3 Ways to Incorporate Hospitality into Your Business

Let’s face it: many businesses nowadays fall short when it comes to hospitality. It may seem like just semantics, but we tend to think of hospitality as something that lives in restaurants and hotels, and every other interaction with customers is just customer service.  But being hospitable, by definition, is making strangers or guests feel welcome, making them feel comfortable and at home.

Hospitality in business, in part, has given way to the era of speed and efficiency wherein experiences have become more and more automated. As much as we would like to believe that technology alone is the answer to everything, technology can’t replace the emotion of human interaction. We might think “There’s no need to worry about x, y, z because technology will take care of it.”  But the latest tech should be used as a tool to streamline your business and add contemporary flair, elevating the customer experience. Technology isn’t the customer experience. Because experience isn’t about just one, singular thing. Experience is holistic.

What, then, are its parts? Experience is how we go about understanding and engaging with the world around us. It’s input and output. It’s cause and effect. It’s discourse. It’s relationships. It’s everything we are and everything we do. Our aim with technology should not be to usurp human experience but to reinforce it.

Just show you care

Building a loyal consumer base starts with showing up for them. For our restaurant and retail customers, investing in point of sale systems, sound systems, and digital signage is an enormous benefit for them when it comes to ensuring comfort and efficiency for employees and consumers alike, but all of these technology pieces would still not replace the hospitality. The technology doesn’t replace the hostess or sales associate greeting you with a smile and asking if there is anything else they can do to make your experience the best.

Ti Adelaide Martin in her Nation's Restaurant News blog  discusses the subject at length and defines it as follows: “Hospitality is everything that any person, business, or organization does to affect how our guests, clients, customers or users feel. Everything.” she says, further adding “We are all in the hospitality business.”

If hospitality is a skill that is lacking in your shop or restaurant, take due diligence to hone it. People are naturally drawn to connection, so emphasize its importance to your employees. Take care to be mindful of how things can be perceived on your guests’ end and make an effort to create a positive experience for them. ( Likewise, keep in mind that people tend to remember negative events more strongly and in more vivid detail.) There’s no need to force or overthink it. If you operate through the lens of empathy, the rest will follow suit. The common denominator of good customer experience is simply whether or not someone demonstrated that they care.

Connection is key

Bob Phibbs (Retailwire) found in a survey conducted from a pool of over 1,000 consumers that nearly 80% do not feel they are provided with a personalized shopping experience. Further, more than half reported feelings of anxiety, stress, and aloneness. In short, people are feeling disconnected. The answer to resolving this disconnect is to, well, connect. It sounds obvious, but if the statistics are anything to go by, it’s vastly overlooked and underestimated. Talk to your customers. Ask about their experience. Investigate how you can be of better service. Be curious.  Assure them that you can be a safety net when technology has reached its limits, and your business will go far.

Use Technology as a Tool, not a Crutch

Our help desk at Newgentek supports hundreds of restaurants, retailers, and corporate offices across the country.  We use several technology tools to streamline and help our customers. For example, we have a customer portal where our customers can log in and create a service ticket, check on the status of an existing ticket, and interact via messaging with our support team.  This is a great tool for our customers to have visibility, but most of our highly rated customer service surveys are from phone conversations they’ve had with our support team, like the one below:

“EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! This guy is always able to help me out and always with the most positive attitude!! Thanks, Newgentek!!!”

The idea is to use your technology tools to enhance the customer experience and streamline your business for efficiency.  Even the best technology can’t replace a positive attitude!

Let Newgentek help you use your technology tools to better the customer experience! Click below to contact us!

What is a Certified Technology Specialist and Why is it Important?

The Audio Visual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA), is a hub for professional collaboration, information, and community, and the leading resource for AV standards, certification, training, market intelligence and thought leadership.  For more than 30 years AVIXA has administered the Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) Program.  Within the CTS program, there are three levels of specialists - CTS, CTS-I and CTS-D.

CTS is the general audio visual certification, CTS-I is specific to the task of installation and CTS-D is specific to the task of design.  Currently there are more than 12,000 CTS holders and more than 2,000 hold either CTS-I or CTS-D credentials.  

In June, more than 44,000 visitors attended the InfoComm Show in Las Vegas and more than 80,000 attendees are expected to attend Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) Show in 2019. As the industry continues to mature and develop, the CTS certification remains a coveted certification.

As a current or potential client you may be thinking ‘Why is it important for my organization to work with a solutions provider that has Certified Technology Specialists?’  

The CTS program benchmarks industry personnel against peer developed standards which upon successful completion of the exam, provides a three year certification.  At the conclusion of the three-year period, either the holder must have obtained 30 renewal units (RU’s) as outlined by AVIXA or the certification lapses and is no longer valid.

There are many professionals within the audio visual industry and the ability for customers to feel comfortable and confident in working with a particular company should begin with a clear understanding of their abilities.  

At Newgentek, we feel certifications and industry training are important for employee development and an integral part of delivering the very best solutions with a strong knowledge base behind it.  We are proud to say that today we have eight (8) people within Newgentek that are CTS holders and will continue to grow that number in accordance with our company growth!

Infocomm 2018 Recap!

InfoComm 2018 occurred last week, Wednesday, June 6th thru Friday, June 8th in Las Vegas, NV. 

InfoComm 2018 is the largest professional audiovisual trade show in the United States, with thousands of products for audio, unified communications and collaboration, display, video, control, digital signage, home automation, security, virtual reality and live events.

InfoComm provides integrators with a unique opportunity to meet with 1,000 exhibitors, thousands of products, and 44,000 attendees from 110 countries.

For the past 10+ years InfoComm has alternated between Las Vegas, NV and Orlando, FL. The change in geography gives integration partners and end users an opportunity to attend the trade show with at least a bi-annual frequency, however for the Newgentek team, InfoComm is a ‘must go’ each year.  Here's why.

InfoComm provides Newgentek with the ability to see cutting edge technology and schedule meetings with our key vendor partners. As highlighted in our Mission Statement, our company is built on Strategic Partnerships - which are made up of our employees, customers and key vendors. 

The theme this year seemed to be "more with less". Here is a review of specific technologies we noticed during our booth tours:

Video Conferencing / Huddle Room Solutions:

• Gone are the days of dedicated hardware video conferencing solutions for institutions.  Companies like Zoom who partner with Logitech and Crestron provide a soft codec experience and are changing the game. Click here to learn more about Zoom.
• Logitech provides numerous feature-rich camera options like Meet-Up or Rally to provide crisp video and clear audio for users to communicate from one office in America to another in Europe. 
• Crestron has continued to modify their Mercury solution that ties directly into the Zoom Platform for ease of configuration and allow room users to have their content shared on the screen within moments of arriving. Want more information on Crestron's Mercury solution?  Click here.

Audio Solutions:

• The JBL Brand within the Harman family continues to be a household name. This year they showcased their 2x2 Ceiling Speaker. The benefit to this speaker is the un-intrusive appeal. Most rooms use the 2x2 Ceiling Tile pattern, and the LCT 81C/T drops directly into an open 2x2 tile and provides that brilliant JBL sound. Click here to learn more.
• Sonance hit a home run with speaker appeal with the Professional Series PS-P63T. It’s a 70V/100V/8 Ohm selectable Pendant Speaker that utilizes a minimalistic design similar to pendant lighting to blend discreetly into the environment.

Eye-Catchers:

• Samsung showcased their Fl!p board, a digital white board device that provides collaboration within Huddle Rooms, Boardrooms and Conference Rooms. When the room users have all of their information on the board, instead of taking a picture of the board, the content can be emailed directly to meeting attendees. One more nice feature is the ability for the Fl!p to be used in landscape or portrait format.

For the Newgentek team, we returned from InfoComm energized about where the professional audiovisual industry is headed. We are excited to meet with our key customers to share the ways we can incorporate technology in an easy to use format, with a focus on how we can increase their productivity.

The countdown begins to InfoComm 2019, June 12th thru June 14th in Orlando, FL!