Introduction
In order to minimise physical contact, technology has become more commonly used in the hospitality sector, but does technology improve the overall customer experience?
How does technology improve the customers’ hospitality experience?
Recent research by Zonal and CGA has found that 40% of consumers believe that technology has improved the hospitality experience. The top three benefits that consumers rate the highest are as follows:
- Speed and convenience (31%)
- Ease of ordering (29%)
- Tracking orders (17%)
Technology seems to remove a lot of the pain points that customers experience for example, struggling to attract the attention of the server, items not being on the menu, and feeling pressured to order quickly. Implementing a digital ordering process not only improves the customer experience. It also frees up the server’s time so they can spend more time with guests answering their queries.
Technology can also remove another pain point. Paying the bill! Especially if the bill is being split between a number of people. This can be particularly frustrating. However, advances in technology means there are wide range of choices when paying the bill to make it easier.
Disadvantages of technology in hospitality?
One of the main disadvantages of technology in hospitality for the wider economy is the potential impact on employment levels in the sector. This may be counterbalanced by the impact of Brexit and a reduction in the available work force.
Implementing technology into a business also increases the risk of exposure to cybercrime. This is of particular concern as many hospitality businesses will be storing customers personal data on their networks and are subject to data protection requirements.
Conclusion
To conclude, technology has many positives in the hospitality sector and improves the customer experience in a number of ways. There are issues for the sector to address including understanding the impact on required employee numbers, a resulting pressure on labour costs in the future caused by demand in other sectors and increases in the national minimum wage, a commitment to IT training and changes to systems and procedures to minimise the risk of cyber security issues and non-compliance with regulations.
How can we help?
At Hawsons we have a dedicated team of leisure and hospitality accountants at our offices in Sheffield, Doncaster and Northampton. As the sector continues to become ever more challenging, with changes in fierce global, nation and regional competition leading to unrelenting pressures to maintain margins, it is more crucial than ever to seek sound and proactive advice.
