Human-centered Design in The Hospitality Business
In this post I focus on how insights from human-centered or ‘user-friendly’ design are being deployed by the Hyatt chain to make hotel check-ins more efficient and empathic.
Re-thinking the Check-in Process for Empathy
A recent Quartz article by Oliver Staley reminds of the tedious, keystroke-heavy routines that business travelers often face as we check in with airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies. He also demonstrates that concepts of user-friendly design that have long been applied to a range of consumer goods are increasingly being applied to services. “Now companies are applying the principles of good design not just to products but to processes. Instead of building systems that suit the needs of their businesses, they’re basing their designs around empathy for the customer. Human-centered design — a term used by the firm IDEO, a pioneer in the field — has been used to rethink everything from the way kids are scanned in General Electric’s MRIs to how a nuclear power company communicates with regulators.”
Hyatt spent two years developing a new check-in system that dramatically simplifies the check-in process, aiming to move from a room assignment protocol that took as many as 143 keystrokes on a check-in terminal to one that requires just three strokes on a hand-held tablet, according to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian. This radical re-design of the check-in process allows the hotel clerk to focus on guests and their needs, rather than on executing endless keystrokes. The shift away from the technology and toward the client makes the interaction more empathic and satisfying, according to Hoplamazian: “Empathy is essential to the world, and it’s particularly applicable to our business. We are serving high-end guests, and creating compelling experiences is essential to our success.”
Designing a more user-friendly process for check-in has also had positive implications for hiring, staffing, and training at Hyatt: the keystroke-driven system was difficult for front-desk personnel to learn, but the new one can be absorbed relatively easily. “From a hotel efficiency perspective, it reduces friction in a place where there’s lots of turnover,” Hoplamazian said. Streamlining the technical element of the check-in also permits a greater focus on personality when hiring front-desk staff, which may improve the guest experience in the long run.
This re-design is a positive outcome for Hyatt: empathy-driven innovation through human-centered design, resulting in a new check-in process that improves the customer experience and increases productivity at the same time. Greater empathy can be good for business.
Mark Brown is a leadership educator and author based in Lisbon, Portugal. He likes to swim and play the piano, but not at the same time. Twitter: Mark Brown
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