Social Media Strategies: App Store

Showing posts with label App Store. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Integrating Mobile Technology into Customer Service

Today, 52% of the population have smartphones, of whom over 94% are expected to use smartphones in searching for local business, according to a recent newsletter I received from the California Lodging Industry Association. Many OTAs (online travel agents such as Expedia.com and Priceline.com) and entrepreneurs are getting into the “app business,” and they are doing very well (as suggested in the Bloomberg video). Hotels and restaurants for sure would also like to have a piece of the pie.

Indeed, many hotels follow the SoLoMo (Social, Local, and Mobile) movement and have introduced many mobile apps. The big hotel groups, for example, all have mobile apps, allowing customers to search and make reservations using mobile devices; but at the same time, there are also other apps for different hotel brands within the same hotel group and even apps for individual properties. Moreover, there are concierge (service) apps for luxury and upper upscale brands. Really? Does a hotel group need that many apps? Will customers get confused in front of “the sea of mobile apps?” If people are not using those apps, how much can mobile technology help hotels improve customer satisfaction and business?

To provide customers exceptional “total guest experience,” hotels must ensure high service quality when customers search information prior to purchase (i.e., “search quality”), when they actually make a purchase and stay in the hotel (i.e., “experience quality”), and even after they leave the hotel (i.e., “credence quality”). Most mobile apps that are available in the app store right now, however, only have one focus on either search quality or experience quality. Personally, I have not seen a mobile app that truly integrates technology into all three stages of service quality. As a traveler, I would prefer one powerful app that provides me the total guest experience. With this powerful app, I can search and make reservations on my phone, check into a hotel with the same app, use the same app to request anything I need during my stay, such as wake-up calls, extra towels, and room service, and lastly use the same app to retrieve and track the information of my previous stays and/or complaints. Am I asking for too much?

I am not sure if hotels have the mindset of competing with OTAs when they invest in mobile apps. I hope they don’t. Because without the big picture of providing exceptional total guest experience, they will never be able to develop a powerful mobile app that truly integrates mobile technology into customer service, and they will not be able to compete with those OTAs that are specialized in “search experience.”

Do you use any hotel (or restaurant) mobile apps? How do you like or dislike those apps? What can hotels (or restaurants) do to improve customers’ mobile app experience?

Some relevant discussions within this blog:

SoLoMo for Social Media Strategists

“SoLoMo”and Legislation

Is It a Good Business Strategy to Offer Phone-Free Discount?

Renaissance Hotels Replaced Concierge with “Navigator”

References:

The picture was downloaded from BlogOnline.co.uk.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Learning while Tweeting: Why Not?

Using smartphones in class? Don’t students have enough distractions? Doesn’t tweeting or texting make students disrespectful to the professor in class?

As a professor myself, I certainly understand how distracting a smartphone can be to a student in class, but at the same time, I also believe using smartphones and tablet computers can enhance students’ learning experience if they are used appropriately. Here is my experience.

When I taught at Texas Tech, I had a strict policy that prohibits students from using laptops and cellphones in class. I adopted the same policy when I first moved to Syracuse University (SU). It made sense at that time because I wanted students to engage with me in face-to-face and verbal discussion.

Time has changed, however. When I developed and taught the social media class at SU and RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). I turned to the opposite direction. I requested to teach in a computer lab. Students were encouraged to used laptops, smartphones, and tablet computers, and they were required to tweet during class. I administrated class discussion on Twitter. Afterwards, either a student or I would summarize the class discussion on Storify. Students could refer to class discussions (notes) on Storify at any time. It seems to me students were engaging on Twitter. In the end, they also became very familiar with Twitter as a communication tool, which was also one of the learning outcomes of the class. I have found it very helpful by allowing students to use tablets or smartphones in class.

Will students take advantage of the lenient policy? What if they also check on something that they are not supposed to, such as writing a none-class-related post on Facebook or shopping online? I take it this way – if students are good at multi-tasking, which means they are able to engage on Twitter and do other things at the same time, I respect them and let them continue what they are doing in class. If they are not participating, I will “pull” them back to the class by asking them to elaborate what is said on Twitter.

Very soon, I will be teaching in The Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona. I feel fortunate that I can teach in the “smart” classroom, which can be controlled with an iPad and has multiple screens. I am encouraged to replace the professor-centered idea with a student-centered pedagogy. It doesn’t matter what subjects I am teaching, I will definitely encourage students to use smartphones and/or tablet computers to interact with me, in addition to face-to-face conversations. I am looking forward to trying out new educational apps and new teaching tactics in the “smart” classroom. Please stay tuned for more updates.

In the end, I would like to share with you a Wall Street Journal video, which is also about using smartphones in classroom. In your opinions, should students be allowed to use smartphones in class? Why or why not? What are the best practices for professors to engage with students in class?

Relevant discussion:

The Challenges of Using Social Media in Teaching

Teaching Social Media in Business Schools: What Needs to Be Covered?

Text Messages that Teach: A Great Example of Entrepreneurship in the Mobile Device Market

Can a Tough Cell Phone Policy Teach Teenagers Cell Phone Etiquette?

Still Feeling Reluctant to Adopt a Social Media Strategy: Please Think Again

Reference:

The picture was downloaded from Kellimarshall.net

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Smart Marketing with Smartphones

Photo taken from www.glamour.com/

You’re waiting in the car at the gas station. You’re bored at the doctor’s office. You’re waiting for your professor to arrive to class. You’re at a party that’s lame. What do you do?

You do exactly what everyone else does. You reach for your phone. You check your Facebook notifications, then you check the weather for tomorrow, next you see who won the big game.The list goes on. Anything you used to do on your PC, you now have the capability of doing on your smartphone.

There are currently 4 billion phones in use, of these 1.08 billion are smartphones.

How many applications do you have on your smartphone? How many do you think the average person has? And, what does it take for you to download a free App or spend money to buy an App?

According to an article written back in 2009 on CNN Money, Apple employs 40 individuals to approve Apps for the App Store. Every week, approximately 8,500 applications are submitted to this team for approval. As of September 2012, 650,000 Apps were available on the App Store.

Photo taken from www.thebreakfast.com

So, now that you have downloaded the Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and GoogleMaps you only have 56 more to go to reach the number of Apps the average person has downloaded.

Restaurants, movie theaters, television shows, airline carriers, travel agencies, banks and retail stores are all utilizing SMS advertising and mobile applications to generate leads, traffic and add new customers.

But, why are companies investing billions of dollars into this new platform of advertising?

Companies understand the ROI on the mobile movement. Nine out of ten smartphone searches results in an action. For instance, going to Starbucks because FourSquare offered you a coupon or going to the movies because you watched a trailer on your Fandango App or trying a new restaurant because you saw great reviews on Yelp.

What are your favorite Apps you have downloaded or purchased? Which Apps do you use on a daily basis? And, what companies do you think are leading the mobile movement?

Check out this video for a better understanding of the mobile movement.