The Swing of the Pendulum

I am hopeful, deeply hopeful, that we will not see a dramatic pendulum swing once COVID-19 takes its gradual leave from our lives – especially in the hospitality world that I know and love so dearly. 

By pendulum swing, I mean an over correction to what will understandably be this “new normal” that we are all talking about. We need to create a safer environment for associates and customers/guests, to be sure, but we need to carefully temper our response and avoid over-reaction long term– something I think we, as people, are inclined to do. We have spent decades migrating away from a cold, transactional service environment to an interactive approach that creates emotional connections – I fear this virus may send some of us scurrying back to old transactional ways.

I think we saw global air travel impacted by such a pendulum swing. After the tragedy of 9/11, air travel changed immediately and dramatically with an overwhelming number of well-intentioned processes, rules and regulations designed to keep us safer. The world over, people accepted it, either readily or begrudgingly, as the “new normal” of air travel. I humbly believe that this evolved into a pendulum swing that continues to this day. We all still experience the security theatre each time we travel by air…the rules and processes and regulations that may make us FEEL safe, but only marginally actually make us safer. I dread a similar response in hospitality…restaurant guests being passed menus via tongs after undergoing a health screening at the host station, food via drone, a return to disposable products that may once again challenge our environmental sensitivities. I fear the end to communal tables, festive holiday buffets, and just the general congeniality that transforms a restaurant experience to a lasting memory. 

The same examples beset the retailing and hotel world – gloved and masked associates wiping down everything you touch, if you get to touch anything at all. Everyone two meters apart, no one shaking hands, smiles experienced on a screen rather than in person. Will this be the new normal? How far will - and should - the pendulum swing? 

I agree that things need to change and will be forever different – but it is our challenge as service professionals to migrate our team members and customers/guests from fear to reassurance, not from fear to deeper fear! We need to innovate, re-learn, and consider solutions that will continue to embrace heartfelt service and sincere emotional connections with both team members and customers/guests. This will not only be a training issue - this will be culture shift in every single corner of the service industry, from cinemas to theme parks, from luxury resorts to select service hotels, from fast casual restaurants to fine dining. If we simply throw new SOP’s, policies, procedures, rules and regulations at this issue, we risk dooming ourselves to the excessive pendulum swing that has made a trip to the airport a metaphor for misery.

I am reminded of one my father’s favorite quotes….

“Son, if you have a cut on your forehead, a tourniquet around your neck will most certainly stop the bleeding – but you may not like the long-term result.” 

We need to actively assure we do not apply that tourniquet.