Solutions? No… they only criticize.

I love reading/talking/visualizing/implementing new strategies and processes in our beloved sector!
I, strongly, claim that to travel can improve personal and personal lives! I put myself as an example. Tourism changed my life, long time ago, when I traveled around Europe as an assistant of a Tourists Guide. When I returned, I had the opportunity to be a teacher and consultant for one University of Tourism. Soon, I realized that Tourism is one of the sectors related to Servuction (as it is Education, Health…any sector where we need the customer HERE/NOW).
In 1996, I felt in love with Internet technologies. To mix Servuction with Internet technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Databases/Blockchain, Augmented_Virtual Reality) is my intellectual love and my Linkedin profile, as well!!!
In 2021, thanks to the advances of Artificial Intelligence, it was possible to create 3D scenes from videos/pictures. Some people, visualize how this feature can break the limits of Space/Time prison! Offering hybrid experiences to Tourists and Inhabitants HERE/NOW with members of their community Around_The_World/At_Anytime.

Exciting times to become a Touristologists!!! 

Great opportunities to increase both profitability and sustainability!

BUT…

Sometimes I read opinions about experts in Tourism…instead of talking about how to make our beloved sector more profitable, they talk, all day long, about how some people in Tourism get a low salary and how some Tourism destinations have a low per capita income and that we have to diversify of Tourism.
Can you imagine experts in Philosophy saying that Philosophy is not good for humankind? That we have to try other Sciences?

Maybe, they get these conclusions because they prefer quantitative methodologies to do their research. Quantitative methodologies are perfect to know the “WHAT”  

BUT...

In order to know the “WHY” and visualize and implement solutions you have to use (or combine with) qualitative methodology. We can review this article that mix qualitative and quantitative methodologies, especially interesting, when you are dealing with exploratory analysis.
Anyway…
I repeat… without chain of value control… without managing all the trip it is very difficult to get a decent profitability paying good salaries. By the way, this is true in Tourism and ANY OTHER SECTOR!!!
I repeat… Tourism is perfect to generate synergies with other sectors of the economy!
BUT… you have to know about Tourism. You have to be a Touristologists!!!
Are those experts providing solutions for Tourism? They don’t care! They just criticize!
Do they know the meaning of the word “Servuction”?
OR… Do they have a lack of intellectual curiosity to learn about it?

Do you want to visualize how Tourism can help other sectors of the economy?
Do you want to visualize and implement solutions and potential improvements (both personal and professional) for the Tourists, the inhabitants, local enterprises and members of specialized communities, related to a Tourism destination, around the world?
I will be here…waiting for you!

Yield? Revenue? Servuction!

Recently, I gave one of OUR seminars about one of my favorite topics in Touristology. Yield Management.
As usual, one of the questions that appeared was… 
 

What is the difference between Yield and Revenue Management? 

Do you want to assist to the class and know my answer? Follow me please!

Some people define Yield or Revenue based on their evolution in practicing it.

- “When I was doing Yield … I did that. So, this is Yield”

- “When I do Revenue… I do that. So, this is Revenue”

The problem (main concern) of this approach is that Touristology is a science and we have to define our tools based on the problem that we have to deal with and the solution that our science provides. In Tourism (as in Health and Education) we have a very important difference with other sectors that Eigler and Langeard described with the word “SERVUCTION”. You can have more information here…!

As Eigler and Langeard highlighting long time ago, the customer is an input in the process of Servuction while that input it doesn’t exist in production.

This is both a boon and a bane to our beloved sector. A bane because if the Tourist is not here, we can’t create the service. But it is also a boon…

As the Tourist have to be here, we can create groups and become a magnet for other Tourists.

As the Tourist have to be here, we can increase the relationship between him/her and our enterprise/Tourism destination.

So, Yield? Revenue? Servuction!

Another usual question that sooner or later appear in OUR seminars is… 

What is the main difference between Marketing and Yield/Revenue Management?

As we need the Tourist to create the service, we have to seduce the Tourist to be right here, right now.

As we need the Tourist to create the service, it is not possible to deposit the service. If it is not sold now it will be lost forever!

To me, Yield / Revenue are strategies and tactics aiming to achieve two objectives:

1) To get the Tourist here when it is important for the business (low occupancy, later cancellations….)

2) To manage the wave of reservation (the booking pace) in order to increase the reservations for a specific day when we are down and to reduce the reservations when we are at the top.

Here we have a representation of that:

Simple Yield/Revenue Managers have simple strategies and tactics. When we are at the top of the wave, they increase the price and cut the sells in OTA, CRS, Metasearch or Search Engines… When we are down do the opposite! WoW!!! If this is the only thing that you are able to do… in less that 5 years some robots will steal your job!

Can Touristology brings some deeper and profitable solutions? Let’s see some examples…

1) Simple Yield/Revenue Managers only think in one wave (booking pace).

The times of a single wave is over! Different segments have different waves. Time to create new waves! Time to compensate current wave with the new ones. As we can see in the next figure…

2) Seduce Tourists already here to stay longer. You can see an interesting example of Shangri-la trying to seduce business people to stay in the hotel during the weekend  in this post...

Shangri-la... they have a problem of low occupancy (better to say a problem of less than desirable profit? YES!!!) during weekends because most of their customers are business people.

“So, you can promote to your customers… use you hard earned points of OUR loyalty program to appear in OUR hotel during weekends and enjoy especial activities for your kids. Not only you are a great professional you are the parent of the month! By the way, good example of Versions Of Me !!! The business people doesn’t appear during the weekends BUT yes, the lovely parent!”

3) Seduce new Segments creating or looking for something able to satisfy their need in the Hotel OR near to the Hotel. Here, we have a possible example of Motel 6, a pet friendly chain of motels, offering the training and how to avoid the red tape necessary to assist to an exhibition

4) Seduce traditional segments using customized 3 C’s (Content, Commerce and Community)

For instance, you know that one of your Tourists enjoyed a movie…now we have a sequel. Do you want to repeat the experience… What about stay in OUR hotel this day and make the reservation in this moment?
 

Differences between Yield and Revenue? I don’t care! I care about providing a solution to the problem of low occupancy, war prices and lack of direct reservations! Can you find new opportunities?

Don’t be a definition-provider! Become a problem-solver. Become an opportunity-finder! Become a Touristologists!!!

Touristology’s glasses! Do you want to wear them?

I love to see the face of future Touristologists every time that I begin a class, a seminar or an in-company training session, with this Touristologistly sentence … If you want to provide services before, during and after a trip, it’s compulsory to make all departments and members of the chain of value work as a single organization. 

This is not a point of view… it’s the vision of everybody with the right glasses on. What glasses? Touristology’ones.

It’s more or less easy to hire a bunch of people, to make agreements with popular intermediaries, the biggest Search Engine, the biggest Social Networking Site, then with some services suppliers… The only thing that you need is some money and the capacity to say “YES, SIR!” every time that they ask you to mark down the price or pay greater commissions!

On the other hand, if you want to create a team able to execute any kind of servuction connecting departments and chain of value members… you will need experts in servuction design , able to make the deals, able to select (Buy or Make) the right technology, able to make both, the people and the software, work as smoothly as if they were a single entity… able to make both, the business model and the technological scheme, a part of the same structure… able to exemplify how the web 3.0 will be in a near future! Showing that integrated and synchronized servuction inside any department and any member of the chain of value is the way to go… If you really want these… then you will need a Touristologists!!!!

Maybe theses videos from siteminder can help you to visualize the idea:

Do you see? You have a Web Booking Engine (WBE) connected to your Property Management System (PMS) and to your favorite Social Networking Sites (SnS)… breaking silos between departments, unifying chain of value members!

Do you see? You have a channel manager that connect your Web Booking Engine (WBE) and your Property Management System (PMS) to your intermediaries and infomediaries (Data Agregrators, Metasearch engines… you name it!). It would be better if these products work together? Is it possible? 

Now put your Touristology glasses ON! Will it be better if instead of ONLY members of a generic chain of value, it ALSO offer the possibility to do the same with specialized chains of value? I bet my intellectual life on it! I put all my effort into creating this kind of professionals. Will I succeed? The answer my friend is blowing in… Touristology’s environments!!!

Forget about your mobile... embrace Ubiquitous computing!!!

As you know, I prefer to talk about Ubiquitous Computing rather than Mobile. To me, mobile is just an interesting support for it.  Maybe in this post we can review a few examples related to two seminal technologies: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) technology that will make Ubiquitous Computing...well... more Ubiquitous!!!
The first example made me tweet...
“One of the best ideas of using RFID in Tourism!!! If you love to ski you will love it!”

As you have just seen, it’s easier for anyone to update and share information related with his activity, his distance, his altitude…If you have concerns about... “This is a big brother society”... just think that you have the possibility to disconnect!
Leave the mobile, leave the RFID card behind... But Jordi I can‘t live without my mobile... Are you sure!?!?!
We have interesting ideas from Starwood chain of hotels.
First, they provide a RFID card to their guests, now they want to use a mobile app. When you change from a RFID card to a mobile app some problems can appear:
1) Security concerns
2) Battery drain
3) If you share your room...Surely, you don’t have a problem with sharing your RFID card BUT... sharing your mobile???
4) Any ideas? Is there anybody out there?!?!?

Anyway, all these ideas related to Ubiquitous computing can generate doubts about losing the personal touch and also the opportunities that a human being can provide “If  I don’t go to the receptionist I won’t get an upgrade (late check out, better views, powerful Wi-fi... you name it!)”...
Remember an upgrade is a service. Using a RDIF card or a mobile app just means a different physical support in the servuction process. As all my Touristologists learn the first year “ Service is what to offer... Servuction is the way to offer it”
But Jordi! A machine is unable to provide a customized update!  Are you sure Touristologists? Please review our post about Real-Time web for Revenue Managers... See? Masters in Servuction Creation always find a solution! Are you one of them?
We are Touristologists, we are game-changers, we are solutions providers, we are the future of the best sector ever!!!!

Revenue Management for restaurants…Touristology’s point of view!

When Real-time Web and associated technologies (Nodejs, Single Page application, sockets…) appear on my radar it was love at first glance. I said to myself “That it is!” I love real-time connections and the possibilities that they represent in order to improve Touristology in general and revenue management in particular .

I love to try to explain everything in a single slide (I will try to explain Revenue Management for Restaurants in this post, see figure below!) so, the SPA or Single Page Application idea, one of the paradigms in Real-time Web, seems natural to me!

So, here we are, with a restaurant willing to increase the revenues (and profits, I Touristologistly add!!!) using the strategies and tactics of Revenue Management. Usually, when we talk about Restaurants we change the RevPar or GopPar used in hotels for RevPASH (Revenue Per Available Seat and Hour). The main reason to do that is the two biggest differences between hotels and restaurants.

1) Sharing: I mean the possibility and the desire of sharing a table in restaurants. Usually you don’t have/offer these possibilities in hotels (apart from hostels where it can be seen as normal.
2) Rotation: In a turn, I mean, breakfast, lunch, dinner… you offer more than one serving. That is not usually the case in hotels (nowadays appear some interesting exceptions that we will comment in a moment).

These two characteristics can physically materialize in a queue or line in your restaurant that you have to learn how to manage in order to increase both, your revenues/profits and the satisfaction level of your customers.

One interesting idea in order to successfully manage a queue is to stop having one. Hard Rock Coffee offers a creative way to do that. They offer a kind of mobile device to their customers that allow them to visit the city instead of waiting patiently. When their table is ready they will get a warning.

You also have to think how to make the line fun or at least not boring. You can have special places where your customers wait playing games or enjoying a juice, for instance. As, is the norm in Touristology you can provide these services or add in your chain of value organizations which provide them. 

Let’s clarify this once and for all… Your business is NOT selling rooms or F&B… Your business is to satisfy your customer, providing what they need, when they need it, in the way they need it!

Another idea to take into consideration is when it is convenient not to follow the First-come, first-served (FCFS) rule. For instance, when you have a free table and appear a group whose size is exactly the same. Or when appears regular customers which are members of your loyalty program and you wish to offer them the possibilities to jump the queue making them feel special and promoting to the rest of the customers what a good idea is to become a member of the Loyalty Program!

VIPs are also another reason to break the FCFS rule BUT… remember to be perceived as fair to everybody, especially your customers, must agree about who is a VIP. Maybe your friends and relatives don’t fit in this category. 

Jordi, this is MY restaurant and I do as I please! Maybe, just remember, successful enterprises in XXI century are NOT MY enterprise but OUR ones.

Ok, let’s go deeper with sharing characteristic shall, we?

Do you remember the video that we share here about Virgin Atlantic? Do you remember the video shared here about KML which allow the passenger to choose where to seat in order to be together with interesting or complementary people? Do you believe that we can offer something similar to our restaurant? Do you believe that we can make this fun using a little bit of Gamification? Do you think that we can both, increase profits and increase the level of customer satisfaction? I hope so, We are Touristologists!

What about rotation? All your customers appear at the same time? Maybe you can offer special prices for different schedules. Maybe you can customize the menus (more quantity, this flavor of the month ingredient only at first or last hour…)

Do you believe that we can reduce the time customers are at the table? Making our customers happier and providing more profits? What about using a few chain of value related ideas. For instance,

A) Creating a special and separate room where customer can enjoy the best coffee /tea in town. Or where an expert can read Tarot, get a massage… for free but only is they ask for the service before a scheduled time. For instance, maximum one hour after they order.

B) Making deals with members of the chain of value. For instance, a cinema where the customer can go with a discount after enjoying a trailer in the special room we talked about in point A.

So, in a nutshell, Revenue Management in restaurants is the same BUT different. Basically, because of sharing and rotation characteristics. Ready for more? Follow this link maybe you will enjoy solving this study case!

We say that hotels, usually, don’t have rotation in their services but we can see some exceptions, for instance, blink that we introduce here OR byhours (here we can see a video).

By the way, talking about Blink and Byhours… which one do you think have more opportunities of becoming successful?

I know, I know, blink was bought by Groupon…. ( As I mentioned here) BUT let’s do the analysis thinking before the acquisition. Can you use the matrix of Super 2, Super 3 and my own 1,2,3 ?

Come on Touristologists! We are the best minds working in the best sector ever… time to prove it!

Good Servuction? You will need a good definition of Homus Organizativus and Mental States!

Apprentices of Touristology always ask me: Jordi! What does Homus Organizativus mean? Well, it’s the way we define people (employees, collaborators customers…) ready to integrate into our organization (I have to repeat, once more, that in Tourism the organization is the chain of value? That we have to provide good Servuction from the beginning to the end of the trip?).

We talked about Homus Organizativus here. Sometimes I see my Touristologists (the apprentices’ ones) having difficulties developing  good examples about this essential figure in Touristology!

When we are dealing with Servuction I always remind my Touristologists that quality in service is a subjective concept, which depends on segments’ perception. For that reason, it is always important to segment properly.

The other day, a bunch of Austrian, Dutch, German and Finnish Touristologists (I love to give international classes!)  gave a perfect and well structured presentation (below you can see the picture!) in which they define the following segment: Golden Age people with mobility problems staying in a hotel in order to recover for some health issues.

Once you have the segment, you need to find out which are the most important drivers of complaints AND satisfaction for this segment. Let’s give an example of each one. Shall we?

If the lift is not working this can be a small problem for the average customer, but this can be “The” defect for the segment we are talking about. It can be the reason they never return and the main feature they highlight of our hotel when they explain their experience to their friends.

On the other hand, if when they arrive at the room we provide a tablet and a trainer that teaches them how to use the device in order to have a video conference with their grandsons, this can be the thing that they will remember.

So, now that we have the segment and we know the cues to promote and the ones to avoid, it’s time to design the kind of Servuction that will match our goal.  Here we can be helped by our old friends Homus organizativus and mental states, what else?

We have to give him/her the task of verifying if the lift is working.

Associated with this task comes a responsibility, something positive and negative that will happen to him/her related to the right or wrong execution of the task.  Please, avoid saying more money or you will be fired!!! Be creative, Touristologist!

How do we know if He/She carried out the task, properly? We need a variable of control (it can be a number of customer’s complaints for this reason. It can be a software that inform us when the lift is not working and for how long…) we also need the average and standard deviation of this number.

We need a communication protocol. For instance, the software we talked about previously, send a SMS to the employee reporting about any incidents, then the employee has the authority to ask a mechanic (internal or external) to repair the lift.

What about mental states? How can we make every employee / collaborator / customer involved in the mantra “lift always working”?

For instance, if you (the customer) warn us (using a mobile applications, for instance) that the  lift is not working you will get points in OUR loyalty program for something you like (customized rewards and versions of ME, remember?). As I always say “Help them to help you!”

So, Segment properly, learn what is the most annoying and the most gratifying experience for them, then avoid the former and provide the latter. Finally, if something goes wrong always possible in Servuction apply the art and science of Service Recovery. What better way to achieve all that than with Homus Organizativus and mental states?

Difficult to do? Not at all! It’s just a matter of common sense (the least common of the senses) and motivated and properly trained employees /collaborators and Customers.

Can you provide more examples Touristologists? If you really are a Touristologists, it will be very easy. Servuction is in your DNA. You are Touristologists, the best minds working in the best sector ever!!!

Responsive Web… Servuction (part 2)!

A post ago, I talked about Responsive web design and I, Touristologistly, declared that to be responsive with the design is OK BUT, we also have to do the same with the Servuction process. My Touristologists agree, they said “Right Jordi! Exactly what is Responsive Web Servuction? Can you provide one of your marvelous summaries (Well they didn’t said marvelous but I’m sure that they were thinking about a similar word!!!) In a nutshell, Responsive Web Servuction means to adapt our enterprises /tourist destinations to the web 3.0 we have to be able to provide the 3 C’s (Content, Commerce and Community) in the three ways that we talked about in web 2.0 business model.

A) Customized: We don’t want all the information or commerce. We want the information that matters to US right here, right now (Does Location Base Services ring a bell?). We don’t want to share experiences with everybody. We want to share with people who we trust. We want to learn from people with more experience, we want to get advice from people with similar taste/knowledge/background… or a complementary one. 

B) Syndicated: We are talking about the cloud, right? So, we don’t want to go to a specific website. We want to go to the cloud and get, send and manage everything related to the trip. You can check out the examples of Superfly here or WorldMate here 

C) And yes! We want to be a part of the process and embrace the pro-am movement. We want to show off that we are experts as well! We want to create, communicate and commercialize our own services (Does gidsy ring a bell?). We want to participate in the servuction process! (Luckily, we are Touristologists and the fact that the customers want/have to participate in the Servuction process is not a problem… At all!!!).

Yes! We want to provide the 3C’s and in these three ways… In all the phases of the trip (before, during and after). Of course, that means that it doesn’t matter what device the tourists is using at any moment! 

So remember, Touristologists! 

Mobile adaptation? YES! But also adaptation to ANY device with synchronization and integration as we described here!

Responsive Web Design? Of course! But at the service of Responsive Web Servuction! It isn’t about the house /hotel/tourist destination. It is all about the experience we are able to provide! So, it isn’t about the content that we present inside a container customized for any device. It is all about the Servuction that any physical support can help us to deliver at any stage/phase of the trip! Take this mobile app for instance…FlowTrip   

Of course, we prefer to use OUR own AI! Created using our own models and customized data for each specialized segment (ensuring better customization and more privacy) and verified by our own people!!!   

Without mobile devices internet connected, without Location Base Services, without the right Web 2.0 business model… this kind of service wouldn’t make sense. Yes, design is important but the key is the Servuction process! 

I’m lucky enough to work in Tourism. Lucky enough to teach and be a mentor for the future of our sector. Lucky enough to be mentored-back by experts in Tourism and Web-Engineering. I used to say “There have been a lot of mistakes in our sector because experts in technology don’t know about tourism and the other way around”. Nowadays, this is less and less true! Consilience’s ideas are part of the new Zeitgeist. 

A brilliant future is ahead of Touristology and Touristologists! Let’s enjoy the moment! Let’s be a part of it! Let’s try to lead it! If not you, who? If not now, when?

Practice service recovery or face the consequences!

I believed that everybody had watched this video…

After all, it has almost 13 million views on youtube. Furthermore, it’s used for a lot of lectures and consultants in his/her seminars around the world as a good example of both viral marketing and the threads that social networking sites can mean for enterprises.

 But, from time to time, I find a group that doesn’t know anything about it. So, I play it!

This video is NOT the story of a singer becoming famous through youtube. It’s a warning call to all the enterprises, organizations, famous people… about the necessity to be ready, to know how to deal with service recovery in social media times.

“The problem was they broke his tailor guitar, end of the study case” will say the usual student that already knows everything. You know the one who is answering text messages while you are explaining the main concepts. They proudly call it their multitasking ability. I call it a lack of focus. You will only see the whole picture if you go really deep. As Steve Jobs used to say “To be truly simple, you have to go really deep”

Anyway, of course if they didn’t break the guitar they will avoid the problem, but you have to remember that in Tourism as in other services like health and education you are in the  kingdom of servuction (a beautiful one, indeed!!!), where it is impossible to aspire to 0% defects. As we discussed here in this blog “In production you can implement a quality system that prevents creating the wrong products. Even if this happens you can review the product before delivering it and avoid the problem. But in services it is a dream to get 0% defects because the customer participates in the process and as he is not your worker sometimes he will do things the wrong way or just in his own way. On the other hand, if a problem appears you don’t have time to amend it. So, you will have bad quality service from time to time and then you have to practice... service recovery!” Apart from that, you can face malicious people willing to attack your on-line reputation, or good people having a bad perception or just a bad day and you become their scapegoat…

In all this scenarios, you have to use the old art and science of Service Recovery. Are you ready? No? You’d better be!!!

Do you have your people (and I mean, employees, collaborators and CUSTOMERS) ready? Are they educated, empowered with the tools and processes to react? This is my advice: Educate, train and empower your customers, collaborators and employees. As I always said “Help them to help you"

Can you detect when somebody makes a criticism about you on Social Networking Sites? Can you detect when an opportunity appears? Do you know what your customers, real or potential, are saying about your hotel, travel agency, tourist destination? Do you know how to get this information from the web and transform it into knowledge? You’d better!

My Touristologists are quite capable of doing that! They are experts in how to organize any enterprise inside a chain of value, in how to empower people through training, new technologies and the right processes. At the end of the day, isn’t this what servuction is all about? And... servuction is one of the things Touristologists master in!!!