The future of hospitality in the unified communications (UC) and contact centre space was the key focus for a recent event held by CloudClevr at The Lookout in London.
Around 50 key decision-makers from the hospitality industry attended the event at the prestigious venue that offers panoramic views of the city’s iconic landmarks.
The event was introduced by Dave Harrison, head of sales and marketing at CloudClevr, who gave an overview of the company before handing over to Dom Black, director of research services at Cavell, for the main presentation.
Black said that one of the most significant trends he has seen in recent years is the increasing complexity in buying habits. Rather than being focused on the installation of PBXs and call centres, he said that now organisations are looking at how they can use AI to make themselves more productive and efficient.
“We have been running surveys for multiple years and, increasingly, the AI story is coming through loud and clear,” said Black. “That’s only going to gather more traction as time evolves.”
AI has really come into its own, said Black, in the UCaaS space, where it’s being used to improve the meeting experience. It also provides accurate call recording transcriptions, meeting notes and suggested follow-up actions, saving both time and manpower, he said.
In addition, Black said that the technology is increasingly being deployed in smart devices to enhance the meeting room environment itself. For example, he said that it’s being used to focus in on the main person who is speaking.
In a contact centre setting, Black said that AI is being used to improve agent performance and training. The technology picks up on a customer’s reactions and behaviour, and provides constructive feedback on how they could have dealt with the call better, he said.
Added to that, Black said that there has been a wider adoption of virtual agents and chatbots, thanks in large part to advancements in generative AI. While they can provide greater efficiency, however, he said often some human interaction is still required, as borne out by a Cavell study that found 49 per cent of customers had to talk with a human agent to get the response they required.
As far as security is concerned, Black said that AI is being deployed in a wide number of applications, including advanced threat detection. It’s also being used, he said, to make networks more efficient.
But given that, according to Cavell’s research, only 17 per cent of solution providers offer AI as a free add-on, Black said companies needed to first carefully weigh the cost versus the benefits the technology can provide. However, when used effectively, he said that the upsides can be huge.
Privacy and security fears
Despite the benefits AI brings, Black said that there is still much concern around its privacy and security. Rather than fearing it, however, he said that companies need to embrace the technology and use it to their advantage to drive efficiency and productivity gains.
“Organisations have tonnes of data at the back end, so it’s about leveraging AI to get richer insights from that,” said Black. “It has a range of different applications and benefits it can provide, from improving efficiency and productivity to enhancing customer service and employee training and management, particularly in the hospitality industry where there is high staff turnover.”
Another key development that Black has witnessed is the move from providing fixed line connectivity into a building towards companies providing mobile connectivity to all employees, and a fast and reliable WiFi connection in every room of the office. Tied in with that, he said, is the need to drive greater customer and employee engagement and collaboration.
From a compliance standpoint, Black said that the focus of organisations is on making sure they are meeting all of the requirements through the communication technology they use. They are also ensuring that their networks are secure, he said.
“There are a host of different challenges for IT managers to solve, particularly in terms of the complexity that these issues present,” said Black. “Then, depending on the size of the company, they may have different priorities: smaller businesses are looking to reduce costs, while providing better customer service, whereas larger enterprises are more interested in enabling their employees to communicate more effectively, and using AI to drive productivity and efficiency.”
To enable improved communication, Black said that there has been an increased uptake in collaboration platforms, namely Microsoft Teams, Webex and Zoom. Added to that, he said there has been a big shift in organisations moving their telephony capabilities from on-premise to the cloud.
“If they haven’t already implemented it, every major company is looking at bringing in a chat and video messaging platform,” said Black. “Given that there are forecast to be more than 100 million users of these three main platforms alone globally by 2028, that represents a huge opportunity to drive greater efficiency and layer new service features on top.”
A key trend that companies need to tap into, said Black, is the use of SMS to contact customers. Given their 80 per cent open rate, he said that it’s a far more reliable and efficient way of communicating with customers and providing them incentives such as discounts and offers.
Another potential revenue generator that hotels and resorts should be latching onto, said Black, is the provision of eSIMs. As well as providing the customer with data at a reasonable price, he said that it’s a prime opportunity to capture valuable data and upsell them new services tailored to their needs.
“To successfully navigate all of these challenges, ultimately companies need to work with their partners,” said Black. “That means working together to identify these opportunities and capitalise on them.”
Then Black quizzed a panel of vendors, including Ben Hollyer from RingCentral, Rob Wiles from Zoom, Kimberley Ramsey from TigerTMS and Tony Smith from Mitel, about the key challenges and opportunities that they are seeing in the hospitality industry in terms of the application of communications technology. One of the key themes to emerge from the debate was the need for selecting a reliable partner.
“It’s about choosing an MSP or technology provider that can provide you with the complete solution,” said Ramsey. “So having a trusted partner in place to lead and execute on your communications strategy is key.”