Exploring the Use of Robots for Gathering Feedback in the Hospitality Industry Michael Jae-Yoon Chung and Maya Cakmak University of Washington

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Research Goal Understand the potential of robot-based customer feedback collection in the hospitality industry. How was your stay?

A product design tool Semi-structured interview & observations at interviewees’ workplace Method: Need Finding

Participants 5 hotel employees Had administrative jobs, used Relay 4 San Francisco Bay area, 1 LA hotels Median # of rooms: 175 [62, 304]

Image source: https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/milpitas/sfomp/hoteldetail/photos-tours

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

Audio recorded interviews & transcribed them Inductive content analysis to identify themes Analysis

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)

Findings 2: Service Recovery Strategies Follow-up over online; email, TripAdvisor Resolve in person based on guest type and problem severity

[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.

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

Finding 4: Factors Affecting Robot Usage Weekday/weekend, seasonal influences Guest type

On-site, in-context of service “Middle-man” Handle negative feedback autonomously Short & simple interaction Guest type-aware interaction Design Implications

Limitations A small number of participants Most hotels located in SF Bay area Management-level interviewees, no staff Did not consider hotel guest viewpoints

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

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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/