In-store experiments for the future of hospitality — Interview with Kintetsu GHD x PLEN Robotics
The spread of the covid-19 has forced changes in consumer behavior. The digital experience of the customer, from product selection to payment, and the DX of all retail operations are accelerating. We spoke with Kintetsu Department Store, Inc. and PLEN Robotics, Inc. about their demonstration experiment that considered the value that brick-and-mortar stores can provide and the new significance of the purchasing experience in stores in the “new-normal” era, where demand for non-face-to-face and non-contact services is expanding.
Interviewees
Hirotoshi Ashitaka — Kintetsu Venture Partners, Inc
Riyoko Takegoshi — Kintetsu Department Store Co., Ltd.
Atsuhiko Tomita — PLEN Robotics, Inc.
Yukino Sumida — PLEN Robotics, Inc.
“Robotics x Hospitality” for Children as Consumers
Project Overview: Retail DX in-store verification experiment event with AI assistant “PLEN Cube”
Demonstration period: July 21 (Wed) — August 17 (Tue), 2021
Venue: Kintetsu Department Store Main Store Abeno Harukas
Details of implementation: The event was held at the Kintetsu Department Store Main Store Abeno Harukas, utilizing the “PLEN Cube,” a small robot AI assistant developed and provided by PLEN Robotics, which is equipped with four functions: 1) Non-contact temperature detection, 2) Product recommendation, 3) Beverage ordering, and 4) True or False Quiz. The purpose of this event was the verification of “PLEN Cube” in real stores.
— Could you tell us about the process and background leading up to the demonstration event?
Hirotoshi: I have been looking at PLEN Robotics’ initiatives for some time and felt that they had the potential for use in face-to-face customer service situations. During the Smart Cities Program*, I presented the idea of collaboration with PLEN Robotics to a number of Kintetsu Group companies, and when Kintetsu Department Store responded positively, we immediately connected Takegoshi-san with PLEN Robotics.
Riyoko: Since COVID-19, I have had many opportunities to come in contact with facial recognition systems such as temperature monitoring terminals, but I feel that there are still very few with visuals that are appealing to customers. The PLEN Cube has a cute appearance, and we were focusing on improving the customer experience, not just the background technology. As soon as we started discussing with the event manager, we decided to take advantage of the cute visuals and plan a project with the children’s clothing section, targeting children.
Atsuhiko: We are an engineer-led company, and our employees tend to focus on their own development work, but we felt that if the engineers who don’t know the field, they end up with products that are finished in terms of functions but are not practical or usable. It was my sincere wish to have a demonstration site where we could observe and test out our product, and we were able to achieve this through my participation in the accelerator program.
— Were there any special efforts made in preparing for the demonstration event?
Yukino: We proceeded with our preparations by devising two major aspects: design and technology. This time, we offered products with four different functions, and we prepared products with colors and ears that reminded us of the official character of Abeno Harukas, “Abenobea”. On the technical side, we chose the quiz function as the most suitable product for the event. We discussed and verified within the company whether to use True or False quiz format or a question-and-answer format.
Atsuhiko: The “PLEN” in the company name PLEN Robotics comes from the “plain” as in plain yogurt. It is a reflection of our CEO Akazawa’s desire to create robots that can be customized with different functions, just like plain yogurt with flavors and toppings. We had the impression that most of the existing robots had strong characters that limited the places where they could be placed, so we wanted to create a robot that was simple and could be placed anywhere without feeling uncomfortable, a robot that did not assert its presence too much, and so the current PLEN Cube was born.
Hirotoshi: I believe that the field of robotics will become an essential part of society in the future. In the meantime, the Kintetsu Group has been pursuing hospitality by placing importance on real contact with customers in all of its businesses, including railroads, department stores, hotels, and leisure. Therefore, we thought that PLEN Robotics, with its vision of “Robotics x Hospitality,” would be a good match for us. Rightfully so, this initiative has led to a good opportunity to think about the future of the hospitality industry.
Value Added by Robots and the Insight from Children
— How did you feel after the event was held?
Riyoko: The PLEN Cube’s true or false quiz was especially popular. When you answered the quiz correctly, a card that could be exchanged for a present would come out of the treasure chest. The juice stand where you can order juice is also widely used, and the person in charge of the sales floor gave feedback that if a payment function could be installed in the future, it would be a more interesting approach. I don’t think the simple true or false quiz would have been as popular if it had been offered by a human. I believe that the fact that the questions were given and judged correctly by robots, and that people were exposed to new technology, has made this an interesting and value-added customer experience.
Yukino: We are planning to share raw data including order history and user attribute data with Kintetsu Department Store for data analysis. I think we will be able to gain new insights by having the stores take a look at the data. Since this is our first attempt, there is a lot of data that is difficult to judge, but I think we will be able to increase various insights through repeated efforts and continuous data collection.
Riyoko: In the case of POS purchase data, the attribute data is based on the parents’ information, not the children themselves, but if we can accumulate data on what kind of experiences the children have had and what kind of interests they have, we can use it to create sales floors in the future.
In this demonstration event, we were able to customize and test the products that PLEN Robotics already had, so we were able to start small with minimal installation costs. We got a good on-site response saying that they would like to try this kind of opportunity in the future. Due to the impact of COVID-19, launching a measure with a large cost from the beginning involves greater risk than before. I feel that the method of accumulating feedback from small projects is well suited to the current environment.
Atsuhiko: This time we happened to work with a huge company, Kintetsu Group Holdings, but we are not looking to sell a large-scale, high-priced system; we are trying to create products and services that can be easily used in stores around town. We are happy to start small.
In terms of verification of our products/services, I realized that UI/UX development can be strengthened through on-site verification. This time, we had a chance to learn a lot of things such as how to create a mechanism to prevent children from getting bored by tuning in to a new target for our company, children.
Riyoko: Thinking only within the framework of existing business will lead to a depletion of ideas, so I believe that it will become more important to share ideas with other companies to increase the number of projects we can make. While it is important to search for technologies that can solve our internal problems, I also felt that it is meaningful to mutually build up flexible ideas by receiving idea proposals from startups and seeing their products. I would like to continue to collaborate with people who can inspire us and create new ideas.
Hirotoshi: This is what open innovation is all about, and it is the mission of Kintetsu VP as a CVC to foster such a culture and realize co-creation with startups. We will continue to do our best to support initiatives that contribute to the growth of both startups and the Kintetsu Group.
Increasing the value of the real site with the digital experience
- What kind of initiatives do you want to promote in the future?
Atsuhiko: While automation and digitalization are advancing in factories and desk work, I feel that there are still many challenges for front-line workers in the service industry. Now that we have proven the practicality of product recommendation and order-taking functions in stores, we would like to proceed with the implementation of face recognition payment functions. We would like to respond to the non-contact needs of the retail industry by using robots for the repetitive tasks and pairing robots with humans for handling high-level customer service such as planning, decision-making, and responding to people in need.
In the hospitality industry, there are many cases where personalized customer information is only found in the customer’s mind, making it difficult to reach. We would like to enhance the scalability of the system so that the robot can notify hospitality data such as how many times the customer has visited the store this month, when the last visit was, when the customer’s birthday is, etc., so that the human can provide more advanced customer service with the accessible information.
Riyoko: The e-commerce and digital environment are rapidly improving due to the influence of the pandemic, but as a department store, we still want people to come to real stores. By utilizing digital technology and robots, I would like to create an “experience that makes it fun to come to the store”, rather than an “experience that does not require you to come to the store.” For example, even if part of the sales floor is operated without human staff, I would like to create an entertaining store that gives a new sense of excitement from the fact that it is unmanned. I would like to make efforts to further integrate the physical and digital aspects of the consumer experience.
（Translation: Doina Zavulan, Intern at Plug and Play Osaka）
Japanese version of this article is available from below link;
https://note.com/harukaichikawa/n/n0fc4e005ccf9
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