A Delighted Customer = Hospitality + Service
I recently finished restaurateur Danny Meyer's memoir, Setting the Table (a Billy Gurley favorite). The book is an absolute banger on entrepreneurship, innovation, and hospitality.
Meyer is the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), an owner and operator of several of New York's best restaraunts. He’s also the founder of Shake Shack, a successful fast-casual restaurant chain. To say he's a titan in the industry is an understatement.
Throughout his career Meyer has stressed the importance of hospitality above everything. And it's worked.
In the context of service businesses, this makes sense. Human connection is at the center of the dining experience. Delivering hospitable service is the pinnacle for any business but its a daunting task.
"Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. Service is a monologue--we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropirate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to raise to the top."
In a company managing 10's of thousands of customers and millions of activities (ie. tickets, messages, bugs, etc.) delivering both is an Everest-like mission. Service for a technology or eCommerce company is transactional, delivered through software tools. Hospitality could destroy margins.
"In hospitality, one size fits one!"
Generative AI can change this in a variety of ways that I'm super excited about and will ultimately allow companies to create more hospitable experiences for their communities:
Understanding Sentiment and Context: Generative AI can analyze customer inquiries and detect the sentiment behind them, allowing it to respond in a manner that is sensitive to the customer's emotional state. This can make the interaction feel more empathetic and personalized.
Personalized Responses: AI can access a customer's history with the company to tailor responses based on past interactions, preferences, and behavior. This means the AI can reference past issues, suggest relevant solutions, or anticipate needs based on individual customer profiles.
Natural Language Processing: Advances in natural language processing (NLP) allow AI to understand and generate human-like text. This can make conversations with AI feel more natural and less robotic, which is crucial for emotional connection.
24/7 Availability: Generative AI can provide instant responses at any time, reducing wait times and frustration for customers, which in turn can make a brand seem more caring and attentive.
Consistent Tone and Brand Voice: AI can be programmed to maintain a consistent tone and brand voice that aligns with the company’s values and image, which helps in building a consistent emotional connection with customers.
Predictive Assistance: By analyzing data and identifying patterns, AI can predict customer needs and provide information or support proactively, potentially resolving issues before the customer is even aware of them.
Emotionally Intelligent Bots: Future developments in AI could include emotionally intelligent bots that can understand and mimic human emotions more effectively, providing a more genuine emotional interaction.
