One of the biggest challenges in the hotel world is making the guest “feel at home”. An article on CNBC.com indicates that most Millenials prefer to travel over buying a home. With the Millenial demographic now being the largest generation in the workforce, businesses need to start paying attention to consumers desires and wants.
If people prefer to travel than buy a home, wouldn’t it be great to make the hotels and vacation rentals feel more like home? As us older folk tend to say “There’s no place like home”.
That brings me to Hilton. I enjoy the Hilton brand. I like what they do with their guest experience as I enter their brand hotels, and I like that they are trying to remain current and above the fold when it comes to picking a hotel to stay at.
Hilton’s connected room is all about making it feel more like home. Consider this for a moment. You watch 60% of a movie on your amazon prime account during your flight to Florida, you walk into your room and using the Hilton app, put the remainder of the movie on the TV in your hotel room. This is what the future of a connected room will do. It will know your preferences. The level of light that you prefer, all your settings. The room will come to life with your preferences!
Check out some of the additional features on the future of the connected room:
To me…some of these things are expected as technology improves. However, I believe that many of these items would be classified as an Over Deliver. I doubt that many travelers would expect that the Hilton Mobile App would control the lights in the specific room that they booked.
It’s just not expected.
The act of providing that, and having it work, is an Over Deliver!
Imagine for a moment the wonderment and amazement that you would experience the very first time you interacted with the app within the room! It’s probably similar to the first time I opened the door to my hotel room using the app! It was astounding!
There are some really cool additional things that the connected room will do, which totally blow me away.
This begs to question, if innovation as a whole is more advanced than the expectations of the consumer, is that over delivering?
I say YES!
So how does this pertain to you if you aren’t in the hotel business, and you don’t have a big brand like Hilton?
Well…I think if you can bring innovation into your business that directly impacts the customer then you are over delivering, provided that you implement it correctly. Failure to implement it properly will result in a bad customer experience and will hurt more than it will help!
What innovations are up and coming in your industry?
What can you do differently than your competitors?
What is no one else in your space doing, that you can?
The answers to these questions will help you find ways to over deliver in your business?
One point I should add. Coming up with innovative ideas isn’t always easy for folks. Often times I find that people claim it’s too hard, and they give up too quickly! In my experience, I have seen innovation work best in small bits. Being creative and finding new ways to do things is really more about iterating and looking for small improvements.
Small wins turn into big wins. Just keep iterating! You’ll find that you are over-delivering on a regular basis!