Technology allows us to create marketing, advertising, guest services and creative ways to communicate to potential guests. However, it still takes the personal touch to make sure it is successful. We must never allow anything to take the 'personal touch' out of customer service!

I am seeing that there are proponents of automation that have been supplementing technology in the place of personal customer contact. Everyday we should make a concerted effort to communicate verbally with our guests. But, we are talking to them via email or voicemail due to its convenience. God help us, if we have to start answering the telephone again.

From a service perspective customers are able to send reservations, make inquires, seek information and even send a deposit from anywhere in the world because the world wide web enables them the convenience of doing so. Selling a room has never been easier, or is it? Room sales are lower today and continue to go lower* (*STR) 

We chose to blame the economy, the war, 911 and the recent outbreak of SARS, and yet we extend to our guest impersonal technological communication systems. We are lowering our rates and telling our guest to not bother speaking to our employees.  Just take a lucky guess at picking a room and send us your credit card number. We do not even correspond with them. We have a third party booking agent automatically send them a confirmation and copy the hotel. 

As hotel professionals it is our job to ensure that there is always a human element to the industry, as it is the responsibility of our managers to do so as well. Communicating with a guest in person has far more impact that talking to them electronically. I do not understand why we continue to lose money and continue to embrace technology in place of the customer. 

If business is slow we should have more time to make sales calls, communicate personally with our guest, implement a courtesy call program and reflect on the ways we use to speak to our guest when our sales were up. This is where the light goes on!

However, I do feel that technology has a very important role in our industry, but it is not going to take the place of personal customer service. Abusing technology will only perpetuate our desire to fail. 

*STR: 

• Smith Travel Research numbers for April 2003 versus April 2002 show that occupancy decreased 4.1 percent to 59 percent, average daily rate decreased 2 percent to $83.22, and revenue per available room decreased 6 percent to $49.07. 
• Year-to-date figures through April also declined. Occupancy decreased 2.1 percent to 55.7 percent, ADR decreased 0.9 percent to $84.31, and RevPAR decreased 2.9 percent to $46.97.