Be Ambitious with those Service Robots!

Imagine a robot that welcomes your visitors at the reception desk, serves your meal at a restaurant or keeps you company in an elderly home. Nowadays this is no longer a futuristic dream. It might even sound a bit dull with little added value, but a combination of the right business case with the user experience could have great impact on the company results.

Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, Professor of Customer-Centric Service Science at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University, recently gave an interview on BNR Newsradio’s podcast “De Werkprofessor” about service robots and what added value they can bring to the workplace.

“Robots are everywhere”, says Gaby Odekerken when presenter Wendy van Ierschot asks where we can actually find them. They are already quite common in production environments, but we see them more and more in environments where service provision plays an important role. Health professionals, for example, complain that they do not have enough time “at the bedside”. When we use a robot for routine tasks, the nurses have more time to give personal attention to the patient. And, in these pandemic times where we are now, the registration of a visitor at the reception desk can easily be done by a robot. The receptionist can then be deployed for other important tasks.

In her research, Gaby and her team want to find out more about the effect that robots have on human behaviour. The research has now been running for 5 years and it is continuing at a pace. Sometimes the research is a bit ahead of the situation in practice, other times Gaby and her team see things happening in practice that are extremely interesting and where they can help take it a step further with research. “That is why it is very important that we, at Maastricht University, enter into partnerships with companies”, says Gaby. “In this way, we can enrich each other”.

Gaby believes that robots increasingly complement human work. She explains that people especially have a need for social, human contact. By deploying robots for support, time can be freed up for (human) employees so they actually have time for a chat with the customer or for more individual attention to a patient.

But, a robot is not only complementary. It also has its downsides. Privacy and ethical issues are things that obviously must be well thought through before considering a robot. Gaby believes that it is also very important that any doubts or concerns among employees who have to work with this new ‘colleague’, are resolved beforehand. This can be done with the right briefing, but Gaby advises entrepreneurs to first start by talking to the employees when they are thinking about purchasing a robot. “You must create a team”, she says. Talking to employees is her main message. She believes that when entrepreneurs don’t involve their employees when considering a robot, they’re already 1-0 behind.

Nowadays, the robot plays a role in all kinds of service provision processes. Scanning your ticket in a theme park or passing through a security gate at a concert and showing your ID, are already totally normal things to do for most people. Gaby believes that people are getting used to this in a playful way. She wants to encourage entrepreneurs not to be afraid, but to think: what do I want for my company; to look for opportunities instead of seeing it as something purely technical. “I would really look at the ambition of the company, and then that technical solution will come naturally”, says Gaby Odekerken. So, in fact she is saying: be ambitious with those robots!

In the podcast, Gaby invites entrepreneurs to talk to their employees about their considerations of purchasing a robot or not. In this way, the entrepreneur will find out what added value that robot can bring to the company and its employees. This is the first step in the transformation process.

The next step is to take a good look at the value that can be destroyed by using robots. A robot can be of great help, but it can also cause us to lose essential skills. Elderly people for example, can become less activated unnecessarily when a robot takes over simple tasks like setting the alarm clock or organising the taking of medication.

The third step is to find a partner who is used to working with a robot and who can help you in this area. There are many companies that do not only deliver the robot itself, but also offer complete packages around the robot that entirely unburden you when it comes to updates, software development and (re)programming. You can easily find these companies by googling “robot services” or “robot supplier”.

The triangle between human, robot and customer, client, guest or patient, is essential when it comes to working with a robot. The hope for the future is that people can actually do what they are good at and even what they like to do. The robot can do things that are more automated or repetitive. Continuously optimising this triangle is the fourth step of the transformation process.

According to Gaby, we are at the beginning of a new revolution. It is not a question of whether we will start working with robots, but how we can get everybody prepared. Gaby’s advice to entrepreneurs is: start in time. Then you will get the experience and be able to see how the robot fits in with your company and how you can take advantage of it.

Listen to the full podcast with Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, hosted by Wendy van Ierschot from BNR News Radio.

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