‘Situationalization’: The word of 2024

Technology has made many tasks easier and in some cases even enjoyable, most observers will agree. But technological progress continues to offer even greater possibilities, which makes customer experience executives highly optimistic.

Such was the theme of the "Thought Leadership Roundtable: Executive Predictions," the final session of the recent Self-Service Innovation Summit , as six industry thought leaders shared their reasons for optimism.

Bill Stutzman, director of strategic initiatives, Ventus Wireless LLC , a provider of wireless services for self-service equipment, moderated the session at the Loews Coral Gables in Miami.

Pace of change accelerates

"The pace of technology is happening at an unprecedented rate," said panelist Ashye Marcus, retail and tech executive shaping the future of retail, Amazon Just Walk Out. And while artificial intelligence is one of the greatest drivers of change, the tools it is creating are being tailored to rapidly expanding individual use cases.

"It's never a one size fits all," Marcus said. Where Amazon Just Walk Out's cashierless payment has made its greatest inroads at sporting arenas and education institutions, retailers, hospitals and even vending operators are adapting it to their locations.

Customization certainly is not new, but technology has delivered the ability to adapt automation to a greater variety of situations, a phenomenon some panelists referred to as "situationalization."

"For me, that's the word of 2024," said panelist Neil Thompson, vice president of digital, HMSHost, which manages retail and foodservice concessions for airports. Airports need offerings to meet travelers' expectations which are driven through numerous, specific situations.

"Now you're focusing on that person and their situation in time," Thompson said. Situationalization, in his view, is the ultimate personalization.

Thompson also said this concept has been referenced in the restaurant trade as the "hyper personalization" of products and services. He cited Starbucks and McDonald's as leaders in this movement.

"You can get a Big Mac in multiple different ways and (it) fits the situation you happen to be in at that time so you can use the drive thru, you can go in the restaurant and use a kiosk, you can get it delivered from Uber Eats at 1:30 in the morning.

"I think taking that product and being able to offer it in multiple different ways is a great example of situationalization. Everybody's situation when they're traveling is slightly different, and not only that, but the way everybody processes the way they feel about how much time they have is different also."

'Hyper customization' in foodservice

Panelist Marc Crocquet, vice president of business services at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has seen a relentless drive for "hyper customization" in college foodservice. The university foodservice has a machine that creates a customized burrito which the student enjoys more than one made by hand. The machine later sends a text or an email to the student asking if they want to select the same item again.

"What's been really amazing is the quality," Crocquet said, adding that surveys have shown the students love it. They also like the fact that in an unattended interaction, they have privacy; no one sees what they're buying to eat.

"It's all about choice," said Marcus of Amazon Just Walk Out. "Giving the customers choice and serving them how they want to be served. And Just Walk Out is one of the avenues."

Identify customer choices

Identifying customers' choices is not as simple as offering every conceivable option technology can provide, however.

Panelist Steve Lieber, vice president of franchise development at BurgerFi International Inc. noted that customers did not embrace self-serve kiosks when his organization introduced them seven years ago. In time, customers did embrace kiosks which have boosted both checks and tips.

Nor did customers at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings (owned by BurgerFi) embrace AI enabled voice ordering when the company introduced it.

"We tried to use it, but pizza's very complicated," Lieber said.

Sales improved when the company reinstated regular phone orders.

As with self-order kiosks, customers need to become educated about technology before they embrace it. He believes AI enabled voice ordering will eventually be accepted. "We have to constantly learn in our business," Lieber said.

Tech for employee empowerment

The panelists agreed that using technology to make the employees' jobs easier will improve customer experience.

"The idea is to create better experiences for our employees so that they create better experiences for the customers," Thompson of HMSHost said.

Thompson added that technology is not for the purpose of removing employees.

"It's digitization for the purpose of providing better experiences for guests," he said. "The employee's job is so much better when you are an ambassador to a customer experience rather than somebody punching things into a cash register.

"When you enable these incredible dining experiences, there's nothing better than that."

Once again, Crocquet of Nova Southeastern University agreed.

"What it's done is we shifted the labor, speaking on behalf of the operator, from interfacing with that customer to now production, delivery and being the ambassador," he said.

"The employee experience will either add to or take away from the customer experience, as they're there to assist," said panelist Sean Albertson, founder and customer experience officer at CXRocks, a customer experience consultancy.

Albertson noted there have been cases where a company overinvests in the customer experience and leaves out the employee.

BurgerFi, cognizant of the need to motivate and empower employees, has offered a training module that lets an employee ask for permission to learn new tasks, like grill and assembly. Once they learn a certain number of skills, they are eligible for a pay raise.

"By incentivizing them and kind of gamifying training, it also gamifies the (internal) competition to get higher wages," Lieber said. It also helps improve retention.

From a restaurant's perspective, technology is also improving other operations areas, such as food safety.

"When Sysco had a recall in onions…If we had done that through email or telephone calls, it could have taken much longer," Lieber said.

What's ahead?

Looking to the future, Marcus said there will be "co-pilots" guiding the consumer, asking them what they want.

Where the last five years were about service delivery, the next five will be about being where your customer is, Lieber said. Restaurants will move into movie theaters and amusement parks. Food will also improve at sports stadiums.

He also thinks there will be a cryptocurrency that can be used cheaply.

The panelists agreed that the focus on employee empowerment creates a new importance for the HR function.

"The role of HR has been elevated, and it's not just HR…the chief people officer is helping to drive the imperatives of the company," Marcus said. "It's so important to bring in the people, because at the end of the day the people are driving the delightful experiences."