Technology in the job market

ESSAY WRITING EXERCISE

Technology has been slowly replacing humans in the job market since the 1950’s in the manufacturing industry. It was just a question of time before it started invading other industries such as the hotel industry. Now the question is: should hotels automate their front-desk services? And also, when should customer service be given more weight than efficiency?

I personally believe that hotels should automate their front desk services, but not fully automate them.

A customer doesn’t want to bother with front desk formalities. They are on holiday so they just want immediate access to their rooms. Facial recognition could make that happen. But if they have any personal questions, maybe on good places to visit, they will need an employee’s advice.

From a business point of view, a hotel turning itself to new technology could attract new customers interest. It would also reduce the need for people, the most expensive resource in the service sector, which would lower costs.

It is a sensitive subject because, in the hotel industry, the customer satisfaction is a priority. It’s what keeps a hotel running, gives it a good reputation and keeps customers coming. Satisfying the customer is all about anticipating needs, and the greater number of people to satisfy those requests, the more satisfied the customers are likely to be.

From an employee point of view, it is a terrible idea. Employees such as front desk clerks and concierges will lose their jobs and unemployment would be very high. But for other employees such as housekeepers who have a manual labor job, which is difficult to replace, will see their average wage raise. And if demands are met those who lost their jobs due to technological innovation should find manual labor jobs.

As I said before, I think hotels should automate their front desk services to speed up the process but should also have a couple employees. Those employees would be able to answer personal questions or any personal request, be able to manually tend to a customer in case of a technical problem, and would assist elite guests, V.I.P.

Customer service should be given more weight than efficiency when there are a lot of competitors on the market and when margins are higher. A hotel reputation will stand out thanks to customer satisfaction.

In order to maximize service productivity and customer satisfaction, wages and costs will be higher. In this case, a company may wish to automate which may make customer satisfaction suffer but the lost revenue might be made up by the reduction in costs.

All things considered, I believe it is all about finding an optimal level of service productivity in order to maximize profitability and customer satisfaction at the same time. Maybe juggling between employees and technological innovation can be the way to go.

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