Marketing 0

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
What next tech has your organization adopted today? What
are some of the use cases in your organization?
Have you thought about your organization's technology
roadmap for the next five years? What are some of the
opportunities and challenges?

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CHAPTER 7
The New CX: Machines Are Cool, but
Humans Are Warm
In 2015, the Henn-na Hotel in Japan opened what Guinness World
Records officially recognized as the world's first robot-staffed hotel.
Multilingual front-desk robots are equipped with facial recognition
to help guests with check-in and checkout. A mechanical arm stores
luggage at the reception. The robot concierge helps order taxis while
the robot trolley brings baggage to rooms, and the housekeeping
robot cleans the rooms. Most amenities are also high-tech. For
instance, each room is equipped with a facial recognition door lock
and in-room clothing steam closet.
Initially, the use of robots was a strategy of the hotelier to overcome
the staff shortage in Japan. The expectation was that the minimum
number of staff could run the hotel—keeping the labor cost down.
But the robots created problems that frustrated guests, thus
producing more work for the hotel staff to fix the issues. One
example of a guest complaint was about an in-room tabletop robot
that misunderstood snoring sounds for an inquiry and thus
repeatedly woke up the sleeping guests. Consequently, the hotel cut
back on automation and “fired” half of its robots.
This case highlights the limitation of full automation. Especially in
the hospitality industry, which relies heavily on personal
interactions, all-machine touchpoints may not be the best option
after all. Not all tasks can be automated, as human connections are
still indispensable. Robots are indeed cool, but people are proven to
be warm. A combination of both will be the future of customer
experience (CX).
The notion is supported by the fact that more and more customers
are using a combination of online and offline channels. Research by
McKinsey reveals that 44% of global customers adopted webrooming
(search online and shop in-store) while 23% embraced showrooming
(experience in-store and buy online). Other research by transcosmos

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in 10 major Asian cities discovered that most customers use both
webrooming and showrooming for different product categories. This
hybrid customer journey calls for an Omni approach to CX: high-
tech yet high-touch.