Into the Mindset of the Guest

Summary

Caesars Entertainment Corporation has decided to let the customers help to make the decision of their technology during the creation of the technology, not after it is launched.  Caesars also brings the technology team into the research lab as the customers are testing the technology.  This helps the implementation of new technology that is useful.  Too many times technology is introduced that the clients/customers do not even use, whether it is hard to find or is not user friendly. As the testers are testing the technology the IT developers are there making changes and tweeking their product that the customers are giving feedback right on the spot.  This helps to reduce the product development time because the changes are done immediately where the customer can give additional feedback.  One case in particular was a reservation system Caesars was developing for their online reservation booking system.  Caesars found what they thought would be a hit was actually a total flop.  They redesigned the reservation system on the spot while the customers were testing and giving very important feedback.  Caesars feels that watching the reaction of customers is very important.  It is hard to get feedback from the customer after the technology has been developed and implemented and it is less costly.

Reflection

I was excited to read this article.  Too many times management and IT developers implement or introduce a product to the public or the employees that is meaningless and actually more cumbersome to work with.  If the managers and the IT developers would have asked the opinions of the customers or the employees in the first place and to actually take their advise the products out there would be more useful.  You can have all the focus groups and studies you want but if management and the IT developers do not take the advise of the customer and the employee that have to work with the products those focus groups and surveys are useless.  I feel the way Caesars conducts the their research by having their IT development team in the research room watching the expressions and listening to the comments of the testers and making the changes immediately is one of the smartest decisions management has made.  I also feel that many businesses would save millions of dollars if they took the same approach as Caesars does when implementing new technology.  Ask the workers who have to work at the reservation system, have them help develop it.

Lorden, A. A. (2011, April 8). Into the Mind of the Guest. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from Hospitality Technology: http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/top-stories/Into-the-Mind-of-the-Guest72035