Transcript 0:00 We need to make sure that we use all of these digital tools that I keep talking about. We need touchless technologies. We need collaboration technologies. 0:11 Quite simply, we need technology to help us do our jobs better, more effectively, and more efficiently. 0:17 This is true in any industry, but especially right now in hospitality, and especially what's happening today, right now in this moment as I talk to you. 0:28 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:46 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. This week on the show, I have travel on my mind. 0:56 Certainly it is summer and many families are hitting the road again this year. But also many ba- businesses and corporate executives are beginning to venture back out. Now, doesn't that sound exciting? 1:11 So for today's show, I want to talk about cleanliness, technology, and the hospitality industry. There are some pretty cool things, in fact, that hotels are doing with technology. 1:24 So I'm going to dig into a report and give some examples of how advanced technologies can make hospitality a bit safer. Later on in the show, I will be interviewing one very special guest. 1:35 I will spend both segments with Muriel Médard, Senial H. Green Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. So let's get started. 1:47 I want to hone right into the future of hospitality and where the opportunities exist to recover and reimagine what we might say a better normal in the weeks, months, and even years to come. 2:01 Deloitte conducted a report on this exact topic. It found customers care about precautions being taken. Roughly eighty-four percent want a certification of cleanliness from a trusted authority. 2:17 Another eighty-five percent want personal control of cleaning, and eighty-seven percent want surfaces cleaned after each interaction. Basically, travelers want things clean, really, really clean. 2:35 And I have to admit, I found the certification a- aspect a little tricky, tricky, in fact. I mean, come on. 2:42 How do you certify that the remote in the hotel room, which by the way is the most germ-infested item in a hotel room, has been sanitized each and every time? Now, I want someone to answer that for me. 2:56 How can we do this? I mean, realistically. There are a couple of approaches. I mean, check out what AAA is doing, which I found very interesting. It is measuring surface cleanliness during hotel inspections. 3:10 AAA conducts an annual, uh, anonymous in-person inspections at more than twenty-six thousand hotels across the country. Now, it will test sanitation levels of high-touch surfaces in those inspections. 3:25 Inspectors will swab a surface and insert it into a test machine the size of, let's say, a cell phone, as large as a cell phone, I should say. 3:36 They will then measure eight surfaces in a selection of guest rooms and bathroom locations. 3:42 Now, this may include door handles, light switches, thermostat controls, writing surfaces, remotes, refrigerator handles, faucets, and toilet handles. Now, please test those remotes. That's all I got. 3:56 Test them, test them, test them. [laughs] You get the idea. Hotels that meet AAA's standards for cleanliness, condition, and this new surface cleanliness testing will be recognized as inspected clean. 4:11 Those hotels will then be assigned a diamond designation. Now, I love this diamond status, and I have been a AAA member myself, so I think the idea is pretty awesome. It's a pretty smart idea. 4:24 So this is so important, especially now, and AAA research shows roughly seventy-six percent of consumers would be disappointed if a third-party inspection did not evaluate whether high-touch areas in a hotel are sanitized. 4:43 Now think about that. How would you feel if you go into a hotel? Many of us kind of get grossed out when we think about things that are happening in a hotel. 4:51 So how can hotels and other areas of hospitality meet these guidelines? So let's look at a few specific examples on how technology can help reopen hospitality in a way that is safe, that makes us all feel good. 5:08 In Singapore, the hospitality sector uses something called SafeEntry. Customers would use a smartphone app to scan a QR code before they enter any restaurant, hotel, or any other venue. 5:22 This app creates a digital diary of each customer's travels. With this data in hand, Singapore is then able to do contact tracing efforts. Now, that's just one example, but I got to say I kind of like it. 5:37 It kind of puts me a little bit at ease. How about you? I mean, I would wo- curious what you all think, and we'll talk about that in the end. So let's look at another. 5:45 In New Zealand-This country is doing something very similar, but in reverse. This initiative is a bit more targeted to helping small and medium-sized businesses reopen. So let me explain. 5:58 New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development introduced a voluntary app that uses a QR code linked to a company's registration numbers. 6:07 After a business has done all the appropriate things needed to reopen, it can then choose to enter this information into the app. The company is then listed as, what can you expect? Green. 6:20 This means it is in compliance with authorities as reopening guidance. Then travelers can check for the green businesses online by scanning a QR code on the front of the building. 6:34 This helps to reassure that the place of business is safe and clean. Now, I like this. These are two really great examples, but I'm sure there's many more, and this is really just the beginning of what we need to do. 6:48 There are so many opportunities for technology and many technologies to help organizations meet health guidelines and to reopen safely. 7:00 Deloitte breaks these technologies into six different categories, including test and screen, track and trace, which we've talked about many times, monitor and insights, legal, privacy, and security, change in communications, and of course, guidelines and compliance. 7:19 And then here is what is really important from a business perspective. Once health and safety measures are in place, each business needs to reassess their operations. 7:32 So let's talk about hospitality businesses and what they need to do to kind of keep this better normal kind of going all the time. Here are six areas to reassess: customer service, cash flow, supply chain, 7:48 we always think about the supply chain, it's so important, workforce, workplace, and what we've been talking about in technology is digitization. 7:56 This is so incredibly important for any industry, but especially for hospitality these days, because it's going to really mean a lot as people want to travel. So let's break down these six areas right now. 8:09 First, we need to be asking, how have customer expectations changed? Cleanliness seems to be a big priority, but how else? How can we continue to engage with customers? 8:23 Now we need to manage these relationships, both a physical world and a virtual world. Next, we need to make sure our cash flow is still in order. Are both our bottom lines healthy or are we just hanging on? 8:38 We need to make sure we are prepared for the long haul. We need to diagnose the current health of our financial sit- situation. 8:48 Then we need to determine how to improve our cash flow, and we're seeing that as employees come back to work. Third, we need to reorganize the supply chain and forecast for future needs. 9:00 We've seen what's happened when we don't. Some important questions that we need to ask include, how can businesses assess the impact on the supply chain? How can we improve visibility of inbound materials? 9:14 And how can we address shortages or delays in the supply chain? We all know what has happened in the challenge of this past year. We also have to think about what happens when weather and climate and things happen. 9:28 We have to be prepared for the supply chain and delays in the supply chain and delays in logistics as a result of the supply chain. Fourth, let's talk about the workforce. 9:39 I don't have time to kind of go into too much depth here, but we need to rethink capacity, capability, and affordability. We need to ensure workforce success while also training for new skills. 9:52 We need to be thinking about upskilling, all the things that we've talked about up to this point in past shows. Fifth, let's talk about this physical and virtual workplace. 10:02 Some spaces need to be redesigned for greater social distancing, while others need to consider some of the cleaning and disinfecting, disinfecting requirements we discussed earlier. 10:16 We also need to consider how we're going to reengage customers in this virtual environment. 10:22 We've seen how businesses are changing because of the virtual environment, but how is your business changing and how is it changing permanently versus temporarily? Finally, digitization. 10:33 We need to make sure that we use all of these digital tools that I keep talking about. We need touchless technologies. We need collaboration technologies. 10:43 Quite simply, we need technology to help us do our jobs better, more effectively and more efficiently. 10:50 This is true in any industry, but especially right now in hospitality, and especially what's happening today, right now in this moment as I talk to you. So here's my opinion for today. 11:03 We are in fact entering a better normal. The pandemic has jumpstarted the use of technology in so many industries like hospitality. Our experiences are going to be richer. 11:18 We are remembering and reemerging into a world that is going to be cleaner and yes, more digital too. So we have to remember the past so that we can reemerge into the future. 11:32 We can't forget what happened in the past, so I want us to reemerge better because we have to remember what happened in the last 18 months or the last 12 months, the last two months. 11:43 Unfortunately, the burden is going to fall on the businesses to keep up with this ever-changing world, but the opportunities and the outcome is going to be amazing, and that's what we have to remember. So here's my tip. 11:58 Try to keep up with the changing guidelines and the technology. We aren't going to go back to where we were before. We all know that. If your company does, I'm afraid it's going to be left behind. 12:10 Rather savvy hospital- hospitality businesses are going to invest in the technology that's going to make them more successful and more profitable. 12:19 Those that do are positioning themselves for wonderful success for the future, and we all need to be thinking about success. 12:27 We all need to be thinking about how do we keep ourselves safe and secure, and what's most important, we looking ahead. 12:37 We've got to be looking ahead with much fervor, perseverance, and we have to think about how our environments are going to be clean so we're all safe. All right. 12:47 That's all the time I have, but I'm curious what you think. 12:50 As always, I want to know what your thoughts about what we've been talking about, so I want you to send some, your thoughts with me on Twitter, so on social media at connectedwmag. 13:00 You know, that's all the time we have for t- this segment, so, but we've got more to talk about today, so I want you to stick around. 13:06 But if you haven't been up on our website, check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. All right. 13:15 We're going to take a quick commercial break, but as always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 13:25 We'll be right back. [upbeat music]
