How Customer Service In Hospitality is Changing in 2026

Michelle Pascoe: Welcome everyone to today’s podcast. I’m Michelle Pascoe, and here we are at the end of March, and it’s my wrap-up for the month.

Now this month we have focused on the most important thing in hospitality, but actually in all businesses and all industries, and that’s the service that we provide our customers, our members, our guests, our patients, our clients. Whatever you call them in your business, they are your business.

For all these 32 years that I’ve been training and coaching those, particularly in the hospitality industry, on customer service, I’ve started to see some dynamic changes.

See, we’ve gone from just providing the service with perhaps a smile and a thank you — and sometimes you were lucky if you got that — and then it’s moved and morphed into the leadership team. Who are they to be leading a team? They are those that are passionate about the industry. They are those that know how to connect with their members, their patrons, their guests. But it’s how do they then get these leaders to connect with the frontline team, to then also provide that amazing customer service that will create lifelong memories?

So let’s look at customer service in 2026. Really, it’s probably been morphing over the last couple of years where we’ve talked about culture, haven’t we? You know, for decades. But culture was always that little word in the distance. But culture means everything, and we’re seeing in 2026 that this is absolutely key.

Culture of the organisation is not just having everybody who thinks the same, because we need diversity of thought. But it’s about a group of people that know the vision of the business, live the values, model the behaviours and attitudes for each of those values, and are there as a committed team, not only to the internal part of the service themselves, each other, but also to their customers — those people that come in that could be randoms off the street, could be long-term clients, could be that one opportunity that you have to chat to somebody and then all of a sudden they grow into this amazing customer that not only returns, but then recommends.

So this month, for the month of March, I’ve had the privilege of speaking to three wonderful business operators in the industry from all around the world.

We’ve had Danielle Richardson here, part of the Laundy Group. She’s the daughter of the Laundy family and her amazing journey within, yes, the family’s business, but how she has transformed it along with others in her family.

And then, of course, Andy Goram, one of my favourite guests on my podcast, all the way from the UK.

And Anna Sebastian — yes, UK originally, but living in Dubai.

Getting each of them to share their experiences and their notes of where are we today in 2026 when it comes to the customer service journey, because it’s more, as I said, than just the smile and the thank you. It’s about the culture. It’s about the organisation. It’s that culture that attracts new people to our industry and keeps them.

Now, on a side note, I have just spent eight days up in Cairns. For those that are not here in Australia, it’s in Far North Queensland, so we’re going up past Brisbane another few hours. It’s tropical monsoon weather, so we’ve had lots of rain and lots of sunshine. But I’ve been up there for the Global Speakers Summit.

Now, there were 400 speakers from 27 countries all came together at Cairns. For many of them it was their very first time, and for others, like an Australian, I’d been there lots of times but had never gone on the Barrier Reef.

So I want to share with you some guest experiences throughout my conversation on this podcast today, because what stood out there — the very first day a number of us had booked and we went out on the Great Barrier Reef — the service there was impeccable.

Now you’ve got people that have come from all around the world, not just our group but hundreds of them. English is not always their first language. Everybody, of course, wants to see the reef. They want to snorkel, they want to get in there and dive, they want to be part of it. You know, they’ve come a long way, and therefore there’s a little bit of argy-bargy. No matter how many times they tell them to sit down for a head count etcetera, you know, there’s always those recalcitrants that think that they can move on.

But what was outstanding was the service from each and every one of those young staff. And I am going to put the emphasis there on the young staff — they were all Gen Zs.

Not once did I see them rolling their eyes or turning away and hiding and not wanting to serve that customer who was just being a pain in the neck. Instead, each and every one of them stepped up with patience, with tolerance, with understanding and with care.

So we had this wonderful day. You know, it was a very long day. You’re on a boat, then you’re out in the pontoon, then you’re back on the boat. So I think we started off at 8:45 and we didn’t get back till nearly 6:00. So that’s a long time to keep people corralled into a space where they’re all going to enjoy themselves, and we certainly did.

But that came down to the staff. Everything was well set out. They had announcements over the PA. They had staff circulating all the time. If you needed help, they were there. And they controlled people, but in a really positive, caring manner.

So that was my first experience about customer service. It was that caring and connection, and that’s where we see the culture come through.

So today in this podcast, I’m wanting to bring together not only my insights, but the insights from my amazing three podcast guests, talking about how do we see customer service in 2026, and what does it really look like, and more importantly, what leaders in hospitality — and really any service industry — need to be focusing on right now.

So my first guest was the amazing conversationalist Andy Goram from the UK, who specialises in workplace culture and employee experience.

Andy described hospitality as a feeling business. It is, isn’t it? It’s about feelings. We know that we’re in hospitality — it’s how we make them feel. And that is such a powerful way to think about what we do, because when guests walk into a venue, they’re not analysing the process or evaluating the systems. They are simply feeling.

How did the welcome feel? How did the interaction with the team feel? Did they value me? Did I feel welcomed? Did I feel that I was connected? Did they connect with me through their conversation?

Andy shared a really simple but powerful comparison. You can go to two venues serving almost identical food. Now, you’ve been to these places, haven’t you? But the experience can be totally different.

In one venue, the staff might be warm, engaging, genuinely interested in the guest. They might chat. They might share a recommendation. They make a connection, even if you’re a local or you’re a blow-in, a tourist, and the guest walks away thinking, wow, that was a great experience — not because of the food, well that was good — but because of how they feel. And that feeling was because of the staff member.

In another venue, everything might technically be correct. The food might even be better. But the service was just transactional. There was no interaction. There was no looking at you in the eye when they placed the meal down. There was no comment about “enjoy your meal” or “is there anything else that I can get for you?” or “how was that wine?” or “did you enjoy my recommendation of the meal?” Any form of connection.

Because when we do that, it just breaks down that whole — well, there is no feeling. You walk out going, yeah, that was a nice meal. But you actually come back because customer experience is directly influenced by that customer connection.

If your team members feel valued, supported, connected and proud of where they work, then they share that with the customer or the diner, whoever they may be in your restaurant and your venue. That energy naturally flows into the guest experience.

But if the employee feels disengaged, ignored, or simply like they’re just turning up to work, do the shift, that also flows into the experience.

One of the statistics that Andy mentioned is that many employees are simply present. They show up, they do their job, but they’re not truly engaged. And very often that’s not because they don’t care, it’s because no one has ever asked for their ideas. No one has ever invited them into the bigger picture, talked about the vision with them.

This is where leadership becomes so important, because hospitality leaders don’t just focus on processes. They focus on helping people understand how their role actually contributes to the experience. It’s not just serve the table, take the order, deliver the food. Instead it becomes: how do we help guests feel something special when they come here?

Another fascinating perspective came from my conversation with Anna Sebastian, who has extensive experience in luxury hospitality and global beverage programs.

Anna recently worked on a major global survey examining the state of the hospitality industry, and the findings were incredibly interesting, because when people talk about improving customer service, we often assume the focus should be on things like service standards, menu design or guest engagement strategies.

But the survey revealed something different.

The top three concerns for hospitality professionals globally were pay and fair compensation, mental health and wellbeing, and training and development.

Now, on the surface, those might sound like internal operational issues, but they are actually directly linked to customer service and that overall experience.

Think about it. If your team members are exhausted, if they are struggling mentally, if they feel unsupported, or if they simply haven’t been properly trained, how can we realistically expect them to deliver a customer experience that will be memorable for all the right reasons? It’s simply not sustainable.

Anna also highlighted that in the hospitality industry we often spend a lot of time talking about issues, but talking is not enough. There needs to be real action.

For example, wellbeing cannot just be a conversation. It needs to be embedded into the business, into staffing decisions, into scheduling, into safety procedures. Even something as simple as ensuring team members have safe ways to get home after the late-night shifts can make a significant difference.

The other point that stood out to me was training, which is something I’m deeply passionate about. And not just training in how to do the job — how to pour a drink, how to take an order — instead, training around real-world situations: how to handle difficult guests, how to deal with conflict, how to support colleagues, how to create a safe environment.

Because hospitality is all about people, and when people interact, things don’t always go smoothly.

When leaders invest in training that prepares their teams for those real-life situations, service quality improves dramatically. And perhaps more importantly, team members feel more confident. They feel more capable and more supported, not only by their fellow peers, but through middle management and senior management.

Which once again circles back to the same theme: great customer service starts with great internal culture.

Then came my conversation with Danielle Richardson, the joint director of the Laundy Hotel Group here in Australia, and she brought another fascinating perspective. We had an absolute hoot on that conversation.

Danielle represents the fourth generation of a hospitality family, and what struck me during that conversation was the balance she talked about between tradition and innovation.

Because hospitality is evolving rapidly. It’s absolutely crazy. Technology is changing how we operate. We know that through AI, which just seems to be changing every minute. Even more than that globally, AI is starting to appear in booking systems, operations and administration. Systems are becoming more sophisticated.

But despite all of that innovation, the core of hospitality remains the same — the people, our customers and our team.

Danielle spoke about how pubs and hospitality venues have always been community spaces, and they have been, haven’t they? They’re where people gather, where families meet, where friends connect, where celebrations happen. And that role has not disappeared.

We see that even at the moment — fires and floods — people always come together into their local pub, particularly in our regional areas throughout Australia, and I’m sure even around the world. Even when I watch my murder mysteries by Ann Cleeves through Vera and Shetland, it’s always people coming together in their local pub. It’s where everybody sees each other as a community. It’s important.

And in many ways it has even become more important now, because in a world where so much interaction happens online, people still crave that human connection. Hospitality venues provide that space.

And that is why technology should serve to support your people, not replace them.

Systems and automation are fantastic for taking over the repetitive administration tasks — things like bookings, data entry, scheduling — because when that happens, it frees up staff to focus on what really matters: the human interactions, the conversations, the connection with guests.

Technology should enhance hospitality, not remove the humanity from it, and the venues that understand this balance will be the ones that succeed in the years ahead.

I don’t know about you, but over the last few years I’ve found even checking into some hotels, both regional and in the city, has been very much automated.

Now, I can understand this because I think, oh, it’s a quick process. But these aren’t your cheap hotels where you expect that. This is from hotels where they go, oh, we’ve brought in this fantastic system so you don’t have to wait at the counter, you just go in and get your room key, or you can do it all beforehand.

Now, I understand sometimes I’m in a hurry and I think, oh my gosh, I’ve got to stand in that queue and listen to some person ask dumb questions — which probably aren’t dumb at all, they’re probably things that I’d like to know too — but you’re in a hurry. You may have a Zoom call to get onto, or you’ve been on a very long flight and you just want to get into your room and have a shower.

So having that option to have your own entry may be really good, but don’t take it away completely from interacting with the person on the front counter, because those are the ones that make that first interaction.

So when I was up in Queensland in Cairns, I was staying at a beautiful hotel, the Shangri-La, and it was a lovely hotel. I had a fantastic young chap meet me when I got out of my Uber, made sure my bag was even in my room before I even checked in.

Then when I did get there, I was up in my room. I’d spoken to the person at the front desk who was really nice, so the next morning I just wanted to check in about a couple of things, and I said, oh, hello, how are you again? And it was like, oh yes, you’re Michelle. And it was that connection.

I thought if I had just done that through some automated system, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet that staff member who was then able to help me with what I needed and did it with a friendly smile and welcomed me.

See, automation can be great, but we still need that human connection. No matter who we are, it is so important.

We still struggle in our industry, no matter where we are, to attract people into our industry and then to actually stay — that’s another thing.

Cairns in particular, there’s a lot of people that are backpackers, that are on holidays. So they work for about six months and they move on. And having conversations with some of the larger venues that were saying, you know, you feel like you’re retraining them, you’re repeating yourself every six months.

But you need to do that, and they’re happy to do that, because they know if they don’t train them — and even knowing that they’re only there for six months — if they don’t train them and make them feel that they’re part of the culture, they’re part of the organisation, then that will show every single hour that they work over that six months.

So it’s much better to have somebody who, even though maybe they’re there for a short time or a long time, is engaged and understands what the culture really does.

So if we bring all these conversations together, what does customer service look like in 2026?

It looks like the organisations that prioritise culture, leaders who understand that employee experiences drive the customer experience, businesses that invest in wellbeing, training and support, and hospitality venues that embrace technology in a way that strengthens and supports their team to allow them to connect even more with their customer.

Which leads me to one final question for leaders out there: how do you measure the customer service in your business, and is the experience that you are wanting to share with your customers actually working?

Because great intentions are wonderful. Great culture is essential. But if we don’t measure the guest experience properly, we can very easily fall into that trap of saying everything is working just from assumptions.

And this is where structured measurement and mystery shopping become incredibly important and amazing tools within your business.

I created my own proprietary software over 25 years ago, not looking at the areas that you fail upon. Look, sometimes there’s some amazing opportunities come through the reports, but it’s looking at the shining lights in your organisation. What’s working really well? How are the team connecting? What is the leadership — how are we seeing them on the floor as well?

It’s about understanding that real guest journey and finding those, as I said, those shining stars within your organisation — from the moment someone tries to book a table, walks through your door, enjoys a beautiful meal, great drink, fine entertainment, and then actually leaves.

See, what mystery shopping allows us to do is to step back and see the business through the eyes of your customer, because sometimes what we believe is happening inside our venues can be two very different things.

And when we combine mystery shopping with coaching and training and leadership development, it becomes an incredibly powerful improvement tool.

It helps identify what teams are doing really well. It highlights opportunities for growth. It highlights team members that can be on that trajectory for management roles. And most important, it allows organisations to measure progress over time through benchmarks — not only industry benchmarks, but benchmarking in their own business.

Because the future of customer service isn’t just about ideas. It’s about that continuous improvement — listening, learning, measuring and refining the experience again and again.

And this is exactly the work that I’ve been doing now for 32 years through our mystery shopping programs, leadership coaching and customer service training.

We help businesses understand what their guests are really experiencing and then work alongside the leadership team and the frontline team members to actually provide that experience.

But I also go one step further. It’s that internal experience. It’s about connecting the team members. It’s about ensuring that the leadership are fully skilled up, not just with the hard skills, but those skills of connection and communication.

Because for every leader who provides an amazing skill set to their team, to me they’re also providing that opportunity to see the potential in others that others don’t always see within themselves.

And from that, what we offer is a complete service that will have your business shining, your team shining, and your customers coming back for more and telling others about it.

So if there’s something that has resonated with you during this podcast, please share it with others in the hospitality industry and get them to hear about the amazing guests that I’ve had, not only for this month, but for every other month as well.

We’re in over eight years now in the podcast, and I love and appreciate every one of you for listening.

If you’d like to leave a review, that would even be better. And please subscribe to this YouTube channel, because the more subscribers we get, the more that it goes out there.

But just to finish this conversation about my experience up in Cairns, the event was held at the Cairns Convention Centre.

If you’ve been there, it is a most spectacular building. And the building — and we’ve all been to those places — can be beautiful from the outside, and you get inside and you go, yes, but where are the people?

Well, I can assure you, 110%, categorically tell you that every single one of those staff members were phenomenal.

Now, this is not just coming from me. This is coming from 400 speakers globally from 27 different countries who experience working in many venues, lots of conventions, lots of conference centres, dealing with catering management, frontline teams, facilities, AV equipment.

Not one hiccup happened over those four days, and if it did, the staff were on it so quickly we didn’t even know. As a person sitting in the audience, which is what I was, I observed this beautiful flow of service.

AV was spot on. The people that the convention centre worked with, you know, their outward suppliers, were absolutely top-notch. But the staff, they were always there, always smiling, from 7:00am when people would be coming in for coffees, making sure the food was out there. Nothing was glad-wrapped or waiting for hours. It was always beautiful, fresh. Serving spoons were always there.

You know, I see it like you do through the eyes of hospitality. You know, what are the things that are missing? Nothing.

And what was missing was the cranky faces that sometimes you see in conference centres, or the tired feet on their faces. Not here at the Cairns Convention Centre.

And hats off to the senior management team. The whole culture of that organisation has filtered down.

And remember, this is a convention centre, so they’ve got staff that will be on call, they’re casual. So they may have a few that are there permanently, but the majority of them will be casual, I’m assuming. And every one of them was reading from the same playbook. They all knew the vision. They all knew what was expected of them. They worked brilliantly as a team, and their service was absolutely impeccable.

So let me ask you: what’s your business? How’s your hospitality? How does your guest feel when they’re in your business? And what’s your customer journey?

If I can help in any way, please reach out — michellepascoe.com — or just give me a call.

Take care everyone. Bye.