With the industry’s dramatic shift towards touchless technology, hospitality has taken on an entirely new meaning. Simply deploying solutions like mobile check-in and contactless POS, however, is not enough to meet modern guest expectations; without the right training tools and procedures in place, poor employee knowledge and communication may harm a guest’s experience.

As hotel technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, ensuring frontline staff is properly trained can help create a frictionless experience for travelers using guest-facing solutions, while also ensuring back-of-house technology is fully utilized to create exceptional personalized experiences. Although implementing new technology is always challenging, with the right planning, leadership and support in place, hoteliers can ensure that staff is given the knowledge needed to craft the seamlessly tailored experience digital-first guests now expect.

Develop a roll-out plan

The simplicity of outdated technology often meant that training frontline staff involved nothing more than drilling in a set of skills. Harnessing today’s powerful technology, on the other hand, requires employees have the knowledge and expertise needed to take ownership of the solutions used in a hotel property.

Once a hotelier has chosen a new technology, using the information available on the solution’s organizational benefits and the pain-points it solves can help hoteliers develop a simple yet powerful roll-out plan. This can give hoteliers a better understanding of how much training is needed, how much time should be dedicated to its launch and the key expectations operators should have.

Hoteliers can use critical technology insights to decide whether to roll out a new tech tool to all staff at once, or to onboard specific groups individually so that each can receive specialized training. Additionally, hoteliers can more effectively determine what types of training that hotel staff will need, how to accommodate different learning styles and when employees will be expected to fully utilize the new solutions. Incorporating a place for employee feedback can also help hoteliers adapt to their staff needs, while enabling them to effectively create a gameplan for slow learners.

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Ultimately, by incorporating a roll-out plan that answers the who, what, where, why and how of a new technological implementation, hoteliers create a roadmap to help employees successfully navigate high-touch, high-tech hotel experiences.

Develop engaging, guest-centric training

Training offers a vital opportunity for hoteliers to foster a guest-centric work culture. Employees need a motivating factor to remain fully engaged enough to develop in-depth expertise—and by ensuring employees understand how a new tech tool can help them better meet guest needs, hoteliers can better create a workforce fully geared towards cultivating a seamless guest experience.

Carefully choosing a trainer plays an important role in creating an exciting and positive learning environment, while interesting training formats also encourage engagement. Opting for interactive, gamified learning formats over dull PowerPoint slides can help users better understand new solutions, and offering incentives or rewarding quick learners can also motivate employees.

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Additionally, hands-on training offers the essential expertise that presentations and pamphlets simply don’t provide. By showing employees both the staff-facing interface and the guest-facing interface of a new tech tool, employees can also develop a better understanding of their tools, the role the technology will play and how guests will interact with it.

Regularly re-train staff

Hospitality technology advances at lightning speed throughout the guest service lifecycle, and even properly trained employees can fall swiftly behind. Hoteliers must ensure their staff is always up-to-date on the latest software patches, platform updates and integrations.

To keep employees engaged long after training ends, consider implementing regular newsletters or hosting webinars on best industry practices, tech tips and tricks and answers on FAQs. Additionally, establishing baselines to continually measure progress and identify areas of improvement can help hoteliers determine when additional training sessions are needed.

Find a provider with exceptional customer service

Many hoteliers rely on their technology providers to assist with new tech training, but the extent of support varies widely between providers. With an understanding of how much support is needed throughout implementation, hoteliers can ask providers how they help onboard hotel staff in order to determine which provider to partner with.

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A supportive provider is vital to ensuring the success of a new technology long after integration, too. While choosing a new technology tool, ensure the provider offers easy access to quickly identify and resolve potential issues, such as an online portal that offers basic management, a control panel for troubleshooting, online documentation and more. In the event that more support is needed, representatives should always be available to help ensure the platform is operating as seamlessly and efficiently as possible.  

With a thoughtful, guest-centric training plan, hoteliers can ensure the successful adaption of new technology powered by a workforce that has the ability to successfully craft the high-touch, high-tech experiences today’s guests now expect.