As we see the explosion of Ipads in the personal tablet
market, there is also a growing trend of iPads being used in the service and
hospitality industry. The business
paradigm is slightly different. Instead of iPads being purchased by end users
for personal or business use; or even purchased by companies for employees use,
we are now seeing iPads being purchased by companies for use by their
customers.
These iPads do not have a dedicated end user who maintains
the unit, downloads Apps, or accesses resources. Instead these iPads are used by multiple
customers using dedicated apps to access products or services. In many cases
these iPads are not even running the iOS. The entire interface has been
replaced with proprietary software.
The duration of the customer’s use of each iPad is
determined by the type of sale or service being offered. If the iPad is a
clothing catalogue mounted to a wall in a clothing store, the customer’s interaction
would be brief and casual. However, in a hotel or resort, the customer may be
“issued” an iPad for the entire duration of their stay.
The beauty of using iPads in this capacity, is that there
several business advantages that are immediately realized
·
Metrics.
An iPad can report not only quantity and description of items sold but
time and location, payment method etc. In addition to that, a whole host of
information is available via the iPad that would normally be too subjective or
too tedious for human employees to report. The iPad can report how often a
product was viewed in detail or how often the product was in a search result. These
metrics can be vital to your company for showing you when you should implement
changes, upgrade services, or keep successful procedures in place. For example:
A hotel could determine what location or time of day that is most conducive to
ordering Spa services and then focus their marketing efforts in those areas.
·
Marketing.
Speaking of marketing, the iPad is an awesome marketing tool. Based on
customer’s choices, the iPad can present related material that may be of
interest to them. Daily specials, discounted items, and products in short
supply can all be presented to the customer in an attractive and
non-confrontive manner. The iPad can
also be programmed to automatically up-sell or point out any items that might
be missing from an order. These types of features ensure that your customers
experience the best of what you have to offer.
·
Advertising
Here is where your iPad investment can start generating revenue for you
immediately. There are many businesses in related industries that will pay you
good money to promote their products and services on your iPads. This can be done through product placement,
banner ads, or direct access to another company’s products or services through
your interface. The co-marketing possibilities are endless.
·
A streamlined,
unified, and consistent customer experience.
Let’s face it. Your employees have good days and bad days. Even your best
employees do not give the best service consistently every day. And let’s be
brutally honest. You hire employees and keep them around for various reasons
that are not all directly related to your customer’s needs. Maybe you keep
someone around because they keep their complaints to themselves. Maybe you have
an employee who has been around forever and hardly ever calls in sick but has
received several customer complaints. These are the types of issues that every
employer faces on a daily basis. However, the iPad is one area of the customer
experience that you have complete control over. The iPad interface might not be
a perfect fit for every aspect of your operation; but when it is, your
customer’s experience will be pleasant and consistent.
So how can you implement an iPad interface
in your business? First of all, you need the iPads. After that, here are
several ways to implement the interface.
You could download an existing App from the
App Store and use it for your needs. This is the simplest and cheapest method.
However, it gives you the least amount of control over your customer’s
experience. Also, the App you purchase may be limited in its functionality as
well. You will defiantly want to use the iPhone/iPad configuration utility to
lock down the rest of the iPad. Octopus
Food Point of sales is an example of this kind of App.
If your company is large, you may want to
look into the possibility of developing your own app. This may give you more
control over your customer’s experience but would require a significant investment
of time and resources in the development and implementation of your App. Once
again, you would need to lock down the rest of the iPad. Check out the Apple
Developer Network if you are interested in iOS App development.
There are several companies that offer
turnkey solutions for this kind of customer interface. This solution requires a
larger initial capital investment but requires less effort than in-house
development and gives you a much more controlled and professional user
interface. Intelity is a great company that caters to the hotel and resort
industry. Apito targets the restaurant market.
However you implement your companies’ iPad
solution, you should do so sooner than later. Touch screen is the interface of
the future and is rapidly replacing “point and click”. A whole new generation
of users is growing up using their iPads and they will demand and expect this
interface in more and more of their daily activities and transactions.
