One of the first hurdles Spa Esprit initially had to overcome was the presentation of data from all the various different data sources located at multiple locations, so that the whole organization could have that elusive single truthful version of their data.

“Using off-the-shelf dashboard solutions was not possible,” said Dave Lim, Director of Group Technology and International Operations at Spa Esprit Group.

First things first, Spa Esprit has been on a digital transformation journey even since before the pandemic, firm in the belief that technology can help when it comes to its operations. “We have been trying to find ways and means to address challenges from the data perspective,” said Dave.

The conversation CXpose.tech had with Dave and Melvin Wang of ThinkVal quickly segued towards artificial intelligence, and Dave recalled Spa Esprit’s previous ‘dances’ with providers who only came up with empty promises.

Overall, Spa Esprit recognizes the use cases where they can apply AI for automation, convenience, and more efficiency. But, they had to get the basics right.

“This time we have managed to put a foundation into place. Finally, we have a single source for finance, marketing, sales, operations, and everyone is looking at the same source of data.”

Melvin cautioned that to many people, having rules in place to automate processes may seem like AI, but it actually isn’t, while Dave sees AI’s potential in enhancing engagement with customers, for example via chatbots, and leaving humans more time to focus on the other aspects of service delivery.

ThinkVal and Spa Esprit

When it comes to building out memorable customer experiences, being able to measure the before and after is crucial: the data piece cannot be emphasized enough. A detailed session with ThinkVal was very useful in highlighting how important data management is to extract actionable information for ThinkVal customers like Spa Esprit.

ThinkVal is a Software-as-a-service company that empowers businesses with much needed data operations and data management. The Spa Esprit Group is a Singaporean-based homegrown hospitality brand with a very diverse portfolio of over 15 retail beauty and food and beverage brands under its umbrella. This diversity led to the use of different kinds of IT systems to power their operations not just across Asia, but also London and New York.

Internal Harmony

Consumers today already do use a variety of devices, browsers and channels during their buying journey. Due to data streaming in from multiple various sources, serious data quality issues can and do exist especially in organizations that have so many customer touch points.

For example, format variations, incorrect patterns, missing information, record duplication, and many more which lead to unavoidable complications like decreased customer engagement, duplicate marketing efforts, or even failed mail campaigns. This raises the challenge of having a single source of truth that can drive informed decision making for different business units or different departments.

What this means for organizations, and especially hospitality organizations with several brands and multiple touchpoints, is extreme data chaos. Any effort to start AI projects would simply fail from the get-go.

In September 2020, Spa Esprit decided to go back to the drawing board and focus on the data requirements of each individual department like finance, human resource, and even the different lines of business. Soon, Dave and Melvin found themselves asking users questions like, “From the POS (point-of-sales) systems perspective, for the beauty business, what exactly do you need?”

ThinkVal also brought to the table a business context and subject matter expertise that helped in fine tuning the data operations further. Dave pointed out this was helpful for his department to present in a more timely manner, information in a format that was understood and actionable by the different lines of businesses (LOBs).

“ThinkVal offered domain relevancy which allowed it to really embed itself into the customer’s organization, and built a platform that conforms to how an organization works, rather than the other way around.”

Responsive Operations and Service

Melvin shared that ThinkVal offered domain relevancy which allowed it to really embed itself into the customer’s organization, and built a platform that conforms to how an organization works, rather than the other way around.

Spa Esprit’s engagement with ThinkVal currently involves streamlining data for internal operations. Thanks to this exercise as well as close collaboration and active input from his Group CFO (chief financial officer) Dave admits that internal departments currently have more insights and information than they usually have, with more responsive action to their data-based queries and demands.

Before the data streamlining initiative, it could take half a day to prepare a combined sales report from separate outlets; a process that ranges from downloading these reports and then consolidating them for a presentation about how each outlet’s performance is.

Dave also wanted to point out that using Excel sheets can be limited in terms of data manipulation to present different hypothetical scenarios.

“Now the data dashboard is instantaneous,” Dave said, confirming that it also serves as the single source of truth for the whole organization. This was something that came to fruition for Spa Esprit, in the space of about a year and is an achievement milestone that sets the bedrock for Spa Esprit’s AI ambitions, moving forward.

SUMMARY

Many organizations tend to get excited with shiny new toys and neglect the significance of laying the right foundation for data operations and data management. If it’s rubbish in, it’s going to be rubbish out and this will have an impact upon customer experience.