insights-blog

Food & Beverage (F&B) Report: New Standards in Hygiene and Safety

Pierre Verbeke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:32:24 GMT

Almost all businesses across most industries have been severely impacted by recent global events. None have been hit quite as hard as the food and beverage industry due to the massive amount of interaction that takes place between delivery drivers, back and front of the house staff and patrons in public and community dining spaces.

Policies and regulations are changing, and new ones are being implemented rapidly to keep patrons safe in food and beverage environments. Here, we offer a few suggestions to get back to business with best practices with an eye towards potential upcoming new requirements and policies.

A Tripartite Approach to Bridging the Gap Between Education and Industry Demands

Chenqian Liang — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:27:26 GMT

In the fast-paced hospitality industry, educational systems often struggle to keep up with evolving demands. This challenge is exacerbated by factors such as a shortage of qualified educators and a historical focus on practical skills over managerial capabilities. Recognizing these issues, the Hospitality Institute of Sanya (HIS) in China has implemented a tripartite approach to education and training. This strategy aims to equip students with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for success in the dynamic hospitality sector.

How has the hotel development scene evolved?

[DEV] - Development Author — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:25:56 GMT

Hotel development, in a nutshell, involves the process of sourcing and negotiating hotel management or franchise contracts as well as investment opportunities, in order to drive the organic growth of a hotel business. As the tourism industry boomed, the term had earned itself somewhat ‘vogue’ status, especially amongst aspiring hoteliers. In an EHL webinar, EHL alumni Chris Anklin, Regional Vice President of Development at Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Ananth Ramchandran, Vice President of Global Corporate Finance & Strategy, Capital Investments & Transactions and Head of Branded Residential at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), built out the conversation on how the hotel development scene has evolved, as well as how they have navigated the challenges of this sector.

Service Recovery Matrix: How to handle customer complaints?

Meygan Gerber — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:25:31 GMT

Service recovery is important because it gives companies the opportunity to meet customer expectations and prevent a customer from potentially churning. Service recovery is a chance for the organization to save a customer relationship and improve which ultimately leads to more satisfied customers. Harvard Business Review found that people who complained and received a response were more loyal afterward than those who never complained at all. Without a clear service recovery process in place, valuable opportunities can fall through the cracks. To illustrate service failures, and in the light of implementing a successful service recovery procedure, companies can construct a matrix of operational strategies and possibilities.

A checklist to support your staff with service recovery

Olivier Verschelde — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:25:17 GMT

Satisfying complaining customers is challenging, especially when dealing with the increasing number of customers with culturally diverse backgrounds. Creating a service recovery strategy is a multi-step process. In the eyes of many consumers, effective service recovery is dependent on several factors. Here a checklist to support frontline staff with service recovery

Service Design guide: A human-centric methodology

Meygan Gerber — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:31:58 GMT

Service design is a methodology that aims at creating the best possible customer experience.

It involves both customers and service delivery teams in a human-centric, collaborative approach. The customer experience and the business processes are considered together to obtain an in-depth understanding of how to best deliver the expected services.

Service Design Research, or Discovery and Exploration

Service design seldom begins with the consumer, despite the fact that it is a human-centric approach that promises to start with the customer and place them at the center of its process.

Understanding the culture, organization, and objectives of the business that is delivering the service is the first step.

It's crucial to pay particular attention to the team's objectives as part of this first step. The problem that a team is expected to tackle is frequently a symptom rather than the true cause, which needs to be surfaced before further design activities can be initiated. After the project's purpose is clarified, the team gathers actual data on customer experience and behavior. To get a deeper knowledge of the practices and routines of the individuals they create for. To investigate people's behavior, context, and motives, service design uses a number of tools and techniques. Personas, customer journey maps, stakeholder maps, etc. are examples of data visualization tools. These visual methods can aid the design team in demystifying complicated concepts and offering original viewpoints on client experiences. The problems and opportunities identified during this step are then prioritized by the team.

Service Design Ideation, Creation or Concept Design

After a thorough and shared understanding of customers has be achieved, observations can be shaped into novel ideas and concepts. An essential component of service design is idea generation, although this is not as crucial as many people believe.

Ideas are ultimately simply the beginning of a larger evolutionary process. Coming up with game-changing thoughts requires an iterative approach, that includes iterative processes, including mass producing, mixing, recombining, distilling, and evolving ideas. To produce sustainable solutions, teams should be organized to include all stakeholders: Consumers, workers, management, engineers, designers, and other significant individuals who might offer particular viewpoints.

Remember that service design is an inclusive process where errors are exploited to bring better long-term solutions, rather than to avoid mistakes. With an inclusive, iterative concept design process, teams are able to take useful actions early on and deepen their learning far faster than if they were merely exchanging ideas through quick reviews of various service prototypes.

Service Design Prototyping, Reflection or Testing

Next, ideas and their underlying assumptions are tested through prototyping. To investigate, assess, and explain potential customer experiences for future service scenarios, prototyping is employed. Prototyping is one of the simplest and most affordable methods to demonstrate how a concept for providing a service may operate.

Customers must have a clear mental image of the proposed service concept. The goal of this step is to give clients a clear mental image of the proposed service. Teams can learn a lot by testing things in a low-fi style before settling on a final solution, whether they are prototyping a tangible product, such as a cardboard arrangement for a new office space, or a way of welcoming consumers. Prototyping should also help check the service's emotional components.

To achieve this, videos, pictures and storyboards can be helpful tools. By validating assumptions early on and obtaining consumer input, prototypes help prevent costly mistakes later in the design process.

Service Design Implementation, or Roll-out

Several distinct disciplines may be involved in the implementation of service design initiatives. These can involve product development or engineering for the creation of physical products, software development for applications, and human resources and operations management for organizational procedures and processes.

Change management at different levels will often be necessary for the deployment of new service concepts. To be successful, the implementation step needs to:

1. Prepare for the change by communicating clearly to both consumers and staff the future service design, and by clarifying expectations.

2. Define the implementation stages upfront to carry out the change consistently throughout the organization.

3. Evaluate the change by checking the consistency of implementation and whether a consensus on the quality of the new design has been achieved.

4 steps to achieve Cultural change

Franck Louveau — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:28:33 GMT

Having a customer-centric culture that puts the customer first and focuses on their experience is related to success in modern business. Customers are demanding a customer-centric approach and expect more from companies and are quick to switch to competitors when unhappy with a brand experience.

According to a study of 125 companies, 90% of companies that are good at collecting data on CX and EX and using those insights in the right way showed better profits and revenue growth than competitors.

The execution of a customer-centric culture is not always easy. Some companies incorporate some customer-centric ideas but do not make them key components of the company culture. What are the barriers standing in your way and what are the 4 steps that will support transforming your company culture into a customer-centric one?

Barriers to a customer-focused company culture

Common barriers include a current culture that may block changes, a limited view of CX, the lack of leadership or initiative, and temporary changes without a long-term focus.

4 steps to developing a customer-centric culture

To develop a company culture that is focused on customers first and foremost yet also acknowledges employees and leadership we recommend a 4-step approach. Your culture should include both top-down and bottom-up approaches at the same time. When changing your company culture, it is essential to emphasize the right changes and take stages to ensure they create long-term, lasting change.

Step 1: Assessing your current culture and ideal

This is about defining the current culture and coming to a consensus on an ideal culture that focuses on customers. What do leaders think a best-case company culture looks like? The idea is to come up with a united vision of the culture you seek for your company. It will be useful to create definitions as well as traits to associate with the desired company culture. Tools to get a sense of the current culture could include surveys, focus groups, or other types of inquiries. The data collection phase will help identify which current traits of the company are working and which are not helping towards the creation of a culture that is in line with the customer’s best interests.

Step 2: Performing a gap analysis of the ideal culture

How does your ideal culture line up with the real culture? You may see differences between what leaders say they want to see and what employees report they experience on the ground. You can also determine employee engagement, organizational performance, and other metrics as they apply.

Step 3: Ensuring cultural alignment

Leadership buy-in is essential for changing company culture. This stage includes leaders in creating an action plan. The goal is to adopt a procedure for changing culture and developing traits and behaviors to fit it. How do you communicate your ideal culture? What are your performance metrics for employees to meet your focus on the desired company culture? What barriers are preventing employees from carrying out expected behaviors? Leaders can place some top-down enablers that support and reinforce the right behaviors like operating model, people insights, people process technology, and rewarding excellence.

Step 4: Creating a culture of accountability

It is important to manage expectations. Cultural change requires time and consistency before it becomes commonly accepted and adapted and can take 3 to 5 years to truly take hold. To ensure consistent progress leaders can track performance metrics and create a system of accountability. Besides culture metrics, key performance indicators, and employee engagement, other helpful tactics are customer and employee listening. These methods of monitoring show progress and provide consistent feedback for adjusting the course as needed. Are employees supported through the right technology, adequate staffing, and other necessary resources? Through a ROX system, we can look at operational data as well as experience to see the entire customer journey.

Using a customer-centric approach to business help companies attract customers and keep them as loyal supporters of the brand. It is important to see the customer journey in a holistic way and look at all aspects of the company, from leadership to employee experience to how all aspects of the system align together.

Creating a lasting and strong customer service culture

Olivier Verschelde — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:23:26 GMT

You may have heard how important service culture is, specifically in the hospitality industry. But what exactly is service culture? Why is it so important? How your company can build a strong customer service culture?

What is Service culture?

Service culture refers to a company culture that’s focused on customer service. A company with a service culture focuses its mission and processes on serving the customer first and foremost. The goal is to provide the best experience and most values for the customer and each employee’s duties are focused on that goal. An effective service culture motivates employees to put the customer first.

6 Customer Service Experience Trends to watch for in 2022

Olivier Verschelde — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:20:56 GMT

Companies from all industries need to keep up with emerging service experience trends if they want to meet customer expectations that are continuously evolving. This is critical to remain competitive. There are 6 top customer service experience trends to look at in 2022.

Customer service developments in the recent past

There is a strong emphasis on customer experience over product.

According to PWC, nearly 96% of customers interviewed indicates customer experience is their prime motivator when choosing companies. 86% of buyers says they would pay more for a better customer experience.

Technological advancements allowed the use of AI-powered agents to help dig into historical data and predict future customer needs. With rising cases of cybercrime in 2021, security certifications are now a priority as customers are more likely to trust companies that pair privacy and security with valuable personalized service. More customers embrace the “self-serve” principle with many turning to videos and readily available resources to resolve their inquiries. However, many still appreciate speaking with a service representative via live chat or email.

What is an excellent customer service experience?

A one-size-fits-all or standardized approach to customer care does no longer seems the right answer. Today customers expect and look for personalized response that reduces any friction or situational stress. Companies need to anticipate customer needs early and offer highly personalized service based on the individual needs and preferences of the customer. Ultimately people nature demands people connections linked with a high degree of empathy. Delivering personalized experience across all service levels helps building trust and loyalty among customers, resulting in more fulfilling experiences among your employees.

Trend 1: Proactive vs. Reactive customer service

In customer care the new norm is to adopt a more proactive than reactive customer service. It is important to identify potential issues in advance and predict their occurrence to guarantee more positive experiences for your customers.

Statistics show over 50% of consumers will shift to another brand if businesses don’t regularly anticipate their needs.

Proactive customer service is to foresee the kind of help customers may require before they even ask. This means minimizing inconveniences in every possible way and keeping customers up to date of each action that have been taken to address their issues. This is allowing a free flow of information from the company to the consumer to help change potential negative experiences into positives. Companies may consider integrating customer service team systems, billing systems, customer management systems, and operations teams with AI analytics to effectively predict when and what kind of issues may occur. Combining technology and human expertise to empower your team to proactively address issues and turn potential negative experiences into positives

Trend 2: Customer experience roles

Customer experience is a well-regarded and rewarded career, more if companies integrate systems that allow collaboration between humans and machines.

Recent studies reveal that 79% of contact center leaders plan to invest in greater AI capabilities within two years..

Customer support teams should now be given the support and recognition they rightly deserve. Happy agents translate to happier customers. Companies need to realign their budgets and provide agents with better tools to produce more effective teams.

Trend 3: Customer experience automation

Automation is the new normal regardless of your industry.

Recent data reveals that 90% of companies report that they are planning to deploy AI by 2022. Meaning nearly 40% of all customer interactions will be automated through AI and machine learning.

As technology delivers more convenience to our daily lives, virtual assistants will continue to optimize interactions between your brand and customers.

A study of Millennials and Gen Z shows over 60% of individuals in those age groups prefer the help of a virtual assistant or AR/VR support than speaking to a live agent via telephone.

Trend 4: Customer data protection

Transparency and security are integral parts of the individualized experiences companies wish to provide to their clients. Customers are security conscious and are much savvier than ever when regarding potential threats to their security. Companies need to be transparent regarding how they collect and store customers’ personal information..

Trend 5: Customer expectations

Customer expectations are now an explicit and permanent reality following a year of transformation and adaption.

Recent statistics show that 59% of consumers care more about customer experience post-COVID-19 than before.

Some of the new expectations include an insistence on ethical practices, convenience, and purpose. Consequently, companies need to prioritize convenience, 24/7 availability of products and information, next day delivery, and unmatched customer service.

Trend 6: A holistic approach

A holistic approach to CX means transforming your customer experience into multilingual, multi-market support. The vision is to shift from omnichannel to a more holistic, company-wide approach with the integration of diverse customer-focused functions to better nurturing of the total customer journey.

Every brand wants to be known for providing excellent customer service. Customer service is a crucial differentiation and when done well it has a substantial impact on the success of your business.

The 5 Drivers of Company Service Culture

Franck Louveau — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:11:22 GMT

A service culture is when customers are at the heart of the business. Exceptional service makes customers stick longer with your company and talk positively to their friends about their experience with your business.