As hospitality professionals operating in the digital and technology sphere, we have had growing concerns that technology could become a scapegoat due to the increasingly use of technology as a gimmick. Author, computer scientist and composer Jaron Lanier has written pessimistically about technology adoption in his book, “You Are Not a Gadget”, despite his underlying optimism about how technology can enable. And using technology to enable is key to its value. Business problems need to follow a simple process to achieve the right outcomes. They identify this process as follows:
(a) clearly understand the business problem(s), and (b) have clear objectives attached to them, before (c) making a decision on how a technology should be used i(its principle purpose), and (d) deciding upon what technology should be used to achieve the principle purpose.
Far too often we see businesses fall into the trap of loosely understanding (a) before by-passing (b) and (c) entirely and moving straight to (d). This process leads to technology pitfalls and poorly thought out solutions, which lack engagement and end up costing the business more.
Virtual Reality, 360º video
With the increasing number of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets appearing at Trade Shows and/or as part of the field-sales tool kit, there is a slight worry that VR is increasingly being used as a gimmick to convey how cool a brand is. In a bid to keep up with the Jones’, it’s fast becoming a race to see who can utilize the latest technology first and demonstrate to customers that a brand is hip, cool and up to speed with the latest trends. This is a classic example of where a technology is decided upon, even before there is clarity and understanding around the specific business problem.
Now, most hoteliers reading this may confidently suggest that VR and 360º tours are a sales tool. And, indeed, they should be. However, we are largely seeing these technologies as gimmicks when they are deployed; gimmicks that don’t serve the purpose of resolving a business problem.
The reason we take this view is that we’ve witnessed event planners take off a VR headset and shrug or look confused by what they’ve just experienced. That body language is insightful feedback. It instantly informs us that the planner, on some level, is not satisfied by the tool. Something about that experience has not matched with their expectation. It’s often the same with 360º virtual tours.
Some planners feedback that they find such tours confusing and frustrating to use, complaining of motion sickness as they spin around a room, often left looking at a ceiling or a wall. But, mostly, they feel like the tour didn’t convey to them any useful information that would allow them to make a purchasing decision. You wouldn’t have an event planner in your venue, spin them around and then leave them stood staring at a wall. Yet, this frequently happens with technology, leaving the event planner searching for alternative options. Unless you understand the business problem and utilise the technology in the right way, you’re not going to engage the customer.
Let’s use an example of the right approach using the (a) to (d) method outlined earlier, from the perspective of a venue sales and marketing team.
(a) Clearly understanding the business problems; We are trying to reach and attract event planners from different locations who do not have the time or budget to physically visit our venue. Photography has its uses but it never does justice to our venue and it doesn’t set us apart from our competition.
(b) Business objective: We require a more engaging way to showcase our venue and set ourselves apart from the competition. We need to provide a solution to event planners who don’t have the time or budget to visit us in person, a solution that is informative for the planner and clearly identifies our unique selling points (USPs), as if we were providing them with a show round in person. We require a set of tools that can be used for both sales and marketing purposes, not just one or the other.
(c) What is the principle purpose of a solution and how could a technology be deployed to support this? The way to properly answer this question is to do so from the customer perspective. A customer-centric approach will always ensure the right outcome to your business problem and objective. The technology as a gimmick examples we provided earlier, demonstrated that the customer felt dissatisfied and short changed by the experience.
So, the principle purpose is to create engaging content that is going to inform the event planner of the key pieces of information, including our USPs, that will help them make an informed decision of where to use for their next event. In serving up this content, we need to consider
(i) how we replicate selling to them in person, because this has been assessed, practiced, refined and we convert business more effectively this way;
(ii) how, therefore, we control the narrative and what that narrative should be (see point i);
(iii) how we invoke emotion and a meaningful connection with the planner;
(iv) how we provide the planner with an element of control and functionality required to obtain more information;
(v) how we deploy ‘calls to action’ to encourage the client further down the sales funnel
(d) What technology do we utilise to achieve these business objectives?
Video and virtual reality technologies can certainly both be utilized to achieve the outlined objectives, but have you noticed how your perspective has changed on what the technology needs to achieve, and how it also transcends the technology itself to focus on the message?
Objectives (i) – (iii) focus upon the narrative. This requires specific expertise to understand what story you wish to convey, as well as how to execute that story, especially when seeking to create emotion and engagement. These are not easy feats to achieve and the correct technology is simply the medium by which you will convey these critical messages.
Objectives (iv) and (v) concentrate more on the user experience, and thus what the correct technology should be and how it should be used to satisfy the customers’ needs. Both virtual reality and video (note I’m not being specific about 360º video as I don’t believe it meets these specific objectives), must offer an immersive and/or engaging experience that conveys ‘relevant’ information to the customer.
We predict the next big thing in hospitality will be a change of mind-set, not a new technology or platform. The right technologies and platforms already exist, it’s about the manner in which the medium is used to broadcast the message, and that requires a shift in perspective.
Contributed by Alan Newton, co-founder and COO, Eventopedia, London