Stakeholders in the hospitality industry campaigned for innovation and standardization.
This was disclosed by the stakeholders at the hospitality retail summit, themed “Rethinking Standardisation in Hospitality Retail,” which was held at the Lagos Business School, Lagos, according to The Punch.
The Dean of Lagos Business School, Professor Chris Ogbechie, stated that standardization is critical in today’s corporate world for gaining a competitive advantage in generating client experiences.
He said, “Attaining competitive advantage is driven by organisations’ ability to create unique and pleasant customer experiences. But the question is, how do you scale this? You can only do this through standardisation.
“You must have standards in place. Hospitality and retail share a common goal, which is to delight customers and foster loyalty through exceptional service and engagements, and standardisation is pivotal in achieving this goal.
“Products, processes, people. There is a need to ensure consistency, quality, and efficiency across the entire value chain. This year’s theme, “Rethinking Standardisation in Hospitality Retail”, could not be timelier.”
The Managing Director of Delyork Development Company, Stella Fubara, said the leadership of Dubai had to be intentional about standardising hospitality, creating a platform for education, and setting the cultural environment that supports hospitality, the guest experience, and the customer experience.
She noted, “In Dubai, the government enables institutions, provides the right environment, and accreditation for institutions to train staff in hospitality.
“The second part is that they have a division, an inspection division with over a thousand, we call CIDs, inspectors, that every day, your restaurant, your club, your attraction, your hotel, one inspector is visiting that establishment.
“If you fail a primary list of inspection points, you get fined, and the fines are in degrees.”
Fubara stated that one of the issues Nigeria faces is governance and that the country requires a government that supports and enables the private sector.
“Let me give you an example. Dubai was what was known and only classified as a luxury destination. To change that narrative, the government decided that any developer who would like to come and build a hotel in Dubai that is three-star would get a five-year tax break.
“That was to encourage the three-star hotels to come in at a lower price point. And guess what? It is a three-star hotel, but they still maintain the standards of a five-star hotel when it comes to hospitality,” she added.
Also, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow Nigeria, Adebayo Adedeji underlined the importance of incorporating technology into all aspects of the hospitality sector.
He said, “There is no e-commerce without commerce. So, you first build commerce, that is, you buy for 10 cents, you sell for 50 cents, and then you layer, and then you scale it. This is because technology allows you to scale and then standardize to be able to do great things.
“WhatsApp is technology. How do you use WhatsApp to scale your business? We sell on WhatsApp today. WhatsApp has technology but at the base of everything is that you must have commerce before you have e-commerce.”
