Use Cases : Reception

Welcome your visitors with a smile thanks to ultra-intelligent autonomous robots designed to handle check-in, answer all their questions, and guide them step by step through your spaces - all with personalized attention, flawless precision, and a human touch in technology!

The sector of reception and welcome (accueil) in tourism and hospitality is undergoing significant transformations, driven by digitalization, the pursuit of enhanced customer experience (UX), and the operational demands imposed by major events and staff shortages. Here is an analysis focused on reception, human interaction, and related technological and operational trends: I. The Evolution of the Receptionist Role The core role of reception staff is being redefined, shifting away from transactional tasks toward highly personalized guest relations:

• Focus on Human Hospitality: Despite the rise of automation, the human server or receptionist provides an irreplaceable human touch. Their role is considered strategic and central to the visitor or tourist experience, imbuing it with more meaning and value.
• The New Focus: Digitalization allows for the automation of many low-value tasks like reservations, check-in, baggage registration, and using connected locks. This liberates welcoming staff, enabling them to evolve their missions and concentrate on the quality of the customer relationship.
• Customer Expectation: Clients who are now more autonomous and connected expect more attention, service, and personalized accompaniment when they interact with receptionists. The success of the client experience is intimately linked to the quality of the relationships established throughout their journey.
• Avoiding Impersonality: Automation should not be limited to leaving the client alone facing the machine, but rather must be understood as a means to promote and enhance interpersonal relationships.

II. Technological Support in Reception and Concierge Services Service robots and technological platforms are being deployed to streamline operations and offer innovative interactions, particularly in accommodation and large venues:

• Automation in Lodging: The Smart Hotel trend involves digitalizing tasks to professionalize and improve the efficiency of the customer relationship. For instance, the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore reduced reliance on concierges by launching the world's first immersive art exhibition in Virtual Reality at a hotel, which enhanced the overall visitor experience.
• Delivery and Concierge Robots: Companies like RobotLAB Inc. offer devices specialized for the hospitality industry, covering services from concierge to housekeeping. The Monville Hotel in Montréal uses the H2M2 system to perform room service, delivering meals and courtesy items quickly. The BellaBot is also capable of offering delivery and reception services through personalized interaction.
• Contactless Services: The demand for contactless services has intensified since the pandemic, making non-contact technology a necessity rather than a luxury. This trend, already present as a means to fluidify flows, acquired a crucial sanitary dimension post-COVID. The QR Code, for example, gained prominence during the health crisis as an essential technology for sanitary passes and displaying digital menus, avoiding touching potentially contaminated surfaces.

III. Reception Challenges and Innovation for Public Welcome For large-scale public events, reception and accessibility pose distinct challenges addressed through specialized innovation:

• GESI and Welcome Quality: Hosting Major International Sporting Events (GESI), such as the Rugby World Cup 2023 or the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024, necessitates focused attention on the quality of the public welcome, accessibility, and safety.
• Recruitment and Talent: GESI are leveraged as a means to demonstrate the attractiveness of customer relations professions (like those in H&R) and solve recruitment difficulties. Professionals are urged to ensure their roles are desirable by focusing on personal value and career prospects.
• Training and Competency: Upskilling staff, including customizable training modules, is essential and helps validate the purpose of recruitment. Caravel's Learner module is a specific digital, gamified, and contextualized training solution designed to quickly educate new collaborators on local tourist offers and the basics of good welcome practices.
• Accessibility for Priority Guests (Handivisible): The Handivisible system is an innovative digital solution designed to manage the welcome of priority public, particularly those with invisible disabilities.
• The system allows users to signal their presence via a Bluetooth signal to the reception or cash register staff.
• This allows staff to offer priority passage, thereby avoiding discomfort and conflict.
• This device is currently being considered for massive deployment during the Rugby World Cup 2023 and the JOP 2024 to help organizers serenely manage waiting lines.
• The solution is planned to be extended to pregnant women and to people with disabilities from abroad who cannot provide local supporting documentation, using an event-specific access code.

IV. Ethical and Organizational Considerations The rapid adoption of technology in reception raises questions about ethics and human connection:

• Trust and Data Use: There is a major concern regarding data ethics. While predictive marketing (préditif) is advanced, it must align with respect for private life, requiring a "new pact of confidence". The concern regarding customer reviews from early trend analyses has evolved into a more general distrust concerning the overall handling of data.
• The Need for 'In Real Life' (IRL) Connection: Critiques emphasize that virtual experiences are not a substitute for reality and will never replace the real world or authentic displacement. The limit of technology, as noted in the counter-trends, is the potential loss of human contact. The hospitality industry, despite increasing digitalization, needs to be a creator of employment by fostering new jobs that allow for more genuine connection with the visitor.