2017. We can expect a more diverse mix of international travelers visiting the U.S. as the number of visitors from Canada and Mexico drops. Meanwhile, more Americans are expected to travel overseas.
• Travelers have been taking more road trips in recent years due to low gas prices. Last week, however, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached an agreement to cut production, which may lead to higher gas prices in the future.
• The possible recession, as well as the rising minimum wages will continue pushing hospitality businesses to optimize efficiency in operations. More restaurants and hotels are rolling out new concepts, such as automatic service and no-tipping policies.

The evolving competitive landscape

2016 has been an exciting year for many hoteliers. Marriott and Starwood completed a merger and became the biggest hotel chain in the world. Yet the competition is just going to get tougher. For example:

• More hotels are luring travelers with local flavors.
• Hotels are reinventing their loyalty programs to win travelers, as reflected in 2016's top travel reward programs.
• Room-sharing websites, such as Airbnb, have become a big threat to hotels, even though some believe Airbnb's negative impact remains negligible.
• As hotels continue to fight with online travel agents (OTAs) using book-direct campaigns, we need to pay close attention to the possibility of Airbnb and OTAs working together against hotels.
• Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and online reviews deserve continuous attention from businesses. I am going to share the results of my research on online reviews as soon as my papers become available on the journals' websites.

Travelers want more authentic experiences

In 2016, I also shared a few discussions about new hotel and travel trends. Today's travelers want to gain more authentic experience in a tourist destination. They want to try local flavors, demand efficient service with the aid of technology, stay healthy and practice sustainability.

Above is a highlight of the key events of 2016, as reflected in my discussions over the year. Do you recall any big events in 2016 that I missed? How would they impact the future of hospitality and tourism business?

References:
The picture was downloaded from ArmstrongEconomics.com.

2017 hotel trends: Some indications from AHLA 2016 Lodging Survey

Recently, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) and Smith Travel Research (STR) released the "2016 Lodging Survey." The goal of this biennial survey is to provide a current and comprehensive understanding of hotel operations, with the possibility of identifying the critical travel trends heading into 2017.

The survey covers a wide range of areas. I highlighted the key findings from the survey on Multibriefs.com, but here is a brief summary:

Technology

#Hotel #Trends http://bit.ly/112216 

• Almost all hotels across various chain scales (from luxury to economy hotels) adopt central reservation systems (94-100 percent).
• More hotels are using mobile apps for customer service, including checking-in into a hotel. 
• 98 percent of hotels offer high-speed in-room internet service with wireless access, with fewer hotels charging for the service. 
• Fewer hotels are using social networking sites for marketing purposes, dropping from 93 percent in 2014 to 87 percent in 2016.

Additional discussions for consideration:

• Replacing the central reservation centers with mobile service centers
• Offering tier prices for hotel Wi-Fi
• Understanding the core principle of social media marketing
• Valuing the importance of human interactions in sales
• Using machines to serve your guests

Sustainability

• A substantial increase in the number of hotels using high-efficiency/LED lighting.
• 94 percent of hotels offer a towel/linen reuse program.
• 47 percent of hotels participate in an amenity-recycling program.
• A record number is set by the hotels using energy management sensors in rooms.

Additional discussions for consideration:

• Understanding how much extra effort consumers will make for sustainability
• Being aware of the damage sustainability can bring to the hospitality and tourism industry
• Being aware of the benefits sustainability can bring to the hospitality and tourism industry

In-room amenities

• A downward trend shows fewer hotels are offering shower-only rooms.
• Only 10 percent use shower shampoo/conditioner dispensers.

Guest services

• 85 percent of hotels that are located at an airport location provide complimentary airport shuttle service.
• 62 percent of hotels offer complimentary breakfast — 80 percent among upper-midscale hotels, 96 percent among midscale hotels and 81 percent among economy hotels.
• The percentage of hotels that provide room service dropped to 22 percent, but at the same, 21 percent offer alternatives to traditional room service.
• 34 percent of hotels charge a fee for checking out one or more days early.

Additional discussions for consideration:

• Delivering impeccable service by well-trained and friendly staff
• Winning customers with a small touch or more

Property offering

• 55 percent of luxury hotels and 25 percent of independent hotels have music/entertainment/nightclubs, much higher than other categories.
• Large meeting space (over 10,000 square feet) is usually found in luxury, upper-upscale and independent hotels.
• More hotels are offering free parking service, increasing from 72 percent in the previous survey to 85 percent this year.

Additional discussions for consideration:

• Managing travelers' experience, through an understanding of the travel trends for millennials

Safety and security

• 86 percent of hotels installed surveillance cameras in the lobby, the highest number ever.
• Additional discussions for consideration:

• Charging a fee for Wi-Fi service for security and stability

Will you be able to see the 2017 hotel trends from this report? Please share your thoughts with us, as I share mine under "additional discussions for consideration."