Last year, I wrote about how Alexa should make in-roads into the Enterprise territory rather than stay in the consumer space. It looks like this is already happening, now that Alexa is becoming mature.
I travel on work and end up spending a lot of time in hotels in various parts of the world. Recently, I was at the Copenhagen Marriott and that got me thinking about how VUI (Voice User Interface), and specifically, Alexa, could have made my life a little better and easier. I started thinking about use cases where Alexa and Echo can be deployed in the hospitality industry. Today, everything is done by human agents and it is not always efficient or pleasant.
Imagine the following scenarios and see how seamless they can be, with Alexa.
1. Calling front desk:
Me: Alexa, call front desk
Alexa: Calling front desk
Front Desk: Hello, Mr. Shashidhar, how can I help you today?
The reason this is a simple but powerful use case is because of the fact that I can be anywhere in the room while I talk to Alexa. I wanted to talk to the front desk as well as pack my bags at the same time. The speaker phone is not very effective in far field communication, which necessitated me to be near the phone during the call. Alexa would have made this a hands free communication, and I could have continued to pack while talking to the front desk. A minute saved in the hotel is an additional minute enjoyed at the airport lounge!
2. Summoning your car from the valet:
Me: Alexa, get my car from the valet
Alexa: Getting car from valet. Do you have a ticket number?
Me: 5842
Alexa: Ticket 5842. When do you want the car?
Me: Now
Alexa: Summoning car from valet. Your car should be at the front of the hotel in 5-10 mins
Me: Thanks
Alexa: Is there anything else I can do for you?
Me: Nope
There were instances when I had to call the valet and had to hold for them to answer my call. Instead, the system can log my call and provide the ticker number to the valet staff on their system.
3. Ordering room service:
Me: Alexa
Alexa: Good evening, Mr. Shashidhar. How can I help you?
Me: Please order one margarita pizza from the room service menu
Alexa: Margarita pizza ordered from room service. Is there anything else you would like to order?
Me: A glass of orange juice
Alexa: A margarita pizza and a glass of orange juice. Anything else?
Me: That's it
Alexa: When would you want this delivered?
Me: As soon as possible
Alexa: <thinking for a moment> Your order has been placed. It will be delivered in 40 mins
Alexa: Is there anything else?
Me: That's it for now
Room service orders anyways end up as a ticket in the kitchen. Why not remove the layers between the guest and the kitchen? This system would seamlessly take the order and print a ticket in the kitchen. The system can determine the wait time based on the current open orders as well as the estimated prep time.
4. Ordering extra amenities:
Me: Alexa, could I get two additional bath towels?
Alexa: Two extra bath towels ordered. Is there anything else, Mr. Shashidhar?
Me: Ah, I forgot toothpaste. Could you please get me a toothpaste as well?
Alexa: Two extra towels and toothpaste. They should be delivered in a few minutes
Alexa: Anything else, Mr. Shashidhar?
Me: Nothing for now
Alexa: Have a good day
Alarms, local weather, room controls, etc. are straightforward use cases.
What these use cases need is a echo device in every room with a unique address. The devices would talk to a central server and the server is integrated to the existing enterprise hospitality systems (room service, valet, phone system, etc.). These are hotel specific and not generic as the context for most of the use cases is just the hotel.
With the advances in robotics, the use case of delivering extra amenities could be completely autonomous. The intent is transferred to the server which orders a robot to fetch the goods and deliver it to the room. As seen in Eatsa, the San Francisco robotic restaurant, a time will come when robots will make food and deliver it to your room as well. Since the hotel is a known and controlled environment, it becomes easy to deploy these technologies. Hospitality industry can be the incubator of all this technology and then it can enter the rest of the world.
What this would do is eliminate the need for human intervention in a lot of the cases. Initially, when automated phone systems came around for customer service, we cringed. But, nowadays they have become more efficient and in some cases, better than their human counterparts. The same way, automation and VUI will make a difference and as it matures, the transactions become seamless and more pleasurable. We don't have to worry about human emotions and the mood of the person on the other end of the line.
Currently some of the hotel chains are trying to integrate Alexa for in-room controls like lighting and climate control. But, the bigger ROI is in the other areas where hotels can cut expenses. In-room automation is cool and sexy, but the big bang for the buck is automating the back office services that are currently manned by humans.
I travel on work and end up spending a lot of time in hotels in various parts of the world. Recently, I was at the Copenhagen Marriott and that got me thinking about how VUI (Voice User Interface), and specifically, Alexa, could have made my life a little better and easier. I started thinking about use cases where Alexa and Echo can be deployed in the hospitality industry. Today, everything is done by human agents and it is not always efficient or pleasant.
Imagine the following scenarios and see how seamless they can be, with Alexa.
1. Calling front desk:
Me: Alexa, call front desk
Alexa: Calling front desk
Front Desk: Hello, Mr. Shashidhar, how can I help you today?
The reason this is a simple but powerful use case is because of the fact that I can be anywhere in the room while I talk to Alexa. I wanted to talk to the front desk as well as pack my bags at the same time. The speaker phone is not very effective in far field communication, which necessitated me to be near the phone during the call. Alexa would have made this a hands free communication, and I could have continued to pack while talking to the front desk. A minute saved in the hotel is an additional minute enjoyed at the airport lounge!
2. Summoning your car from the valet:
Me: Alexa, get my car from the valet
Alexa: Getting car from valet. Do you have a ticket number?
Me: 5842
Alexa: Ticket 5842. When do you want the car?
Me: Now
Alexa: Summoning car from valet. Your car should be at the front of the hotel in 5-10 mins
Me: Thanks
Alexa: Is there anything else I can do for you?
Me: Nope
There were instances when I had to call the valet and had to hold for them to answer my call. Instead, the system can log my call and provide the ticker number to the valet staff on their system.
3. Ordering room service:
Me: Alexa
Alexa: Good evening, Mr. Shashidhar. How can I help you?
Me: Please order one margarita pizza from the room service menu
Alexa: Margarita pizza ordered from room service. Is there anything else you would like to order?
Me: A glass of orange juice
Alexa: A margarita pizza and a glass of orange juice. Anything else?
Me: That's it
Alexa: When would you want this delivered?
Me: As soon as possible
Alexa: <thinking for a moment> Your order has been placed. It will be delivered in 40 mins
Alexa: Is there anything else?
Me: That's it for now
Room service orders anyways end up as a ticket in the kitchen. Why not remove the layers between the guest and the kitchen? This system would seamlessly take the order and print a ticket in the kitchen. The system can determine the wait time based on the current open orders as well as the estimated prep time.
4. Ordering extra amenities:
Me: Alexa, could I get two additional bath towels?
Alexa: Two extra bath towels ordered. Is there anything else, Mr. Shashidhar?
Me: Ah, I forgot toothpaste. Could you please get me a toothpaste as well?
Alexa: Two extra towels and toothpaste. They should be delivered in a few minutes
Alexa: Anything else, Mr. Shashidhar?
Me: Nothing for now
Alexa: Have a good day
Alarms, local weather, room controls, etc. are straightforward use cases.
What these use cases need is a echo device in every room with a unique address. The devices would talk to a central server and the server is integrated to the existing enterprise hospitality systems (room service, valet, phone system, etc.). These are hotel specific and not generic as the context for most of the use cases is just the hotel.
With the advances in robotics, the use case of delivering extra amenities could be completely autonomous. The intent is transferred to the server which orders a robot to fetch the goods and deliver it to the room. As seen in Eatsa, the San Francisco robotic restaurant, a time will come when robots will make food and deliver it to your room as well. Since the hotel is a known and controlled environment, it becomes easy to deploy these technologies. Hospitality industry can be the incubator of all this technology and then it can enter the rest of the world.
What this would do is eliminate the need for human intervention in a lot of the cases. Initially, when automated phone systems came around for customer service, we cringed. But, nowadays they have become more efficient and in some cases, better than their human counterparts. The same way, automation and VUI will make a difference and as it matures, the transactions become seamless and more pleasurable. We don't have to worry about human emotions and the mood of the person on the other end of the line.
Currently some of the hotel chains are trying to integrate Alexa for in-room controls like lighting and climate control. But, the bigger ROI is in the other areas where hotels can cut expenses. In-room automation is cool and sexy, but the big bang for the buck is automating the back office services that are currently manned by humans.
Image courtesy: Amazon.com