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The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the hospitality industry into a more digital future. Seongseop (Sam) Kim, a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), said that coupled with huge social changes and prominent safety issues, this wave of technological innovation may change the hotel industry’s workforce. author. Service robots could solve many of the safety concerns felt today, but how do customers view them? To explore these questions in more depth, the researchers investigated how the presence of a robot barista affects feelings of safety and intention to visit an establishment, as well as the impact of vaccination status and mask wearing.
Prior to 2020, the hospitality industry prided itself on providing a warm welcome through close personal contact between guests and service staff. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, safety has become a key factor for hotel managers to consider, inevitably overriding the more “human” experiences of the past. Faced with the risk of infection, customers need peace of mind more than ever. Contactless services, self-service check-in devices and service robots have become staples of the post-COVID-19 service landscape. “Administrators at many institutions are working to enhance safety, sanitation, and cleanliness and to allay public concerns,” the authors explain.
As a result, customers’ pre-pandemic preference for human workers over robots has shifted. During the pandemic, travelers and guests are more afraid of infection than ever and prefer contactless AI technologies. Research at the time found that robots were favored over human workers during peak COVID-19 infection rates. “This suggests that the unprecedented global pandemic and long-term concerns about safety have significantly impacted consumer perceptions of service robots,” the researchers said.
As concerns about the virus remain widespread among travelers, robots could be of huge value in a post-COVID-19 world. However, given the coronavirus pandemic and related technological advances, it is unclear which functions of service robots will be preferred over humans. Understanding this is crucial, the researchers say, because service robots could reduce health risks, increase feelings of safety and inspire “increased willingness to visit and willingness to use and pay more.” Going forward, it will be critical to create human-machine interactions that can provide as much service as human-to-human service interactions.
Researchers say human contact may soon begin to be replaced by “robotic baristas, receptionists and concierges, as well as face-scan check-ins, voice-activated guest controls and other contactless services.” Service robots have become an emerging trend in restaurants and cafes around the world, from San Francisco’s Café The continued emphasis on hygiene and cleanliness means integrating service robots into service environments appears to be the way forward.
However, there is still not a thorough understanding of how human-computer interaction shapes leisure experiences, or which safety-related attributes are most valued by customers. “To successfully adopt service robots in service delivery environments, it is important to understand what makes customers feel safer and how feeling safe affects their behavior,” the researchers explain. So they investigated whether customers would feel safer using a robot or a human barista, and how that affected their return rates.
More humanoid robots could reportedly lead to a more satisfying guest experience. This may be especially important given the post-pandemic norm of mask-wearing, which provides a sense of reassurance. “No empirical research has been conducted to explore whether wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic affects perceptions of human and robotic workers,” the authors said. While human employees wearing masks can increase their sense of security, robots wearing masks can cause anxiety.
Finally, the researchers examined how customers’ vaccination status affected their safety assessments. “Consumers’ feelings of safety from masked robot baristas may differ based on the customer’s COVID-19 vaccination status, as unvaccinated consumers are more likely to feel safer with masked robot baristas than fully vaccinated consumers,” the authors said. Robot baristas may feel less safe.” Customers who are not fully vaccinated can expect to feel less safe when confronted by staff who are not wearing masks.
Three consecutive studies investigated preference for robots over humans and the moderating effects of mask wearing and vaccination status. In the first study, 135 participants were presented with a theoretical scenario involving trying a new cafe. They were then shown one of two sets of photos. In the first group, a robot is preparing and serving a cup of coffee. In the second group, a human barista prepared and served an identical cup of coffee. Participants then completed a questionnaire to assess their willingness and safety to visit the coffee shop.
In the study, 2,300 participants were shown photos of masked or unmasked robot/human baristas and completed the same questionnaires. An additional 300 participants were recruited to complete Study 3, which measured the additional effect of vaccination status of participants indicating whether they were fully vaccinated.
Overall, robot baristas have been considered safer than human baristas. Additionally, perceived safety was found to be a key factor explaining the superiority of robot baristas over human baristas. Participants also reported that they were more likely to visit coffee shops when feelings of safety were highest. The researchers report that “when customers’ concerns about safety increase, the use of service robots may be a strategic way to increase customers’ willingness to visit restaurants.”
These studies also delve into people’s psychological responses to masks and how this changes perceptions of safety in human-machine interactions. As such, this work uniquely sheds light on how human-like behavior of robots can be explained and how it affects subsequent customer behavior. “Interestingly, wearing a mask produced seemingly opposite types of heuristics (e.g., safety and risk) in both human and robot baristas,” the researchers report. In other words, the same visual cues of masks induced both robot and human baristas to Teachers have conflicting views on safety. The authors say this is because masks are practical and protective when worn by humans, but serve as symbolic warning signs when worn by robots.
Customers’ vaccination status also affects perceptions of mask-wearing. For human baristas, vaccination status had no effect on perceived safety. For robot baristas, fully vaccinated customers tended to rely more on visual cues, while less than fully vaccinated customers tended to interpret the “symbolic” meaning of masks. “Vaccinated consumers felt a higher sense of safety when interacting with robot workers wearing masks than when interacting with robot workers who were not wearing masks,” the researchers said. Given the increasing number of vaccinated customers, use Robot workers wearing masks could be an effective management strategy.
This groundbreaking research puts it into the context of today’s fears about COVID-19. The results deepen our understanding of human-machine interaction and suggest that robots are likely to have a place in the recovering hospitality industry. With a new focus on safety in the hospitality industry, the use of artificial intelligence such as contactless service is more popular than ever. By interpreting the impact of vaccination status and feelings of wearing a mask on service robot preferences, the findings could ultimately help companies recover after the pandemic and propel the industry into a more technology-driven future.
Choi, Miju, Choi, Youngjoon, Kim, Seongseop (Sam) and Badu-Baiden, Frank (2023). Human baristas versus robot baristas during the COVID-19 pandemic: Effects of masks and vaccines on feelings of safety and intention to visit. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, roll. 35, No. 2, 469-491.
About PolyU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
Over the past 45 years, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has refined a unique vision of hospitality and tourism education and become the world’s leading hospitality and tourism school.The “Hospitality and Tourism Management” category of Rankeke’s 2023 Global Subject Rankings ranked first in the world for the seventh consecutive year; in the 2022/2023 Academic Performance University Rankings, the “Business, Management, Tourism and Services” category ranked first in the world for the sixth consecutive year. First; in the 2017 CWUR subject rankings, it was ranked first in the world in the subject area of ”Hospitality, Leisure, Sports and Tourism”; in the 2023 QS World University Subject Rankings, SHTM ranked first in the “Hotels and Tourism” subject area for the seventh consecutive year. Ranked second in the world for university courses in the subject area “Leisure Management”, it is a symbol of excellence in the field and embodies its motto Leading Hospitality and Tourism Industry.
The College is motivated by the need to serve the needs of its industry and academia through the advancement of education and the dissemination of knowledge. SHTM has a strong international team of 90 teachers from 20 countries and regions around the world, offering degree programs from undergraduate to doctoral degrees. Through Hotel ICON, the School’s pioneering teaching and research hotel and a key aspect of its paradigm-shifting approach to hospitality and tourism education, SHTM is advancing teaching, learning and research and inspiring a new generation of passionate, Pioneering professionals a leader in the hotel and tourism industry.
Website: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/shtm/
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Hong Kong Poly
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