How to build a mobile experience that becomes your ...€¦ · Carlton concierge without leaving the mobile app environment. “The guest experience is so immersive already, they

How to build a mobile experience that becomes your customer’s travel companion

Contributions by:

Jonathan Stephen - Head of Mobile & Emerging Technologies at JetBlue Airways

Clayton Ruebenssal - VP, Global Marketing at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

Nigel Pocklington, Chief Marketing Officer, Hotels.com

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Working on a meaningful mobile portfolio is a big challenge for travel suppliers and intermediaries. Be it for identifying apt ways to accomplish the objectives that one has set out for, keeping a tab on ongoing developments in mobile technology or achieving a respectable RoI, a lot has to be considered. EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta garners valuable tips from three major entities in this sector on how to service travellers via mobile.

Servicing a traveller via mobile devices is one area that can’t be ignored considering the possibilities with its ubiquitous nature.

In fact, the battle to improve upon the relevancy is stronger than ever. This means that entities have to capitalise on the opportunity to further enhance the experience for travellers, by combining contextual data – such as the user’s location and time of day – with other customer information to provide a great, overall experience with the most relevant content and services for their needs.



REALITY CHECK

Now that mobile has been around for few years, it is imperative to assess the maturity level of services that are being offered to travellers via mobile.

Long term utility is the ultimate sign of maturity, says Clayton F. Ruebensaal, VP, Global Marketing at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

“If we can build mobile experiences that people use and come to rely on, then our brand has become an essential part of their travel experience,” says Ruebensaal.

From an established airline’s perspective, Jonathan Stephen, Head of Mobile & Emerging Technologies at JetBlue Airways, says, mobility for travellers has advanced tremendously over the past few years with faster data networks and more advanced smartphones. He says not only do travellers now have flight information in the palm of their hands, but airlines have a very personal channel to connect with their customers being that smartphones users are always on and connected.

“Its, now more than ever, important for airlines to ensure that they are providing a personalised experience for their customers through the mobile channel, leveraging all of the capabilities available to the mobile user,” says Stephen.

EXAMPLES

Sharing one of the highlights from the company’s mobile offering, Ruebensaal refers to the most recent version of The Ritz-Carlton app. It has Four Square World Concierge tips pre-loaded as mobile content for users. This lets guests who download the entity’s app seamlessly tap into the expertise of the Ritz-Carlton concierge without leaving the mobile app environment.

“The guest experience is so immersive already, they are at the main event of our brand experience so to speak. For us, it’s a question of how do we get more relevant in the space outside our four walls. When guests are at the hotel, they’re convinced that our brand is a good choice. Our opportunity is to be more part of their travel experience in the destination by using mobile to bring our expertise



on the destination to their real-time experience there. Our Four Square World Concierge is a good example of this where our guests receive tips from our concierges about the destination they are exploring through FourSquare,” explains Ruebensaal.

Nigel Pocklington, Hotels.com’s Chief Marketing Officer refers to the examples of the Delta Airlines iPad app’s in-flight experience as well as the TripAdvisor offline city guides as noticeable work.

“Some of the best innovations today are seen when a product or service utilises the new technology and devices that are regularly coming to market.

For example, recently we worked with Samsung, developing our Android app to incorporate the use of the Samsung S Pen technology, with exclusive features such as “Draw and Search.”,” he says. This meant that Hotels.com customers could draw on the map using the S Pen, to search for hotels in a specific area, as well as hover over a hotel for the details to appear on screen.

BEING CLEAR

Hotels and airlines are targeting various phases of a traveller’s trip.



The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company divides its mobile development into four occasions: not traveling, before arrival, at the hotel, and after they’ve left the hotel. “We do our best to understand those four stages and what role our brand can best play in each,” says Ruebensaal.

Stephen agrees with this approach and says it’s important to understand the various stages a traveller goes through, from booking through to arriving at the destination. Understanding the information that the customer needs through these various stages allows airlines to provide relevant information for that moment. So for example, JetBlue surfaces relevant travel information the day of travel to the user via the mobile device, without the user having to search for this information. If a traveller uses their JetBlue TrueBlue account in the device, this information is in sync across all digital channels.

FINALISING SERVICES TO BE OFFERED VIA MOBILE

Before embarking on planning the sort of services to be offered, how should a travel entity finalise the set of services to be offered?

JetBlue’s Stephen: The airline should know what information the customer needs throughout their travel experience. Common features would include booking, flight status, check-in services, and mobile boarding pass creation. Above and beyond that, it’s important for airlines to extend certain features to their digital channels where ever possible.

JetBlue, for example allows its passengers to view the DirecTV schedule for their specific flight on their mobile device. Customer know we offer 36 channels of free television onboard, so the airline enhances that experience by providing additional information

to the traveller. JetBlue also fine tunes its services by listening to customer feedback and adjusting features and services accordingly to improve the overall experience.

Nigel Pocklington, Hotels.com’s Chief Marketing Officer: When approaching your strategy, it is paramount that you take a step back, to see the bigger picture; why is a customer using a mobile device for your service? How will a customer use your service on their mobile device?

Users will exhibit different behaviours across different devices, and the service should be tailored to meet the specific needs and requirements for each device. For example, smartphones will be more prevalent when the user is actually travelling and so a heavier weight may be applied to that stage of the journey compared to booking. This is something we have always taken very seriously at Hotels.com, as shown with the development of our iPad application, which too was tailored from our existing iOS app to maximise the benefits on offer from a tablet.

User research should always be the first port of call. For travel, it’s especially useful to look at diary studies, which ask users to detail how they use different products and services throughout their journey. The results of such research can help build the blueprint for what you want to achieve, from objectives to expected results.

http://hotels.com/



DOS AND DON’TS FOR MOBILE SERVICE

Pocklington is clear that when offering a mobile service to travellers there are a number of dos and don’ts.

Pocklington recommends:

Do:

· Minimise data usage and ensure all the relevant information is at the customers fingertips.

· Make the experience as personal to the customer as possible. For example, with Hotels.com apps, the entity is able to offer the best local deals to its customers by knowing their current location.

Make use of platform offerings, such as Apple’s Passbook or Samsung Wallet – these partnerships can make a real difference to the customer experience.

Don’t

Overuse push notifications, or SMS communication with customers.

Try to replicate desktop experience for mobile devices. It can be damaging to direct your customers to a full desktop experience, when they are trying to view your mobile product – it’s important to tailor your service for the customer’s device.

DESIGN, FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTENT

Hotels.com’s Pocklington: The best guideline is to keep the design simple. This not only helps the customers navigate through your app, but it can also help minimise data usage, another important point.

The next is to ensure the relevance to your customers. This can be by ensuring your content is both location and time specific – allowing the customer to know that this is a personalised experience, with content which is right for them

JetBlue’s Stephen: JetBlue’s brand is very important and we want to make sure that our customers feel the familiar brand presence when using our digital products. We take this into consideration when building our mobile products.



DEVICE CONSIDERATIONS

It’s important to think about how customer behaviours vary by device. For example, a customer is more likely to browse and search for longer on a tablet than a smartphone, whereas a smartphone may be used more for same day bookings. Bearing this information in mind, you can design the products and services you offer accordingly.

Making the most of device types, while servicing the mobile users, is a question that the team at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company considers in detail during the development phase.

Each device offers two things to take advantage of: the technical platform, and the type of user that chooses that device.

“If we can customise the experience for both of those dynamics, we’ll have developed something as useful and relevant as possible,” says Ruebensaal.

MEASUREMENT

On how to assess the efficacy of such initiatives, Ruebensaal says one needs to look at how well this plays into your business goals.

“Our objectives for the space could be very different than another brand’s. One brand might say this needs to play the role of creating loyalty and if so should measure membership, and followers, and downloads. Another brand could see this as a low cost direct revenue channel and should take an honest look at their ROI versus their investment in development, man hours, and ancillary systems,” he says.

A COUPLE OF TIPS:

At the outset of any project, it’s important to set key metrics for success and milestones throughout the programme so that you can adjust and enhance where necessary to ensure all goals are being met.

Measuring short term usage is critical, and then over time you can start to get a read on repeat rates and customer loyalty.

For more case studies like this, why not join leading online travelprofessionals at EyeforTravel’s upcoming

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Top Speakers Include:

Phillip Easter,

Head of Mobile,

America Airlines

Stuart Silberg,

Chief Technology Officer,

Expedia inc.

Shannon Kelly,

Ecommerce Director

Planning and Delivery,

United Airlines

Matieu Sacharrin

E-Commerce Mobile

Director,

Accor

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For More Information, Visit:www.events.eyefortravel.com/mobile-world-congress/

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How to build a mobile experience that becomes your ...€¦ · Carlton concierge without leaving the mobile app environment. “The guest experience is so immersive already, they