Without a line of interaction

In Service Marketing there’s something called ‘a line of interaction’. If we take the example of a restaurant let’s say, there can be numerous lines of interaction. A line of interaction basically means point where a part of the service comes into direct contact with the customer, or in plain motherhood statement it’s the ‘moment of truth’. The waiter is one, the menu is another, the food is the next, and the bill that comes towards the end is also a line of interaction.

Now most people say and I’m sure even you’ll agree that lines of interaction are extremely essential to the service organisation’s success.

Now let’s turn the tables on this statement and look at it from the other way around. There’s this hotel in Korea, the name of which I forgot, has defied this whole idea of line of interaction. The hotel has virtually scrapped all the lines of interaction which one might call essential.

If you want to book a room, you call the number, and the voice on the other side is an AVR (automated voice response system). This means there’s a computer on the other end to take your call rather than a real person, so the first line of interaction is compromised. The AVR gives you an automatically generated code, which you note down and is a reference for the room you booked in the hotel. You drive your way down to the hotel, go to the basement where again there’s no security guard at the gates, since the gates are automatic. You key in the code given at the gate, and this is where you officially check into the hotel. You go ahead and park your car specifically at the slot allotted to you, and to make sure you find it, the lights of that slot start blinking. So line of interaction (security guards) compromised again.

Then you go up the lift, into your room, and done! Not a single human line of interaction in the entire process. You finish all your naughty business and get out. The payment is made by an escrow so the hotel never comes to know the real identity of the person. Dainty no? Now who told a line of interaction is essential?