The importance of Technology Innovation for Older Generations in Hospitality

063015a

 

A few weeks ago I wrote about some common misconceptions around Millennials and their perceived needs when it comes to Hospitality. The premise I was making was that the choices Millennials are making in technology are reflective of a typical technology adoption curve and not from fundamental generational differences.

 

If you haven’t encountered the Technology Adoption Curve before, here is a simple chart that goes over the typical adoption of technology across user groups:

 

002

 

Millennials typically sit within the second category of users; the “Early Adopters” and today are often responsible for crossing the adoption chasm. This is the point in time in which the innovation becomes inevitable; where the effort changes from trying to prove the value of the change to managing how it will grow and scale. For this reason most technology marketing is targeted toward this group of users, because achieving adoption there ensures that the innovation will move forward. That’s why so many companies focus on Millennials even though they are usually not responsible for driving the bulk of the revenue over time.

 

The Technology Adoption Curve often is analogous to age groups, with younger users to the left and older users to the right. The traditional thinking is that psychologically older users are less likely to change, have established patterns of behavior and contextually will struggle with interaction changes. You can watch this play out within Hospitality by how older generations get marketed to; comfort, convenience and reliability. Connected services like Mobile and Tablet interactions are usually reserved for younger generations, with an industry thought process that claims that those groups are the only ones who really engage with technology. Nowhere is this more true than with the Cruise Industry, where the average age of the guest skews higher than in other facets of tourism.

 

Working from a perspective that older guests are less likely to engage with technology may lead some down the path to ignore digital innovation in favor of basic luxury like nicer mattresses or more elegant dining furnishings. But there is a mounting level of evidence that suggests that the older generation is more tech savvy than might appear at first glance, and that ignoring technical innovation risks alienating Hospitality’s most loyal and affluent demographic.

 

In June 2015, Pew Research conducted a study regarding American internet habits, specifically tracking adoption speed of technology. What they found fits perfectly into how the Technology Adoption Curve usually plays out: while the Late Majority is among the last group to embrace change, they do so at a faster rate than their predecessors. This makes sense; by the time late adopters make the conversion many of the scaling pains and operational issues have been worked through, making the transition less painful and burdensome. If we assume that older generations largely make up the Late Majority group of adopters, we see that while they lag behind younger generations in internet use, the rate at which they are catching up is at a much faster pace:

 

001

 

Furthermore, we also see that more affluent households are likely to adopt technology at a faster pace as well, and there is a clear correlation that can be drawn between frequent Hotel and Cruise guests and a higher income, particularly when the property or ship in question is investing in forward-thinking technology initiatives.

 

Then there is one more factor to consider when it comes to predicting the adoption curve of technology; the nature of the innovation itself. Today’s push of connected devices and services is different from previous technology changes in that it is driven less by hardware or traditional software and far more by services which are largely invisible to the user. This means that the primary benefits are around providing faster, seamless connectivity and value that simplify behavior more than change it. Purchasing content via a mobile phone is a change in behavior, but providing personalized data that automatically sets preferences prior to purchase is more about becoming more precise and predictive without active user engagement. Thus, the value to the consumer is easier to opt into and immediately realize. Done correctly many users only need to do minimal things in order for smarter connected technology to impact their lives. This means that the speed of adoption is likely to be much faster than normal, because there is less change required to benefit from it.

 

Back to Pew Research, in October 2014 a study found that 97% of adults between the ages of 30-49 own a mobile phone, compared to 74% over the age of 65 that own a mobile phone. While there is clearly a 23% gap between the groups, it’s worth noting that just four years earlier the gap was over 60% between the age groups. Older audiences are catching up quickly, and because the technology innovations are frequently in the background of the device they are coming to expect the value of connected services at a similar pace to younger age groups.

 

Going back to Hotels and Cruise Ships, the historical misconception that older audiences will not engage in technology is rapidly becoming a proven misnomer. Simpler interfaces which rely on touch screens or minimal controls are easier to engage with and as a result do not have user experience learning curves that their predecessors did. Connected services that occur automatically in the cloud or through smart devices simply carry over learning and preferences from home, and are thus easier to consume and understand. Ignoring an age group is both increasingly perilous and needless; well-designed connected technology can bridge demographical gaps with little difficulty.

 

For high-ticket experiences delivered in Cruise or Luxury Hotels, having a technology story and roadmap isn’t a nice to have, it’s as critical as the mattress in the room or the opulence of the lobby. The adoption struggle of the Technology Innovation Curve is well past the first stage and much closer to being ubiquitous in the behavior of the consumer. Every generation must be considered as part of the technology ecosystem, and the world of connected innovation is more important than ever before.

 

%d bloggers like this: