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A Call for Product Management in the Hospitality Industry
If there’s one industry that gets instant feedback on its products and services, it’s the hospitality industry.
But only a few really pay attention to the needs of their target customers and adapt accordingly.
A strong dose of product management might do the industry some good.
First, the topic of red onions.
It seems like no matter where I eat or what I order, something shows up with red onions.
This has been a growing trend for a few years now and isn’t specific to any part of the country.
So I began to look around to see how others are reacting to this red onion phenomenon just to make sure it’s not just a personal issue for someone who doesn’t like red onions.
In the vast majority of cases, I’ve noticed, diners don’t eat the red onions.
They’re left sitting on the plate.
Any chef or restaurant manager worth his or her weight would look to see what people are and aren’t eating or at least ask the bus boy or the dishwasher for some real-time trend analysis and quickly make adjustments.
If the chef’s objective is to add color to a dish, (a good objective) why not achieve that objective with something that appeals to most diners?
Restaurant product managers wanted!
Next up is the usability of hotel rooms for business travelers.
- Trend: travelers have more electronic gadgets.
Solution:
give us more than one electrical outlet by the desk and if they’re in the base of the lamp, make sure the power is still on when the lamp is turned off.
- Trend: clothes in suitcases and garment bags arrive wrinkled.
Solution: put irons in every room.
This was addressed years ago and virtually every hotel offers an in-room iron and ironing board.
There’s just no convenient place to set them up and plug them in without rearranging furniture or doing it in the bathroom (or unplugging one of your electronic gadgets that’s already dead
- Trend: travelers spend more time in the room working.
Solution: desks and internet access in the room.
Once again, solved, but the desks always placed right in front of the heating/air-conditioning unit where you get blasted with hot or cold air while trying to work.
- Trend: reducing public health hazards.
Solution: wash your hands more often.
It’s the first thing I do when I get to my hotel room, but when I reach for the hand towel to dry my hands I need something just short of an engineering degree to dismantle the beautiful wash cloth / towel assemblages just to use a hand towel.
Usability rules.
Hotel usability experts desperately needed!
Perhaps I should put my product management skills to use and see if there is a market for product management training in the hospitality industry.
It could be a new revenue stream.
Where do you think the need for product management is most obvious, yet unfulfilled?
I completely agree with you. I had such a poor experience at a restaurant last week in Sydney and truly believe that there is a role for Product Managers to define the end to end user experience from booking to bill payment. Adrienne Tan, "Director", brainmates, 02.18.2010
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