High tech enables high-touch service at hotels

How hoteliers can use technology to improve the guest experience

Many luxury hotel brands pride themselves on their responsiveness and attentiveness to guests. These strengths are what distinguishes them from other hotels. “High touch” has become synonymous with private concierges, VIP lounges, 24/7 room service, and other exclusive features designed to attract the discerning traveler.

But does high-touch service have to conflict with high tech? Not at all. In today’s world, luxury also implies high tech, which can manifest in several ways. More modern luxury hotels now come equipped with WiFi throughout the property. Think wide-panel smart TVs, keyless entry, and even voice-enabled digital assistants. Luxury travelers have come to expect that their hotels will at least maintain the standards these guests have in their own homes.

What you will learn here

• High tech and high-touch service can co-exist
• High tech, high-touch service, and the guest experience
• The competitive advantage of high tech and high-touch service

High tech and high-touch service can co-exist

So, how do luxury hotels provide a high-tech experience and still deliver on the high-touch service expectation? The answer is both simple and surprising: it lies in artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is a computer program that can learn over time. AI’s built-in, learn-and-response feedback loop allows the program to improve and refine its responses. For example, it can identify preferences in your guest profiles, while collecting, managing, and processing far more data in a fraction of the time.

In hospitality, AI can act like the private concierge, the 24/7 room service, and the personal butler rolled into one. It can be a text messaging solution like Revinate Ivy, that can communicate and perform many of the same high-touchservices luxury hotels already deliver, but in a fraction of the time.

High tech, high-touch service, and the guest experience

Every day, thousands of guest requests are addressed by hotel staff around the globe. How these concerns are addressed determines the outcome of the guests’ experiences. But who handles these requests isn’t necessarily important. No one complains when the bellhop brings extra towels up to the room instead of a member of the housekeeping staff. In hotels, guests realize that roles are fluid as the hotel strives to provide exceptional service.

The role of a text messaging solution is to act as the front line for simple requests. A text messaging solution offers a high-tech, seamless experience in which guests often believe they’re messaging with a member of guest services. Instead, this technology elevates the guest’s request to a human counterpart, and the entire conversation is passed along. In fact, a Capgemini Research Institute report found that 55% of consumers prefer interactions enabled by a mix of AI and humans, with 63% citing the top benefit of AI having greater control over their interactions.

A report by L’Ecole Hôtelière Lausanne describes the need to consider how high tech shapes the guest experience and how high-touch service facilitates an emotional connection. Communication fosters an emotional connection and creates satisfactory or unsatisfactory experiences.

The role of an AI-powered text messaging solution is to provide highly satisfactory guest experiences that feel like a natural text conversation. For example, the guest may communicate an issue like, “The WiFi is slow.” A text messaging solution like Revinate Ivy might respond with, “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll let our technical team know. Meanwhile, try this network: VIP Guest. The password is strongsignal.”

The competitive advantage of high tech and high-touch service

As much as, 88% of B2C organizations say that delivering real-time personalization is a customer experience priority. A text messaging solution like Ivy responds instantly, in seconds rather than minutes — requiring no walking down to the front desk, no calling and waiting on hold, and no standing in a line.  Guests can connect and engage with Ivy for what they want, when they want, using their preferred channels.

You can field hundreds of simultaneous requests in a way that a single human can’t — that’s true high-touch service. This capacity to handle simple, repetitive requests takes a burden off hotel staff, freeing them up to tackle high-value interactions. This kind of pay-off not only benefits the guests, but also your team.

The bottom line is this: Brands that structure their operations to include high-tech solutions and high-touch service, will likely create more satisfied guests. They are going to be further ahead than their competitors!

If you want to learn how a text messaging solution fulfills your need for high-touch offerings, read more about text messaging and the guest experience.

Would your hotel benefit from an AI-driven text messaging solution? Get a demo to see what your guests may be missing.