Can the hospitality industry meet customer expectations in 2021?

Since at least the medieval period, the hospitality community has always survived and thrived by understanding the expectations of its customers and delivering on them. As society has continuously evolved, the expectations of customers have developed and changed. Sometimes, change has come gradually, but other times, change has arrived in huge waves that are often prompted by external events such as the explosion in package tourism that began in the 1970s.

Exposure to other cultures, different food and new standards of service all came back with the tourists, along with their souvenirs and photographs. The British hospitality industry responded accordingly; compare any gastro-pub menu today with its equivalent in 1975 to get a measure of the scale of that change.

Changes in hospitality in 2021

What does the customer landscape look like in mid-2021, as we begin the long-awaited lifting of many COVID restrictions and a slow return to ‘normal’?

During the long months of lockdowns and restrictions, the hospitality industry rose to over comemultiple challenges to remain open and serve customers. Meanwhile, the minds and expectations of customers were also changing and re-aligning.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the removal of the comfort and enjoyment that many people had previously taken for granted at our hotels, restaurants, pubs, bars and cafes was an unwelcome blow for many. Access to quality hospitality services is not an ‘add-on’ for them, it's an integral element of their lifestyle. Also unsurprisingly, customers want it back and they are largely ready to accept some changes in order to keep enjoying eating out, drinking and socialising.

Ironically, one of the new expectations that didn’t come back with the intrepid package-tour adventurers in the 1970s was the idea of table service in pubs and bars. It seemed that the British drinking culture and standing at a bar were just too deep-set for such a change. But COVID has other ideas; as our pubs re-open, customers are rapidly adjusting to new ordering systems and table service. The friendly banter at the bar – so often a big attraction in a good local British pub – has shifted to chats across and between tables.

The hospitality industry, through its managers and staff, will respond to this change just as it has to all the previous changes in expectations; with intelligence, skill and creativity. As well as following and meeting the expectations of the new ‘normal’, the industry will also lead by offering new innovations in service, menus and style. Just as it always has.

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