Kristie Goshow was the inspiration
for her current role with Viceroy
– they created the job just for her.
She has an impressive and diverse
range of experience, having
worked in hotel representation,
marketing, travel technology, and
within the airline industry. She
flexed her entrepreneurial spirit
with Table4Me, the UAE’s first
food and beverage distribution
solution.
You refer to yourself as an
Engagement Engineer. What does
that mean. Can you elaborate?
At its core, the hospitality industry
is a vocational one. In order to
succeed, we must recognize
the role and importance of
data, analytics and the value of
science to understand consumer
behavior. Just as an engineer will
use applied math and science to
design and create, we similarly
craft rich stories through our
design aesthetic and the customer
(guest) journey across every point
of engagement. Ultimately, we
strive to engineer experiences
and put considerable thought into
the tiniest minutiae of our guests’
stays.
What are the key trends
impacting performance in the
hospitality and travel sector?
How has mobile influenced your
brand?
One of the most significant trends
is consumer ‘expectations’ of
a brand’s overall performance.
Recognizing that consumers are
far from ‘passive targets,’ retail
brands like Zappos and Amazon
have raised the service and
experience standard. They have
simplified the transaction process.
They know how to ask for the
Viceroy Central Park New York Park Suite
business and they are easy to do
business with. Today’s consumer
has so many choices and will not
tolerate underperformance in any
aspect of their engagement with a
brand.
In hospitality, knowledge-based
engagement with guests is
critical. There is a struggle in
our industry to keep up with the
technologies that our guests use
and sometimes we struggle to
actually watch, learn and preempt our guest needs. We have
seen rapid growth in guest use of
social platforms, but we have yet
to realize significant use for it in
actual transactions.
Humans crave recognition. Until
technology and core functionality
can enable us to feed this craving
via small screen device, human
beings will be central to buying
luxury travel, and brands such as
Viceroy will benefit primarily from
mobile in servicing and operational
efficiencies. After all, we are in the
business of hospitality not DIY.
Ten years ago we were discussing
the importance of semantic
web in travel, but I am not sure
we have moved the needle very
far. Our future opportunity is to
market and engage in the ‘world
of one’. As a consumer, I want to
see imagery that connects with
me personally and not the bank
of approved brand photography.
I want to connect with a tone of
voice and style that reflects who
I am or aspire to be. And while
many may argue that this is why
brands exist, I would counter with
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and
the importance today of selfactualization. The importance of
self-discovery and the duality of
our guest at Viceroy is at the core
of who we are. Our global I AM
VICEROY campaign is entirely
built on this premise, and our
internal call to arms, ‘WE ARE
VICEROY,’ is the sign off to our
internal ideology.
Do hotels invest enough in
technology compared to other
sectors? How often is it a balance
between budget and keeping the
guest happy?
While hotels are certainly realizing
the importance technology has
on the industry, it is still an area
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