An article in the print version of Telecom Reseller (couldn't find it online) caught my attention, on NEC's reported 64% growth in hospitality sales. Kevin Ruhman is NEC's Director of Hospitality Market and he was kind enough to speak to me about NEC's success in the hospitality market.
An article in the print version of Telecom Reseller (couldn't find it online) caught my attention, on NEC's reported 64% growth in hospitality sales. Kevin Ruhman is NEC's Director of Hospitality Market and he was kind enough to speak to me about NEC's success in the hospitality market.There are some key concepts that I gleaned from Kevin that are paramount to success in servicing this demanding industry. Kevin quickly pointed out that the general managers (GMs) of 4- and 5-star hotels are rated in three areas: guest satisfaction, employee satisfaction and financial performance.
Providing this market with an integrated solution is complex, and a highlight of NEC's offering is a one-vendor concept that allows their customers to adopt the complex technology. Hotels often lack a full IT staff to support such adventures as equipping rooms with a converged link that provides access to many features, amenities and services, so NEC provides the initial design services, installation and ongoing support. Along with their vertical focus in hospitality (one of several), NEC also touts an advanced application department that integrates the many systems into one, and as Kevin noted, the hospitality industry uses over 80 disparate systems.
In the past, hotels were notorious for capturing revenue from room phones for local and long distance calling. Billable room calls were the third-highest revenue source for hotels. Everyone remembers the rates associated with using hotel phones of days long past, but does this mean that guests will be reluctant to use high-end IP telephones with huge displays in their rooms? Certainly, there is a mindset that needs to change, and only time as the test will reveal the acceptance level by both the guests and other hotels.
According to Kevin, if a hotel captures just 1% or 2% more of their guests (i.e., prevents them from dining, gift shopping, entertaining, etc. elsewhere), these investments will pay off sooner. Meaning: using the wired phones to open up avenues to enhance the guest experience will earn more revenue for the hotel. Then, the revenues from other services offered to guests that help reduce the time to realize a positive ROI. In upscale hotels, I'd have to agree that the justification to spend several hundred dollars more per room phone could fall either way. But remember the three things that the GMs are measured on.
For those realizing that the PBX is in fact a communications server and the telephone instruments are terminals, opportunities may abound. Kevin told me about one of the chief concerns that CIOs/CTOs in the hospitality business face, and that is matching technological experience (features and services) that their guests have at home to that in the hotel. I gave this one some thought and I believe that this concern extends beyond the hospitality industry into all others. Customers are more technological experienced, and some guests are more so than others and even still, some are less connected in some or all ways. So depending upon the experience of the guest, a solid return may or may not be in the making.
The challenge to provide the right mix of features to enhance worker (guest) mobility and improve their overall guest experience isn't taken lightly by hoteliers. But one thing is obvious, and the same theme is ringing true in other industries. Management is spending money on the things that directly touch their customers. This year, Mandarin Oriental is opening in Boston with a complete NEC solution. Guests checking in have a profile--included is their choice of language for example. Upon arriving at their rooms, guests will be engaged in their language of choice. The NEC phones within the rooms are desi-less (this is one of my favorite features) and the buttons are shown in the guest language of choice. So another question for any deployment effort is "does your solution engage the user/customer?" If so, how and to what effect? Then, how many systems can your telephone solution touch and converge to deliver a better overall experience?
Whatever model the GMs use to pay for the technology may be as varied as are the customers' technology experience. Those getting beyond the belief that the phone is "just a phone" stand better chances for higher opportunities, especially when you add visual to the fold of senses. Remember many others long before now have capitalized on "audio-visual" and the impact is notable. Transforming the room phone into opportunity, I think, is going to be a challenge, and not unlike the one that many of you face in attempting to transform your desk phones into something other than just a phone.
End note: For those you not knowing what Desi's are: they are the paper labels used on telephones to designate extension numbers, features, lines etc. While there are great programs available to print almost every possible telephone Desi, not having to print them, I think is a better and "greener" solution. Secondly, when anything in the programming changes, so do the desi-less telephones, without a need for re-printing labels of course.
