Exploring the Use of Robots for Gathering Feedback in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract - Gathering customer feedback is important for service industries. We believe service robots present a promising channel for collecting such feedback as they are already interacting with customers. To better understand this potential feedback collection use case for the robots, we first aim to understand the deeper needs of the users in a service industry. To this end, we conducted need finding interviews with five hotel employees who have been using a delivery service robot. We share our findings from the interviews which capture the underlying motivations for collecting feedback and the factors influencing robot usage in hotels. We then present our design implications to encourage the community to continue to explore the feedback collection use case for service robots.

Presented at "Social Robots in the Wild" HRI 2018 Workshop (http://socialrobotsinthewild.org/)

For details, see http://socialrobotsinthewild.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/HRI-SRW_2018_paper_7.pdf

Google slides link https://docs.google.com/presentationhttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TCcBEkHKcH3L9ZHWD6LD2x1McXDHVD0Q4VmhZ7HYdFw/edit?usp=sharing

Transcript

1. Exploring the Use of Robots for Gathering Feedback in the Hospitality Industry Michael Jae-Yoon Chung and Maya Cakmak University of Washington
3. Research Goal Understand the potential of robot-based customer feedback collection in the hospitality industry. How was your stay?
4. A product design tool Semi-structured interview & observations at interviewees’ workplace Method: Need Finding
5. Participants 5 hotel employees Had administrative jobs, used Relay 4 San Francisco Bay area, 1 LA hotels Median # of rooms: 175 [62, 304]
6. Image source: https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/milpitas/sfomp/hoteldetail/photos-tours
7. Image source: https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/milpitas/sfomp/hoteldetail/photos-tours 1 Introduction 2 Warm-up questions 3 Current Practices for Collecting Guest Feedback 4 Your Experiences with Relay 5 Your Opinions on Collecting Guest Feedback with Relay 6 Tour 7 Wrap-up Interview Protocol
8. Audio recorded interviews & transcribed them Inductive content analysis to identify themes Analysis
9. Findings 1: Existing Methods • Post-Stay online survey; email, TripAdvisor (all) • Asking feedback in person (P2, P4, P5) • Mobile phone-based instant messaging (P2, P5)
10. Findings 2: Service Recovery Strategies Follow-up over online; email, TripAdvisor Resolve in person based on guest type and problem severity
11. [P2] Anytime we have the ability to capture the moment before they leave; that's when we can fix it. That's when we establish contact. [..] bring in the human, recover the guest, and make sure they leave as a happy customer. [P5] [..] after they left, they’ll go on social media and let you know; which is not effective for the hotel. Because you didn’t have the opportunity to fix it. Yes, you can fix it for the future but you can’t fix it for that guest. [..] Everybody out there, all your potential customers are seeing this feedback.
12. Finding 3: Participants’ Opinions ✔ Positive (P2, P5) • “Middleman” • On-site, in-context service ? Skeptical, but interested (P1, P3) • Not ideal form-factor • Good for guest entertainment ✗ Negative (P4) • Accuracy concerns • Need the robot for delivery
13. Finding 4: Factors Affecting Robot Usage Weekday/weekend, seasonal influences Guest type
14. On-site, in-context of service “Middle-man” Handle negative feedback autonomously Short & simple interaction Guest type-aware interaction Design Implications
15. Limitations A small number of participants Most hotels located in SF Bay area Management-level interviewees, no staff Did not consider hotel guest viewpoints
16. Summary Need finding to investigate the robot-based guest feedback collection in hotels Findings about existing methods, participant feedback, and factors affecting robot usage Design implications regarding when, how, and from whom to collect feedback
18. Findings 1: Existing Methods Mobile phone-based instant messaging (P2, P5) ✔ Catch unhappy guests before they leave ✗ Difficult to let guests know about it ✗ Increase staff workload Image source: https://kipsu.com/solution/