Blog #5

Guest Service Innovation through RFID
by Hanns-Christian L. Hanebeck
@2007 Hospitality Upgrade


Competitive advantage comes from unique things which can be a service style, system or technology. The author of this article introduces one technology which is RFID technology. According to his opinion, RFID technology could take competitive advantage.
RFID is an acronym of radio frequency identification. RFID technology was used during WWII by Britain, and recently Wal-Mart and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) have mandated their supplier to use RFID on all inbound shipment. Why did they spend hundreds of millions of dollars’ for this technology? It is because to see inventory accurately, whether in motion or in stock, at all the time. Even hospitality chain is not as complicated as DOD or Wal-Mart, how RFID affects to hospitality? This answer is simple: visibility leads to knowledge, which leads to better decision-making and that leads to process efficiency as well as new customer service opportunities.
The author gives an example of using RFID in a hotel. A guest made a reservation via the Internet and she comes into the hotel. She directly goes and enters into her room because she has a RFID card or the reservation system send and authenticated numbers and a room number via SMS. When she enters into her room, front office automatically notices that their guest is in her room right now. Or, we can provide a room key through kiosk in lobby or air port lounge or provide human-assisted process to guests who are not familiar with technology. Wherever guests are, RFID readers are able to track where they are and what they do. It collects date of guests. And the author shows the example of how the data can be used. When a guest is walking into a restaurant, a manager greets the guest with name, offers her favorable table and suggests wine which she enjoyed last time. And RFID card can be a ticket to access the certain event or device for payment. To use RFID technology, the infrastructure investment has been made and we do not know when RFID is going to be deployed in hospitality industry, whoever moves first takes competitive advantage.
It is very surprised technology I have not heard about. Wal-Mart and DOD use this to track their supplies but in hospitality this technology is used to track guests. For me, human seems just like products. Anyway, if this technology is able to use, data collection for guests can be very easy. Before I read an article that a system shares guest’s data with other systems that are in the same property. It is also same idea that offers personalize service but it is needed to enter the data by person. Comparing RFID with that, RFID is automatically occurred so it is easy to collect date. Most considerable thing, just like other technology, is the infrastructure. To make the infrastructure, money is needed and nobody is sure about that technology can make the differentiation with competitors. If we are the first or early adopters, we could take competitive advantages or make a big mistake which can bring a financial loss.