Will Hospitality take a hint from Retail Stores – use of mobile devices for your services - By John Hendrie

You need to salute those retail leaders like Apple and now Nordstroms.  As presented in the Seattle Times reporting of the Nordstroms’ annual meeting, President, Blake Nordstrom, announced that some 5,000 hand held devices will be in the hands of Sales Associates by this July.  These can search for merchandise, as well as handle credit card transactions – all on the fly. Nordstrom’s credo is exceptional Customer Service, and,   for those of us who have waited in line or even tried to find a Sales Associate in these large stores, the mobile application is just great.  By the way, Nordstroms just posted a 6.5 percent increase in first-quarter same-store sales.

Now, let’s dream a dream of our Hospitality businesses and how this might make life more simple and more customer related.

Firstly, the restaurant scene.  Servers hovering about, elbowing, to place an order on the POS station.  That can get ugly very quickly.  Hmm, tapping that order in right at the Guest table – what efficiency, what speed and no congestion.  A meal at the speed of light (not really).  Then, check presentation – what a laborious exercise – here you are sir, here’s my credit card, back to the register, run the card, then a second presentation of the check, the card and finally a receipt.  Now, the transaction can be done table-side – not Cherries Jubilee, but certainly efficient.

Now, let’s look at the hotel operation.  We all stress that everyone is in Guest Services.  Now, we can make it happen.  No more Front Desk – we have a Concierge Center. Check folks in right there on your hand held, take their credit card impression, dispense the “room key card”, via e-mail, and the bar code will open the Guest Room door, plus be used for all Hotel charges – spa, restaurant, golf, etc.  Many operations already have the option of Kiosks, but they are so impersonal.  Get your people out from behind their desks (those barriers), meeting, greeting and rooming your Guests.  This is the “personal touch” in a technical world, and, watch, in 3-5 years this is what it will look like.

We all have bemoaned the mechanical nature of business and relationships.  Perhaps, we can adapt, cut costs, improve efficiency and increase Guest Contact at the same time.  Worthy of thought, for it is still about the Experience (and, not cooling my heels in line).

 

 

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