"We already treat people like robots. Why not just replace them with robots?" - Wendy's
They decided people are lousy robots and need to go, so I decided Wendy's is no longer a hospitality company.
“Wendy's will soon start replacing order takers at its outlets by AI software.”
That’s how Pablo Torres started a thought-provoking post on LinkedIn recently. Along with the post, he shared an article from TechSpot with the headline, “It's happening: AI chatbot to replace human order-takers at Wendy's drive-thru”
In the article, Wendy’s Chief Information Officer says that the chatbot being touted to replace order-takers at drive-thrus is “at least as good as our best customer service representative, and it's probably on average better”.
That’s a pretty bold, and definitely condescending, statement from someone whose LinkedIn profile indicates that they haven’t spent any significant amount of time working on the front lines of hospitality.
The article says what Wendy’s is planning but like so often when articles about hospitality are written by people that lack operational expertise in the business, it doesn’t look into any of the potential pitfalls and it doesn’t ask why a robot is the best way to communicate with customers.
Wendy’s thinks it’s important to proudly proclaim that the robot has been trained to know that if a customer makes the mistake of ordering a milkshake, they’re actually asking for a “Frosty” because that’s what Wendy’s calls their milkshakes. (God forbid any human order taker would ever be able to be trained to that level of linguistic understanding and sophistication!)
In his post, Pablo asked the very legitimate question:
Can AI replace empathy or compassion?
My question is:
Where did hospitality companies lose their way?
I blame the push to standardize everything.
It was great for ensuring product manufacturing met safety and quality standards. It was even better when IKEA used it to ensure that you always get the right number of screws and parts with your flatpack. (Believe me, that never happened in the 70s and 80s!)
It wasn’t so great when it was used it to develop what we liked to think was “consistent, quality service delivery”. The true meaning of standardizing service was that companies started dictating what people would do and say during every guest interaction. One global script for every step of every interaction.
The result is that restaurants program all their point of sales systems to tell the server to pass by tables three minutes after the entrees arrive and ask:
“How are those first few bites tasting?”
Many servers care as much about the answer as the robot that ordered them to ask it does. They’re already on their way to the next table before customers have time to respond with the expected, “Great, thanks.”
I’m sure some customers complain just to see what the other protocols in the script are, just like I joke with chatbots that tell me they care about me and they would be happy to provide whatever I need. (“Do you care?, How does a happy chatbot behave?” - More often than not their favourite way of helping me is to connect me with a human.)
Trying to turn people into robots by forcing them to follow strictly scripted service protocols as if they were chatbots with a pulse was a bad idea.
It’s no wonder that Wendy’s has discovered that a robot is better at being a robot than a person is. I’d even ask what took them so long.
Another question is
Can Wendy’s still say they are in the business of hospitality and customer service or are they simply in the business of delivering a product for a price.
It’s not just Wendy’s.
During the pandemic, I overheard the CEO of a global hotel company say the silver lining of the devastating global disease was that it would speed up their digitalization process. He also said that their hotels would be “safer if guests didn’t have to interact with staff so much.”
Can hospitality find its way again?
We live in a world of social media, storytellers, and influencers.
People want to be creative and innovative.
They want to attract other people to their innovative creativity.
This should be perfect for hospitality companies that like to paint pretty pictures of exceptional experiences delivered by caring people.
It’s no mystery that these people shun the industry.
Why would any innovative, creative, caring person want to work at Wendy’s, or anywhere else that requires them to repeatedly recite a script? Why would anyone want to work somewhere they can’t be their authentic self?
Guests and customers too want to be treated like people and they want to engage with other people. Scripted service is as boring for them as it is for the employee.
For a quick bite at a drive-thru, we might not expect more than getting what we order at the price we expect to pay, but at its core hospitality is about personal interaction and human connection, something that is needed more now than ever as so-called social media has made more people more isolated and lonely.
When businesses buy technology, they willingly pay for service, maintenance, and upgrades.
What if they willingly paid to train, support, and develop people so they became competent, empowered, and trusted?
Automation and AI should be used as support tools to empower people to use their own empathy and care in their service delivery. That will make jobs more meaningful and customer experiences more memorable.
Remember:
When robots say thank you, they don’t mean it. When robots tell you your call is important, they don't mean it. When robots say they care, they don't. Only people can care and only people can show genuine gratitude. Hospitality. It's the people!
Stay safe, Always Care
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