Absolutely! In today’s fiercely competitive hospitality landscape, creating truly memorable and personalised guest experience is no longer a luxury but a necessity for driving guest satisfaction and loyalty. Well, now the goal is to craft a memorable guest experience that leaves lasting positive impression and encourages repeat visits. Maybe we can explore AI brand ambassadors?
When you think of hotels, many think of how aesthetically pleasing the rooms are or how comfortable the beds are. But what sets hotels apart is not solely their tangible amenities but also their intangible services. The quality of these services can differentiate between same star-rated hotels and various star-rated hotels.
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) being such a big thing in the 21st century, how can we then relieve the pressure of humans through the exploration of AI brand ambassadors to drive highly personalised guest experiences in hotels?
But… why is personalised service so important to the guest experience?
The hotelier’s problem
First, let’s investigate the problems that hoteliers’ face.
Staff shortages are a persistent problem in hotels worldwide. The traditional model of 24/7 service with limited staff often leads to struggles in meeting the constant needs of discerning travellers, resulting in long wait times and guest frustration. This significantly strains the ability of hoteliers to provide quality and interpersonal service, making it challenging to meet the diverse and immediate needs of guests.
Gone are the days when a welcome drink and a well-appointed room made a guest happy and satisfied. Today’s travellers are tech-savvy, experience-driven, and expect seamless, personalised interactions. They crave unique experiences specially tailored to their individual needs and preferences.
After staying at a hotel for 10 nights, would you expect them to remember your memory foam pillow preference? Well, it’s a yes for me.
This shift in guest expectations presents a significant challenge for the traditional hospitality model where limited staff often struggle to keep pace with the 24/7 needs of discerning travellers. Where hoteliers find it challenging to excel in designing the perfect guest experience.
The emergence of AI brand ambassadors
How can AI brand ambassadors step into the game then?
AI brand ambassadors offer a compelling solution to these challenges by seamlessly performing human brand ambassador tasks. Powered by machine learning and natural language processing, they can interact with guests naturally, understand complex queries, translate languages, and provide tailored recommendations in real-time.
Now… think about it… with AI being a brand ambassador, it frees up human manpower for tasks requiring a personal touch and will be able to offer instant gratification to guests by responding to their queries with all the data stored at the back of its head just like a tactical brand ambassador.
Remember this video of a guest informing the front desk that Jerry is in his room?
An AI brand ambassador could have seamlessly translated and understood the non-English speaking guest’s urgent concern about a mouse in his hotel room. Thereby providing immediate and clear communication to the front desk staff, and ensuring that Jerry gets caught ASAP.
Tangibilising the intangible
With service industries, reviews play an important role in guests decision making process.
The introduction of AI brand ambassadors in hotels can significantly enhance the consistency of guest reviews. By providing reliable, 24/7 personalised service, the AI brand ambassador ensures that all guests receive the same high level of attention and care. This consistency reduces the variability in guest experiences, leading to more uniform positive feedback. Additionally, AI can quickly address and resolve common issues, minimising negative experiences and fostering a more consistent, positive impression among guests. Consequently, this leads to more consistent and favourable hotel reviews.
Meet Connie, Hilton Hotel’s AI concierge
Hilton Hotels faced the challenge of maintaining high-quality guest service during peak times with limited staff. To address this, they introduced Connie, an AI-powered concierge developed with IBM’s Watson, to assist with guest inquiries and provide local recommendations.
The results were positive! Connie enhanced guests’ experience by providing timely information, reducing the workload on human staff, and maintaining consistent service quality. This innovative solution helped Hilton improve operational efficiency and guest satisfaction.
Automating traditional models
One of the most significant advantages of AI brand ambassadors lies in their ability to leverage vast amount of data to provide bespoke recommendations and cater to individual guest preferences. By analysing data from past bookings, guest profiles, and interaction history, AI can build detailed insights into individual guest preferences, travel habits, and past experiences.
Imagine stepping into a hotel, far far away from home.
Fatigue after a 10-hours long flight, stepping into the hotel lobby thinking about the long check-in lines at 3pm. But this time, a friendly chime from your phone surprised you. It was the hotel’s app you downloaded: “Welcome to Antics Hotel, Jet,” it read. “Would you like assistance?”. Intriguing I would say. The AI brand ambassador followed up to assist with your mobile check-in and bypassing long queues.
AI brand ambassadors may not replace human interaction entirely, but for the weary traveller, it can be a welcome first step to a smoother, more personalised experience.
Never-ending personalisation with AI brand ambassadors
Frequent manpower turnovers in hotels disrupt service continuity, leading to inconsistent guest experiences and reduced satisfaction. Introducing AI brand ambassadors ensures stable, high-quality service by consistently handling routine tasks and guest interactions, regardless of staff changes.
But to transform guests experiences even more, the AI brand ambassador can be machine learning trained. Imagine (yes again, after checking-in) stepping into your hotel room and you feel just like home.
Why so?
The room lighting, temperature and humidity is just like how you’ve always customised it in your previous trips. Here we see the AI brand ambassador anticipating your unique guest needs before you even act on your own needs.
Or,
Waking up to the sound of raindrops on your window. That’s sad because you planned a full-day outdoor walking tour for your last day in Singapore. You shouted across the room, “Where should I sight-see today?”.
The AI brand ambassador responded with an indoor guided tour recommendation based on real-time weather conditions. You didn’t have to re-prompt it to plan something indoors! Here we see the AI brand ambassador being connected to the larger Internet of Things (IoT) that provides you with real time insights. Thereby making your guest experience even more seamless.
These innovations paint a picture of a future where guest experiences are not only personalised but also proactive and seamlessly integrated with technology.
What’s the next step for hotels then?
The value created through human-AI collaboration.
While AI plays a crucial role in driving efficiency and personalisation, it’s important to acknowledge that human interaction remains vital in the hospitality industry. Our human touch adds a layer of warmth, empathy, and problem-solving that AI currently cannot replicate.
AI brand ambassadors can take over monotonous tasks such as handling routine inquiries, managing check-ins and check-outs, and providing standard information. This allows hotels to redirect their manpower to tasks requiring a human touch, such as addressing complex guest needs, providing emotional support, and delivering personalised in-person service. This strategic partnership allows hotels to strike the perfect balance between automation and human interaction, ensuring guests receive the best possible service throughout their stay. Yay!
What’s the next step for you?
Hooked and intrigued to explore the realms of how AI can support your business? Striking a balance between AI and human touch can be tricky, explore how you can do it with us today!
