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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.