Katie Lynn Literature Review The topic of self-service technologies (SSTs) has been greatly discussed within the

hospitality discourse community. Should SSTs be implemented in hotels and resorts and their amenities, such as restaurants and stores found within those properties, and if so, to what extent? Self-service technology refers to technology that allows customers to perform an action without interacting with service staff members. This conversation has become increasing popular within the past ten years due to the rapid increase in technological innovations and the desire to improve efficiency. Some examples currently being tested consist of self-check-in and checkout in hotels or online reservation systems. While SSTs can be seen as appealing due to cutting labor costs, increasing efficiency and being seen as new-age technology, customers are hesitant to use technology they are unfamiliar with and miss the human interaction they would receive with service employees. Having a healthy balance between self-service technology (SSTs) and staff services is vital to the success of hotels and the hospitality industry in general. By employing SSTs, marketing opportunities are created based off of customer preferences and patterns and will allow employees to service more people by not having as many duties as they would have without machines (Kincaid, 2005). If self-service technology were fully functioning, it would reduce the number of staff members needed and the labor costs for the company to finance (Oh, 2013). However, there needs to be a balance between SSTs and staff to fulfill the customers needs and goals (Beatson, 2006; Oh, 2013; Panda, 2011). One of peoples main concerns is security and for the guests comfort, hotels should offer face-to-face encounters rather than

relying strictly on technology (Victorino, 2009). Although SSTs are beneficial to hotels, personal service has more of an impact on the overall satisfaction of guests (Beatson, 2006). Since most hotel services are performed by staff members, technology-based self-service does not significantly contribute to the guests overall satisfaction and will not play a key role in customer commitment (Panda, 2011). Familiarity with technology can increase or reduce usage based on technology anxiety. If people are trained and informed about technology they will be more likely to use it (Zhao, 2008). Unfamiliarity with technologies can lead to hesitations within guests (Meuter, 2005; Oyedele, 2007; Zhao, 2008). Organizations should invest in marketing and advertising to inform customers on how to use technology that guests find to be unfamiliar (Kinard, 2009). People are less willing to try new SSTs if their role is unclear, if they receive no clear benefit from using it or if they do not think they have the ability or capability to use it (Meuter, 2005). If people are less familiar with self-service technology, managers may need to invest in communication programs that aid customers locus of control, technological anxiety, autonomy, and self-efficacy concerns (Oyedele, 2007). How self-service technologies are designed and programmed influence who will use them and to what extent they will be used. Hoteliers should implement SSTs if they have efficient and easy to use and comprehend hardware and software (Deel, 2010; Meuter, 2010). Simple design proved to be more beneficial as long as there was technology the user was familiar with, such as keyboards (Deel, 2010). Managers can use a variety of strategies to influence motivation, ability and role clarity to help customers when implementing a new SST, such as new education and training or instructions and state the benefits of using the machine to encourage customers to try it (Meuter, 2005). Guests main focus is on response rate, accuracy

and functionality (Wang, 2010). If these aspects can be improved, the perception of mobile hotel reservations will increase in the customers eyes and they will be more likely to use it, resulting in more reservations for hotels (Wang, 2010). Demographics vary of those more likely and least likely to use self-service technologies. How SSTs are perceived depends on the customers. The demographics of who is in favor of them are those in a younger age range (Kim, 2012; Kucukusta, 2014). People who are less willing to use them are people who like interacting with the hospitality employees (Kim, 2012). The key demographic group with the highest approval of SSTs was young, educated, affluent males and the most important factors of SSTs are the relative advantage and the ease of use (Kucukusta, 2014). Convenience and ease of use plays a large role in the use of self-service technologies. The importance of convenience was similar among users and nonusers of SSTs, but with items such as trust and satisfaction relating to the need for human interaction, users and nonusers varied (Collier, 2013). Service providers of SSTs need to emphasize convenience to encourage customer participation since most customers do not see the need to switch from service staff to SSTs if there is no distinct advantage (Collier, 2013). Some of the most liked features of SSTs were convenience, ease of use and fast service (Collier, 2013; Kincaid, 2005; Kokkinou, 2013). Managers need to pay attention to the processing time of self-service technology and to make sure it is well-designed to help ease of use to make check-ins speedier at hotels (Kokkinou, 2013). Research has been conducted focusing on the customers perception and approval of selfservice technologies, but how do the workers feel having to adjust to the implementation of

SSTs? If SSTs were to be fully incorporated in the daily routine of hotels and amenities, many employees would lose their jobs. Many of those who would still be employed would have to be trained and informed on how the new technologies would function to assist guests in the case they need help or if the machine were to break. Staff members would still be necessary in the case that the machines break so guests could still use manual checkout. This could skew the demographics of the staff members, by opting to replace older employees with younger ones who are more capable of learning new technology and adjusting to the innovations of the hotels. This is an area worth studying because self-service technologies are being implemented on a global scale and are becoming widely popular among the hospitality industry. It is important to determine the workers perceptions towards the machines since employees will still be needed to make a business successful and run smoothly. This will also help decide the extent to which SSTs should be incorporated without throwing off the balance. If the workers have a positive attitude towards SSTs then it will boost staff morale, increasing the quality of their work. Studies have shown how the relationship between customers and self-service technology vary depending on the guests perception of the machines. Multiple factors impact these perceptions, such as familiarity with the technology, the guests age and level of education. However, the hospitality employees are rarely discussed and they play a large role in enforcing the use of SSTs and are also greatly affected by them. If SSTs were to be fully utilized on a regular basis in industries, some employees could lose their jobs as well as having to learn a new set of duties and responsibilities. The staffs perception of SSTs can change the quality of their work. This study will focus on the how the workers feel about a variety of SSTs that can be used in the hotel industry.

In order to determine how workers feel about self-service technologies being implemented in hotels, a survey should be created. This survey will consist of several images and descriptions of different SSTs that exist or could be used in the hotel industry, such as for checkin and check-out, reservations. The descriptions will include what its function is and how to use them to give the employees an idea on how they can assist guests if they require assistance. Located next to each image and description will be several 5-point scales measuring what the workers feel the value of the machine is to the hotel, how valuable they think the machine will be to the guests, and how easy they think the machines will be to use. There will be two final questions; one yes/no question asking if they think the machine should be used and one openended question asking for suggestions as to how the machine could be improved. A pilot survey will be conducted for approximately twenty participants to make sure the questions are easy to understand and answer. Then the actual survey will be sent out to a variety of hotel employees and the surveys that are returned and correctly filled out will be used to analyze the attitudes of the workers towards SSTs.