• Anoop G Prabhu
• Comments (0)
• Mar 15, 2021
• Reading Time: 5:00 min

Contactless Solutions- Safety in Hospitality Industry Post COVID

COVID-19 took the world by surprise and has had a drastic effect on not only the way businesses are done but also on how to survive in the new normal. Many businesses that had to shut their doors due to government-ordered lock-downs are now coming up with ways to safely reopen. Many hospitality professionals have been left to assess the impact that COVID-19 has had on their business as well as what protocols will need to be implemented in the future.

The hospitality industry is rooted in a high-touch, guest-centric experience provided by an attentive staff. While this kind of service might never be replaced, the subsequent need for low-touch, contact-less solutions like g face recognition biometric attendance, Demographic profiling and customer tagging, Checking for dress codes/uniforms, Touch-Less Temperature Checking, etc is undeniable. 

Not only hotels but the service-oriented businesses of customer services such as QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), Cafes, and Fine Dining restaurants are also facing a significant amount of problems in getting their customers back to their shops and retail outlets. The loss of interest in being served at the outlets in the customers could be abated and addressed by using Vehant’s OKEAN AI Platform for Hygiene and Optimization analytics. Today, Artificial Intelligence is built into many of the applications we use in our everyday lives. AI for hotels will enable increased efficiency staff and a better guest experience before during and after the stay.

In the hospitality industry, AI is still in its early stages. However, it’s already being integrated into systems used for revenue management, Customer Profiling, Shelf Management, CRM, touch-less temperature screening, etc.

Back to business

The food industry is slowly but steadily finding its lost ground. In the past few weeks, home delivery services have been resumed, and restaurants are seeing a gradual spike in numbers. With no-contact deliveries and online payments, consumers are fast gaining confidence in ordering food from restaurants online. While consumers are also eagerly waiting to get back to eating out, the industry itself is trying to find ways to make the consumer experience more safe, hygienic, and assuring. 

Post-COVID, a lot is sure to change in the way people plan their eating outs. Restaurants, on the other hand, have to re-invent themselves in the way they cook, serve, and meet the high standards of hygiene. And the only answer is – shift towards automation and Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of all. The minimal use of human hand assures the food is safe, hygienic, and perfect to taste as every aspect is pre-programmed. Not only the Dinning area but the kitchen in the restaurants also require the AI eye, as the hygienic delivery of food also depends upon the way the food is being cooked, the following are few proposed use cases for Kitchen - Social Distance Detection, Face-Mask/Hairnet/Chef-Cap Monitoring, Hand Wash and Gloves Monitoring, Checking for dress codes/uniforms and Touch-Less Temperature Checking

Improve your offering

AI can help you cultivate a more appealing offering through data collection. Using AI as part of the interaction with customers can give you valuable insight into customer demands and trends which you might have otherwise missed or overlooked. AI can collect information from various sources – apps, social media, POS data – and then analyze it, giving you a pathway to improve sales, provide an enhanced customer experience, and boost profits. AI will continue to evolve and grow, helping restaurants elevate the standards of their services and cut down costs.

Conclusion

We are moving towards a new world, a more cautious one indeed, and the sooner restaurants adopt the new technologies, the better the survival rate will be. It’s all about going above and beyond the conventional to cater to the unconventional needs of future generations.