Certain areas of business you cannot afford to be flippant or dismissive.
Whilst walking through a huge Mall recently I observed continued flippancy when it comes to connecting to the most powerful device ever invented, the smartphone.
Surely it’s the most important way of collecting client data ?
And the number one way to do that is dynamic QR with a clear reason for the Smartphone user to engage ?
Easy to be critical about anything, when you are a so called expert, but to witness wanton ineptness makes me angry.
I recently made some suggestions to a major global Estate Agent brand about similar observations only to be asked politely to take my ‘polite’ observations down.
I obliged, but why create two penny brochure advertising a property for £1.3 million with such terrible mistakes?
Spelling was fine, property was beautiful, the QR was an unmitigated disaster.
Give yourself a chance
Taking QR seriously begins with talking to people who understand the products capabilities.
It isn’t just tech, it isn’t just print , It’s a hybrid that requires a clearly executed strategy.
QR is a product specifically designed for the phone
We are going to invite you to some future EVENTS ( On your PC probably )
Before hand, can we get your creative juices flowing.
Reach for your phone, open the camera and point.
Nothing you see within these QR solutions has anything to do with a PC or WordPress websites!
It has everything to do with smartphones in the field, in situ and trusted by the user.
Source of QR: A flyer in the Hotel room
Thru Progressive Web App’s and Smart form pages
The data is transmitted 100% securely using https
Source of QR: A flyer in the waiting room
vitamin suite
Source of QR: A fully serviced business card with vCard on front.
Hotelier press release
Source of QR: Pan company serviced business cards
Flyers and window posters that change regularly.
poster
Source of QR: RSVP wedding invitations
wedding rsvp
Source of QR: Every GIN bottle. Packaging and a market stall QR display
Massive growth towards the smartphone is crushing the very life out of your business.
In the very 5 seconds you think your business should get noticed, you are being dropped like a stone.
We are all on a busy road boxed in by big wagons, it’s uncomfortable and you cannot wait for the open road again, this is just like your website!
Look at the picture above, which car is yours?
Look again and you can see an alternative, an empty railway.
The Landscape for small business using the internet effectively is being driven down by blinkered thinking, yet simple value solutions are finally here, especially with online stationery.
Failing small business trapped in the slow lane
Dynamic QR
Ingenious in situ point and shoot solutions.
Loads in one second on the very device everybody carries.
Obvious isn’t it?
The challenge is that print companies simply do not understand the technology, it’s not their core skill.
And webmasters cannot implement the technology without the skills of a print and copy designer, it’s not their core skill.
Do you feel that you are missing out on the smartphone revolution?
Are you frustrated that you are not getting enough customers and don’t deliver a world class service?
Request a free demonstration and see for yourself how our services can engage your customers.
They’ll be able to learn about you, interact with your business and order products and services, whilst holding their smartphone – the single device that is always with them.
The vast majority of Maltix clients come to us in confusion and exasperation because their online stationery is, well, a constant disappointment.
Talk to an expert, click CHAT, leave a message we will get back to you.
It’s obviously going to get a lot lot worse, inflation is brutal and the cost of money puts us all at real risk.
What can you do? You haven’t the time for two jobs, you dont want to work unsocial hours and dealing with another boss is out of the question plus travel is far too expensive.
WFH
WFH
Working From Home is very tempting, you pay for your internet anyway, you have a phone and a PC, a quiet work space.
Connect that to a relentless stream of people coming to you for small print design jobs.
This gives you all the potential for small projects to become very big projects with exceptional revenue.
We dont think there is anything even remotely similar to this opportunity in the marketplace. If there is we would love to hear about it.
The time to invest in your future career happiness is now.
work from home
How about you invest in yourself for real change in a completely unique WFH business model with quite holistic aspirations!
An ongoing training and support platform sharing years of experience and knowledge:
Look at the Maltix Licence opportunity, choose you hours and your own leads.
Create a strategy that works for you and you family.
Estimated earning potential £5 to £50k, it depends on the effort you put into your leads and your application of the ongoing training you receive.
You work with a 100% open and transparent platform shared with other Licensees.
Interact securely with experienced Maltix production partners.
Use an optional APP based dedicated UK telephone number.
Use a professional Maltix email system and advanced CHAT platform for incoming leads.
A similar platform to manage your clients and Maltix production for your clients.
A Client management system that keeps you super organised and efficient.
Connected to a modern accounts package to keep you on track.
A world leading lead generation platform and a cutting edge Maltix EVENTS platform within Linkedin targeting specific areas of business.
Imagine small business and Jo public relentlessly asking you for help with their print needs but with a very very modern twist.
The majority of website business traffic is conducted on the phone, yet most websites are a complete disaster.
It’s got nothing to do with internet speed !
The average Millennial born after 1980 will drop your website like a stone if it doesn’t load in less that 2 seconds.
If your a bit nerdy, go Google “why is my website so slow on the smartphone”
The Millennial actively looks for QR and the New Progressive Web APP in combination.
Almost for sure your fancy website is a terrible disappointment, yet you keep paying out a fortune for your “web team” or put incredible effort into your own website that continues to under perform.
Use your own website as an example:
HERE IS ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED
Find out the speed of your website, prepare yourself to be really upset.
Mr Benn, a man wearing a black suit and bowler hat, leaves his house at 52 Festive Road, London, and visits a fancy-dress costume shop where he is invited by the moustachioed, fez-wearing shopkeeper to try on a particular outfit.
He leaves the shop through a magic door at the back of the changing room and enters a world appropriate to his costume, where he has an adventure.
The magic door is waiting for you and your business, the journey is only limited by your imagination.
A cartoon character of 50 years ago has a modern affinity with the QR code invented over 30 years ago.
The magic door is a Dynamic QR code and takes your business on a magical journey through print and media.
Talk to a trained Maltix partner today and take the first step into re imagining your marketing journey.
Hold Mr Benn’s hand because this holistic marketing journey is fun and perfect for your customers phone.
It’s not so much the tech its the Hoteliers mindset that needs rebooting.
The Hoteliers problem with old tech
In conversation with Will Nicholls MD Maltix partner programme.
Interviewer Jamie Townsend, Hotel press
Press release:
I sat in the lounge area of a famous Hotel on Malta, obviously too early for a reluctant conversation with somebody who replaced the Managing Director to talk to me last minute.
Nuts really, they organised a chat with me based on improving Hotel communications.
The laughable part about this was the youth I was “talking to” was a techie, he had a marvellous understanding of their website and all that jazz.
But when we spoke about connecting to the Hotel Guest phone, a glaze malaise spread across his face along with finger fidgets and a need to escape the conversation by any means.
He did continue to say that we are working on that.
How ? I enquired.
He smiled, ” We have put all out menus on the in room TV system”
Wow I exclaimed, how well is that going ?
Very well he replied.
I then asked how the guest ordered, he said “I really dont know, I guess they phone the front desk for room service”
Thank you for your time, I replied, I guess you are busy.
No he replied, Im off today, we are gaming today.
And I kid you not, in that very minute of departure, he placed an order for 6 breakfasts on the McDonald APP for delivery.
It was my turn to glaze over and hold my hands up in the air momentarily.
Here it is Mr Hotel Director, your guests trust their own phone.
So why doesn’t the Hotel use a food APP to deliver food to their guests?
After all, thats room service isn’t it?
Why on earth would you put food menus onto the telly, defaulting probably, that really ticks people off!
Then you expect them to pick up a telephone thats dates back to 1975 and place an order?
What world are you on, I thought to myself.
And yet the solution for this Hotel remains in the ether
It’s not so much the tech its the Hoteliers mindset that needs rebooting.
All part of life’s journey I guess, I’m sure my next appointment will be more fruitful.
With Brexit, Covid and now an escalating war, the bloated Hotel industry has to find new ways to cut variable costs balancing that with service whilst simultaneously improving the margins from their brave Guests who decide to travel.
They say “If you do what you always did, your going to get what you always got”
And because most Hotels rely on solid state communications, and are still using room telephone systems developed in the 1970s, that disservice to the modern traveller is their Achilles heal.
Thankfully, another very old, but dramatically improved technology is coming to the rescue by enabling the Guest smartphone during their Hotel room stay.
It’s great value to install for the Hotel, doesn’t require an expensive tech team to manage it and works in tandem with archaic COMM’s systems.
This is a symbiotic solution that has been staring Hoteliers in the face who have become way too reliant on the youth of internet only based systems.
A great way to double check if you understand this problem is to turn off your PC for a week and you just try to run your life on the Smartphone !
When the penny finally drops, you are now deeply imbedded in the world of the Millennial and Gen Z travelling generation.
So Mr and Mrs Hotelier, now you realise that your Guests do not carry a PC around with them, get your Smartphone out of your pocket and SCAN this DEMO Hotel room QR.
Imagine the landing page is on your own website alongside the digital and paper leaflets.
Under each leaflet there is an order button, when you order you are taken to a Smart Form Page.
This could be payment enabled, or it can simply alert your central CRM, Front Desk, Duty Manager, Kitchen or wherever you want the order request to go!
Dont be shy, your Guests wont be when they are hungry or thirsty, actually go ahead and make an order to watch the magic begin.
If you would like to actually see the demo working inside you own Hotel, send an email or two and the DEMO will do everything you ask for 24 hours.
Room service please
Thirsty to learn a bit more ? Click the image below
This is a Demo page, designed to be a Hotel website landing page or just a dedicated landing page for changes to the food and beverages offering through Hotel flyers connected to the “Room Service ” QR
The print design can be outsourced through Maltix on subscription or it can be kept in house.
Subscription QR and Smart Form pages can be changed within 24 hours for Hotel campaigns without the need to re create or even reprint the QR.
This is a serviced agreement, although in house tech teams can be trained to operate the system on our white label platforms.
Scan this QR and you will see it connects to a professional branded landing page.
When the Hotel guest places an order by clicking ROOM SERVICE this DEMO landing page appears.
From there on, any Flyer image that is clicked immediately connects to the Smart Form order page.
This way, the Guest only has to Scan the QR once to access the order page.
On submission the request goes immediately to the relevant departments for a Room call or Guest Smartphone call.
A reassurance email is automatically sent to the Guest.
This service can also be SMS enabled.
Internal Hotel contact information can also be sent at this point.
All client data is handled with full https:// security and the data can be automatically added to a Hotel CRM for future newsletter segmentation.
Hotel branding here
Welcome to the Grand Hotel :
Click on the images below to order.
Room service will confirm your requirements immediately.
Click to orderClick to orderClick to orderClick to orderClick to orderClick to order room drinks
Subscription QR is a paper based Tech solutionwith a focus on adopting QR in the Property market
Pick up your Smart phone ( People dont carry PC’s around with them !)
You can print this off and Scan with a Smartphone, hand it out to your colleagues, fax it !
You can also Scan off your PC , you can also use QR smart links, a bit like a short website link, but this is a Smartphone first document.
Created by Toyota in 1994, once the QR code is scanned it will then take you to a specific address.
It’s astonishing what a QR code can be connected to !
Tick the boxes and email to yourself
QR code uptake has increased exponentially with 70% of all Smartphone users expecting QR in their daily routine.
They know from experience that the QR code always leads to Smartphone friendly information.
The Smart QR industry specifically adopt smartphone friendly widgets and content.
For example, a smartphone enabled PDF, obvious isn’t it ?
Certain industries have embraced QR but the property industry remains way behind the curve and almost certainly vulnerable to early adopters.
Somehow the Estate Agent / Realtor industry harks back to the tradition of the appointment with an Agent and neglect the needs of the smartphone user.
Maybe there is an inherent lack of detail within the industry ?
Gone are the days where the detail can be discarded because the smartphone user has upended the sales cycle.
By the time your average Millennial make an appointment, their research is already done !
And woe betide the Agent / Realtor who fails in the detail on a property instruction or introduction, especially during the stress of a pandemic.
The other startling problem in the Property industry, is that there is usually a fundamental issue with the technology employed by Estate Agents and Realtors.
The typical technology would be infinitely more successful used in tandem with QR.
Millennials avoid websites like the plague, they are impossible to navigate at speed and load slowly in comparison to a PWA or QR code.
(The burger bar navigation on A Progressive Web APP is so simple on the smart phone )
The presumption that a database driven website, with glossy images created on a large PC connected to a high speed internet connection somehow works on the small Smartphone device with a satellite connection is a mistake.
It’s as if Agents and Realtors are held to ransom by their in house ‘tech experts’ who in turn have a deep self interest in staying on the payroll.
The future trends are all pointing in one direction andthats outsourced subscription cloud solutions.
Adopting QR in the Property Market.
1. How to Use A QR Code: always have a call to action.
2. Include The URL: Try to include the URL (web address) on the marketing material as not everybody will want to use the QR code e.g. if you are putting the code on a set of particulars then include the URL for the property on your website. This is so much easier using a QR URL like this https://archers-3bed/finchley
3. Help Test & Measure: With QR codes you can track how many people have scanned the code. Therefore allowing you to know how many people have scanned from a recent leaflet drop. This is how you test and measure marketing.
Campaign request Scan statistics
4. Where Should The Code Take The User To: Think twice about linking to your homepage.
Select a Subscription QR Company that provide a dedicated social media landing page or Property template for the individual property.
5. Size Matters: Only use high definition print QR codes that read within on second. Spend effort and thought on QR placement. Listen to the collective advice and best practice of an outsourced Expert.
6. Increase Website Traffic: QR code should face inwards and outwards on window displays, be at a scannable height and well illuminated with no sheen or plastic reflective covering. QR in the right position will be scanned day and night 24/7
7. QR Codes must link to Property Detail: ( Precise and standardised Property details )
This Property Detail template has the option of GEO locator. This example is switched ON.
Using outsourced Professional subscription QR and Agent or Realtor knows exactly where the QR was scanned.
3 bed rental detail template
This Template is great for Property of the Week open space large QR showcase
Scan for photo and video
8. Where Should Your Agency Use QR Codes: on all particulars, window cards, lists, leaflet drops, business cards & brochures, hoardings, vehicles and For sale boards as the main feature, Place Agent V Card QR in the property window if possible.
9. Every property in every sector within the Agent/ Realtors portfolio should have a professional VIDEO and the secret to this is to source a templated property Video APP
Momenzo Access for Agents / Realtors
10. Outsourced professionals monitor the the Code 24/7: They never assume the code always works and have automated procedures that flag any QR link problem
11. Why Subscription QR is so important. An outsourced cloud based service. Every QR within your subscription you own for the Subscription period.
Any QR code can be changed after print
Any QR can be redesigned with a different call to action or role at any time its all part of the 24 hour service.
Sell a property, no problem, we will change everything in readiness for the next property.
Spot a typo, it will be changed immediately.
12: Using QR to automate your clients requirements.
Allow clients to book viewings directly into your Agents calendars, connect particular Agents to particular properties.
Use you subscription QR for Smart V CARDS
Example V card
You have my attention, lets discuss with an Expert
Discovering trends through Industry research and development.
A Smartphone enabled document.
Independent and newswire publication update November 2021
Research and precis conducted by:
Fliplet.com
Maltix.co.uk
Research dissertation UWE Bristol Dr Phillipa Coles
Some discovery facts related to the Estate Agent / Realtor , and E-commerce industry UK, South Africa, US, Australia and NZ
The average Smartphone user spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone 7 days a week, equating to 50 days a year of their lives.
It’s easily the #1 place to go to visit the internet.
The average person picks up their phone 58 times a day or around 22,000 times a year!
70% of sessions on a Smartphone are less than 2 mins.
25% are between 2 and 10 mins.
5% are more than 10 mins.
The average Smartphone users’ download patience has reduced from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in the last 18 months.
The average website takes 10 to 23 seconds to load on a Smartphone.
The average APP has a load time of 2.75 seconds.
The average QR code download from click is 1 second.
Branding continuity continues to be regular problem between websites and APPs
Developers are still behind with industry brand guidelines advice.
In a major survey it transpires that Smartphone users are increasingly focused on APP options but particularly the immediacy of QR scan codes.
QR codes offer a “Right Here Right Now” approach
The Millenial and Gen Z generation continue the strong trend to avoid websites in preference to APP and QR.
Smartphone respondents repeat their preference for a Google like search experience within APPs.
With a minimum of 10% business growth projected every year.
Smartphone users actively look to turn on and turn off notification options for their preferred content engagement.
With a strong preference to search using the familiar “burger bar” APP navigation.
Advanced APP analytics confirm these trends with individual APP operators.
Smartphone users increasingly use APPs for their specific information research such as mortgage calculators or geo maps.
And a dramatic trend towards future notification requests.
All the reports highlight the severe shortcoming of websites to personalise targeted content to the Smartphone.
Smartphone users tend to avoid word documents, excel documents and PDF in their scrolling habits.
But via fixed position Smartphone QR codes, proprietors are now able to change the link or documentation associated with the QR call to action.
They are slightly more likely to engage with a live google document but prefer the instant update content within an APP or the point and get what they need immediately from a QR scan.
This QR trend is igniting a revolution and a reversal to print marketing techniques, particularly public spaces inside or outside.
The Smartphone user demands through QR are expanding, particularly video, appointment booking, discount vouchers, geo location and pay now functionality.
QR can connect directly to payment platforms such as PayPal or Stripe via Smart form pages and indirectly to e-commerce check out.
Dynamic QR continues to experience huge growth with a focus on touchless interaction but also specific information interaction.
Users still avoid downloading APPs onto their Smartphone desktop unless it’s a progressive web app or PWA which has up to 300 times less Smartphone memory depletion.
The “do and delete” App culture of Smartphone users is still very prevalent because of continued Smartphone memory issues.
The extrapolated information within the Estate Agency / Realtor and Retail sector.
“Connecting professionally to the Smartphone user for more Completions and more E-commerce sales”
The growth of instant gratification appears high on the Smartphone users agenda.
The route to instantaneous information has been calculated within QR scan reporting systems.
The “Call to Action” is increasingly getting more diverse and sophisticated, many bespoke to particular campaigns.
The pandemic drives contactless information more and more to QR codes for a myriad of instant solutions.
Reports prove that dynamic QR connected to instant updates is a more trusted conduit for Smartphone property information than websites.
Smart brochures and printed leaflets are seen increasingly as a trusted and rapid information point using smart QR, in part reversing the trend for paperless communications.
Although QR codes also have a live link capability for social media sharing.
QR scan reporting systems bear little relevance to high street opening times, suggesting highly visual QR uptake in multiple locations on a 24/7 basis
Including window dressing inside and out.
Vehicles, VCards, commercial hoardings, QR video alongside photos, for sale boards, bespoke brochures and leaflets.
Increasingly, high quality QR printed and framed for strategic alliances and affiliations gains momentum.
We hope you find this Medium.com and Newswire article of interest.
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In time and risk it’s exactly the same as not wearing a seatbelt
A subject request could come in at any time following the introduction of the GDPR and from any direction.
An employee could ask for a copy of all the personal data you hold on them – and remember this could include all images you have of them as well as documents and records.
A former customer could ask you to delete all personal data you have collected on them.
A supplier could ask you to correct the misspelling of their name.
Would you be able to confidently deal with and respond to the request within the 30 day period required by the GDPR?
A data breach can be as simple as emailing the wrong person, leaving a document on the train and losing a phone or more complex, like falling for a phishing email or being subject to hacking.
With only 72 hours to report a serious breach to the regulator, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), one person and one person only is in control.
All it takes is for one disgruntled former employee or customer or even a neighbour or competitor to raise questions about your compliance and complain to the regulator.
It doesn’t take five minutes for anyone to check whether you have a GDPR compliant privacy notice on your website or whether you have paid your data controller fee to the ICO.
But even if you have those outward facing steps in place, would your approach to GDPR compliance withstand a probe by the regulator?
Could your business survive the financial and reputational impacts of a data breach or compliance failure?
Maltix Partners have a simple proven solution and we are internally trained on implementing that.
The younger generation dont need to press the flesh and sit-down like the over 50’s generation.
Travel for business is in permanent freefall, and the 9 to 5 mentality a thing of the past.
Business Hotels are publicly stating a 40% downturn with no sign of recovery.
In fact major contributors to this topic expect zero recovery- EVER
Business Hotels and office rental space have a massive dilemma, one I’m not sure has an answer.
William Nicholls
My team has become a “mobile institution” because we do not travel at all
Sharing information and documentation has become so easy and the growth of CRM usage or business management systems like Slack is the new normal, in a way that seemed impossible just 2 years ago.
The consequences of zero travel
And information distribution to my team has become a “mobile institution” and I am observing emails being opened in the middle of the night, Slack comments early doors and documents being abandoned mid read.
On calls, I have asked key staff for there thoughts on a particular memorandum, knowing full well they hadn’t read the detail.
Volume of documentation is a real problem
The other more serious problem is the sheer volume of information share in the new mobile institution we work in.
And I’m not one for the detail of reporting systems, but its become increasingly obvious that key workers work on the move and that means they work on their Smartphone.
Mobile Docs and QR
And thats where the problems arise.
Merrily creating documents in PDF or word on my PC without understanding the importance of creating that document in a Smartphone format wasn’t easy to grasp.
I slowly realised my staff and partners weren’t abandoning the document at all, they simply couldn’t read it !
The documents were un-navigable, huge or tiny on the screen, lumpy, slow to download and not fit for purpose.
The other challenge is because of the nature of rapid change inside our systems a document can quickly become out of date or invalid.
The answer was intrinsically a paper based solution.
Discovering Google Drive was the first part of the internal document revolution
This means that the Document/ Spreadsheet is live and can be changed and updated just like a web page or an APP.
Anybody who has access to the document sees the latest version.
So even after the document is posted in Slack or sent out on email, any iterations made are immediate.
That was a revelation, but only part of the solution.
It’s a self fulfilling philosophy.
Because if the document essentially always stays the same then if it was attached to an editable QR (that always stays the same), its the perfect conduit for a Smartphone enabled document thats scannable from the Smartphone.
If you think about it, a Smart QR code landing page only works on a Smart device doesn’t it?
So a PDF has to be Smartphone friendly on a system like that.
It’s a self fulfilling philosophy
Deciding on the Master QR control panel was easy and guess what?
A small Print job.
I printed it in high quality format and posted it to my team ! remember the Post office ?
A set reminder on email and SMS to scan the 5 QR for the latest document updates.
Each QR has a call to action pertinent to our organisation.
I have a clutch of Smart QR connected to a clutch of landing pages that deliver the Smatrphone information in the right format.
Interestingly, each QR also has a live link, much like a website link for anybody who’s on a PC etc it appears as a normal document.
Our very first Smart Company brochure is on the table now, Im looking for contributors.
But I envision Smart subscription QR taking centre stage again.
Tam Duran Chamber of Commerce advisor in conversation with PJ Quigley MD Newlands.
Precis 18th September 2021
in conversation with PJ Quigley, we underestimated how many of our customers are looking for the trip out, spending money is consequential to the experience.
Listening to a face mask conversation at the check out I heard :
“We cannot take a holiday this year, but at least we can get out of the house and go to the countryside”
With E-commerce in our Garden Centre we missed a trick.
We are a group, we buy together, we share resources and we grow together, and the serious downturn in business we experienced was expected but still a shock.
The repercussions manifested in many ways, staff issues, plant care issues and procurement problems.
One area we knew was future proofed, was our ecommerce website and delivery service.
Future proofing our business was a considerable investment and consistent growth has justified that investment.
We really expected the online store to pick up some of the slack, with a few peaks and troughs, the traffic reports were encouraging but the actual sales didn’t even begin to compensate for poor physical visitor numbers.
The internet project.
in 2019, the decision was made to out source the project with experienced people who really made an effort to understand our business model.
We have a wonderful online store, well thought out, fast, full of engaging photos and information and associated cross selling ideas.
But underlining that project, we felt a strong mismatch with our physical offering and the internet offering, we just couldn’t put our finger on it.
We considered re routing staff to become personal shoppers, a walking tour of the Garden centre with direct purchasing on the website using our staffs own phones.
We trialled that, but the combination of the weather, a booking system that actually worked, client engagement and staff shortages made the project an abject failure.
Sometime the obvious isn’t so obvious
Once a month we have staff and management meetings, this Monday morning was particularly wet and quiet, we decided to meet in the restaurant area.
We had been toying with QR codes to order food, and we had been trialling it for table orders within our predominantly self service restaurant.
The girls told us it simply wasn’t working properly, orders couldn’t be actioned in a timely manner, the menus and the table QR codes didn’t work and they didn’t even come to their PC in the kitchen they went to the checkouts.
What had we missed? why was this such a problem when even the local pub seemed to have a system that worked ?
That very evening I went to Newlands Golf Club and spoke to the Manager there about their experience of QR.
He rolled his eyes and said they had abandoned the entire concept because the QR was always out of date and very often didn’t work at all.
Dispirited, I was browsing the shop store looking at golfing paraphernalia, and a sharply printed QR club was winking at me from a set of Golf clubs that cost nearly as much as my car!
I scanned it on my 4 year old Smartphone and a wee website appeared in the blink of an eye that exactly fitted my smartphone and then connected to a one minute video.
This video was crafted to show the benefits of their manufacturing process, and a professional golfer on the tee, 3 days ago at Championship Wentworth !
What really surprised me was that I could actually purchase these golf clubs immediately through Pay pal.
We were missing a trick, this was the opposite to the way our QR codes worked.
If this QR code was printed, how on earth was the Video so recent?
The answer was to source a professional Smart QR company who produced Smartphone enabled baby websites with optional video and ecommerce built in.
These baby websites are branded and have unique characteristics for all sorts of campaigns.
But more importantly subscribe to a subscription service that allowed us to change the information on the QR after it has been printed.
Much like our ecommerce website the hierarchy had already been thought through, we knew that bit, it wasn’t too difficult to think about permanent weather proofed QR for every section.
It actually wasn’t too difficult to roll the QR codes out to all our centres, if it worked at Newlands it would work exactly the same elsewhere.
Using the flexibility of the baby website templates allows ongoing campaigns with real time reporting.
Two very popular campaigns at the moment are feedback ( situated on the back of doors in the toilets ) Questions on food, sanitation, parking and Christmas.
The second on the restaurant tables €5 voucher for your point of view relates to ‘how can we improve our QR for you ?
What we hadn’t even begun to understand was the importance of QR connected to our customers smartphone on site!
We phased the project, but used different staff to the website, it was more administrative, so we actioned that with a reporting system so I could see progress.
What I didn’t know, was that the Company we use has a reporting system.
It tells us real time how many scans we are getting and from which department, interestingly it’s usually associated with new season product, for example now we are moving into winter bedding and the call to action for QR says ” Scan here for Deal of the Day”
We can change it whenever we need to, but its highly effective for driving promotional sales on site in a way the website simply does not.
We now have a QR in the restaurant that changes almost daily for specials and food deals depending on the weather forecast.
We are so excited by the progress we are making, we are considering joining the ecommerce store to the QR codes on site, add to virtual basket and add to real basket real time.
I will share in February with my next guest invitation
Our failure sent $ 12750 plus GST completely down the drain
Newswire article Baltimore Chamber of Commerce September 2021
Dan Monaghan Baltimore Port comms
Dan Monaghan talking to the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce in their first Breakfast meeting in nearly two years.
I wanted to share my experience about a safety campaign that was thrust upon me by the Port Authorities.
Quite a complex document was issued and the committee wanted a simple message to
“To nail to the wall”
If only I had thought deeper about my print campaign
I’m sharing a mistake I oversaw
We commissioned our normal print designer, worked hard on the message and printed a hundred branded posters in full color weather proof gloss.
It took nearly 2 weeks to get them all in place.
Stating the obvious
We completely forgot QR codes.
And when it was pointed out to me by a safety officer, my head sunk.
The really complicated information issued by the Port Authorities each has a video explainer, there in plain sight on the original document issued to the committee.
15 in fact.
What was missing in our calibration of the print job was our own dedicated QR that we can then link to any information we need to get out there in the future.
And with all the regular changes and rules etc we could actually simply update the QR code back office in the same way we update our website and intranet.
My message of the day guys, get you own dedicated and hosted Smart QR code, get it linked to a simple platform where everything else can be found and shared.
That way you future proof all your print campaigns and avoid unnecessary costs.
Stating the obvious wasn’t so obvious 6 months ago.
Dan Monaghan Baltimore Port comms Newswire September 2021
And why Estate Agents simply cannot keep up with he demands of the Smartphone user.
In the high-stakes world of home buying and selling, understanding the path to a purchase is both an art and a science.
Our analysis shows that the average home buyer requires 52 touchpoints, spanning from initial research to contact with an Estate Agent to actual purchase.
What were our top findings? There’s an average of 52 touchpoints from first inquiry (like a smart form submission, chat room query ) to completion.
The Metrics.
If one sales agent sells two homes per month, that’s 24 buyers per year x 52 touch points = 1,248 touch points a sales person has to manage in a year.
And that doesn’t include all of the other inquiries and contracts that cancel.
Average time from first inquiry to close was six months for primary residence and 15 months for secondary homes.
80% of Clients submit a smart form to start their enquiries, mostly off their Smartphone.
Drip email and newsletter campaigns can increase traffic by as much as 5%
But our research suggests a Progressive Web APP with no download required will increase enquiry traffic by as much as 20% using a combination of free notifications and SMS
Over 50 touchpoints in most completions.
How did you determine the amount of touchpoints in a single home buying transaction?
Progressive Web APP notification advocacy Online and QR based smart form submission Email, CHAT and TEXT QR based appointment booking Bespoke Smart Brochure interaction EXAMPLE Video interaction via Smart brochure and window QR
How can Estate Agents make the most of each touch point? Speed is critical.
The probability of reaching an online lead goes down the longer you wait with a follow-up email, call or chat reply.
The Millennials insist on absolute immediacy on their Smartphone and the killer is that whatever platform they touched, they expect you to have a record!
Your Smart Brochure, Smart form pages, Company email, telephone calls and texts, QR links, Chat room, and Progressive Web APP have to be joined into teams within a CRM
The rule for the Smartphone user now is a maximum of 10 minutes on any medium, or they drop you like a stone.
Get it right and Smartphone advocacy on social media goes through the roof.
Within the first 10 minutes of inquiry — 98% chance of reaching them
Contact 4 hours later — 95% chance of reaching them
Contact 8 hours later — 92% chance of reaching them
Contact 12 hours later –80% chance of reaching them
Contact 24 hours later — 60% chance of reaching them
Contact 48 hours later — 5% chance of reaching them
This is why it’s critical that sales people get immediate notifications about hot leads and that follow up is relevant and automated.
Depending on the stage of where the buyer is in the purchase cycle, personalisation is important.
I decided to start writing a lot more about my life, my job and my office.
I’m a 32 year old medical secretary from Long beach New York, originally from London England, married to a baker and our household is awake at 4 am every morning!
I finish at 5 pm, so quite a long day, but my husband is home by 2 pm.
Our time apart is a good time for me to write, so here goes
Becoming a medical administrative assistant was a challenging position with significant responsibilities, but my degree leant itself to this kind of job and the salary is excellent.
Although my job isn’t medical or overly patient-facing it doesn’t mean it isn’t one that requires a significant amount of dedication!
The responsibilities of being a medical administrator are rewarded with above average pay, and there is a reason for that!
I have identified some touchpoints I would like to share and I wonder how many other people have similar problems in their office environment ?
Dealing With Difficult Personalities
Communicating with patients very often means dealing with scared, confused, and angry people and the Consultants and doctors themselves can be very demanding in their own right!
A Heavy Workload because of a lack of joined up thinking !
Running a healthcare facility comes with a lot of paperwork and there is my gripe, thats the nub, that’s the rub, this is my complaint.
In a world of wireless internet and smartphones, I fail to understand why its all so complex and why the Printer still seems to be the shrine.
It’s like the kitchen space in a house where everybody congregates next to the coffee machine.
I have inherited a mish mash of paper written doctors notes, a central management system that was commissioned in 2004, files galore and paper doesn’t talk to computers !
It’s not joined up and feels cobbled together rather than strategically compiled.
Why is this a problem when ostensibly, we allegedly have a paperless office.
There seems to be a trust problem, as if “if its not written down it might be lost” culture
The paperwork is an important part of my job to keep the gears turning behind the scenes, enabling everyone else to do their job professionally.
But my day is impeded by file chasing and haulage !
Dealing With a Lack of Physical Activity
As with most clerical roles, working medical administrative assistant is mostly a desk job.
While there is nothing wrong with working at a desk, most of us do it, being entirely desk-bound can have a negative effect on your health.
If you’re proactive enough to fit in the right kind of exercise to stave off the problems associated with office work, thats ok, I run almost every day, the park is beautiful, that bit I have overcome.
I am the Go-To Problem Solver
A constant never ending stream of requests and telephone calls with zero automation !
Clients cannot book into a central diary and the booking system still relies heavily on incoming telephone, very often into a disorganised Consultants diary shared with a private diary, its a constant problem with return calls and new arrangements .
With all this Covid kerfuffle I noticed such reliance on QR codes.
Quite clever I thought, so if its good enough for Government Departments its good enough for my office.
And here we are.
I identified about 10 areas I could implement QR codes, independently of the office metrics, and it has worked !
It has worked because my workload is much more manageable.
Here is what I achieved:
On my desk and around the clinic
A Brochure with QR linking to a dedicated booking email.
QR on the wall head height and large for:
Parking ticket redemption
Clinic map
Covid rules
Toilets
WiFi
Emergency ( on brochure as well )
Map geo code
Opening times
Staff
Payment ( links to website)
Clerical ( 10 codes )
Advisory ( 20 codes linked to you tube mainly )
Thank you for listening, maybe we will eventually go paperless, but for now using paper to connect to the Smartphone has been an outstanding success for managing my time !
£421 billion ( Yep, you got it , thats £421,000,000,000 ) plan to tax rising house prices to pay for the Coronavirus crisis
The first of October an Estate Agents problem ?
Seriously though, apart from the customer paying a hefty tax on an asset that may well go down in price over the next few years.
Do you see this as a problem with Government taxation?
Or is mortgage amortisation going to flatten things out and remove the issue?
Talking to Agents in more than one country helps a lot.
Continents rather than just Countries !
Lots of different problems and worries, but one common denominator
Distributing snippets of quality information on a regular basis is going to be very important for building trust and future sales.
And the ability to communicate on all sorts of platforms but retain the touch points of the eventual sale is becoming critical in this disparate world.
I guess you are sending newsletters and publishing on the website etc
But is that going to be enough in the new digital high street ?
The preferred communication channels for the smartphone generation are changing at lighting speed.
And your website probably doesn’t get a look in
It’s a much broader brushstroke than that to future proof communications in the world of property sales.
We get the problem, we understand and the statistics compound that.
68% increase of mobile traffic.
15-fold improvement of load and installation.
25-times reduced use of device storage.
52% average conversion increase.
78% average session increase.
137% engagement increase.
But taking the right action from a Property market Directors or owners perspective requires a bit of joined up thinking.
And its not particularly expensive, its more organisational but with the right tools.
And thats a huge problem for management that’s generally too young to make good judgment on future proofing their business.
Consumers aged 20 to 45 The Millennials.
New rules:
“They trust advocacy on social media, explore their wants on a website, but buy and engage on an APP”
And thats the problem, most Estate Agents think that using the website and the telephone is satisfying their customers needs ……………….it cannot !
Executives must shift their approach to ” identifying high-value cross-touchpoint tasks – and then design those touchpoints to support those tasks…”
“Brands must focus on optimising the journey, not each individual touchpoints”
Think A to Z business, think APP in APP solutions.
All the touchpoints related to the detail, e. g, financial documents, bank statements, mortgage quotes and their decision should be chronologically incremental.
And evenly spaced in the time frame.
Say 10 weeks to sale, then 10 bitesize increments is good.
Perfect for the logic of Progressive Web APP.
Perfect for the two way communication methodology of a Progressive Web APP.
The Millennial is heavily into the one stop smartphone shop.
In both vehicle lending and mortgage lending, the moments of opportunity occur much earlier in the process than they used to.
By the time the savvy Millennial are in contact with an Estate Agent they are much closer to fulfilment than most Agents realise.
It can be said, that the Estate Agents role is completely changing and the variable costs of the traditional model are changing obsequiously and inexplicably.
Changing enough to affect Fixed cost models as well!
“Every loan purchase is a journey for the borrower”
It’s critical to map that journey and understand when the moments of opportunity occur.
Then your financial institution can open timely dialogue about product choices.
Understand you percentages:
Over 80% of the completion journey focuses on the geographical area to purchase and physically looking at the property.
The Millennials put huge trust on quality videos, they have a brilliant skill set of spatial awareness, absent in the pre Smartphone generation.
A property without a top quality video is tantamount to neglect as far as the Smartphone generation are concerned.
Meeting with an estate agent is easily abandoned when they have access to video.
And the preferred method is looking up that pro-video via QR code
The clues of A to Z needs of the Millennial are already obvious, they already and painfully have a disjointed 65% internet journey with plenty of reasons to abandon the process.
Ask your team to conduct all their business on a Smartphone for a month, ban big screens and PC’s
Then you will begin to see the problems you are presiding over inside your business.
But it’s the Digital diet Obesity obsession that doesn’thave a word to describe it, thats the most illuminating.
This Digital Diet eats up your time and engulfs your waistline for a truly “Well upholstered ” small business nightmare.
The Diet to avoid here is the Business Website.
A thankless never ending task of updates and inclusions and a thousand ways to waist ( pun) countless hours of your life without any real sign of a return on time investment.
And thats just half of the pain.
Arguably the bigger waist ( sorry ) of time and effort with zero reward is marketing the website.
A futile pointless demeaning and fantastically complicated Digital Diet to avoid.
So how can a small business lose the weight FAST !
My digital diet is making me fat
An over weight business can carry many words.
Not a Diet FAD
Change your mindset in 24 hours.
Adopt the Smartphone professionally and leave the PC behind !
The Millennials have !
Get off the Digital Diet, leave time for more pleasurable exercise.
Deborah Grant Communication advisor and business development coach in conversation with Will Nicholls.
Modern business is all consuming, and the journey is just like walking, we tend to navigate our business looking down at our feet.
A natural human response in any situation is avoiding obstacles and not tripping up !
Deborah asks some really important questions, especially on her one on one coaching workshops.
She asked me for my vision for my business and I looked up to see the story ahead.
STOP she says, hold that, what else do you see ?
Then silence, that went on for ages.
Deborah asked me to look up even higher so it cranked my neck.
Now do you see she enquired ?
Yes I said, I’m in the clouds looking down, surveying my business.
Do you see things differently now she enquired ?
Business people forget to look up.
It could be costing your future.
The majority of small business people are too busy working in their business to work on their business.
This is especially true in times of pain and stressful workload, and I guess most small business has been through hell and back in the last 2 years.
And in the industry of business tech, past investments are so redundant it’s time to drop them.
Drop them like the burden of carrying heavy water.
Lighting change for small business.
Look up you guys, do this today!
Deborah says take a short high energy walk.
Stand outside and crank your head as far back as comfortable, as your eyes join the clouds in the sky, then look down at your feet and then straight ahead.
The tunnel vision of business ownership will open up like night and day, its like opening the huge doors of a barn to let the sunlight illuminate your future.
The journey you have been on for a very long time is akin to carrying water through the desert.
It’s very heavy its extremely hot, its debilitating.
But looking up you will see an aquafer or a viaduct and your river of change that allows you to stop carrying that heavy water and begin looking straight ahead with clarity and purpose.
Deborah whispers to me.
The water is already on your journey, put trust in that.
Why the Millennials would never buy a contract like this today.
Tam Duran trend adviser and coach on the new digital high street.
Tam Duran ( a towering influence on digital migration for small business )
Maybe I’m an opportunist, perhaps it was luck.
My visions and dreams manifested in just one day.
I was back packing in south Africa 20 years ago and stayed at a timeshare reserve in Kruger park, on a cheap travel deal.
The restaurant was awful and the beer limited, but nonetheless, after a gruelling 18 holes on the golf course I was ready to drink and sleep.
I wasn’t playing, I was picking up stray balls for a pittance.
The guy I was working with that day came from the township, he told me he was so poor they couldn’t afford the mortar between the blocks in his house.
I though he was joking, but one day I saw him carrying bags of carrots from the mall to peoples cars for one rand ( 50 c in those days )
When I visited a couple of days later, I had to step over the electrical cables in the mud that supplied their intermittent electricity.
But he was sharp, he listened and he listened and smiled a lot.
He shared with me that the South Efrican Eccent people with the beards were unhappy with their timeshare at the park.
He said it was a secret, and I had to listen, so I did.
After a whole day of banter, it emerged that the timeshare contracts that the wealthy folk from Johannesburg had signed up to were onerous.
He had taken a crumpled contract from a bin after a heated and angry debate from the sales office which was next to the clubhouse.
Truthfully, he couldn’t read it, but he knew the big guy on the golf course that day was super angry, and he was a lawyer !
I listened and I read, I read it so many times, oh my word.
But buried in the contract was an interminable termination date, in fact it was in perpetuity, which means no end date. I had to look that up!
In addition, on a page un associated with the the contract page, the owners of the park can legitimately add 6% every year to the ‘maintenance charges’ of the property.
At school, I learned about compound interest, my master, Mr Harding, kept on and on about the importance of the rules of compound interest.
It just pieced together in my mind, this contract was designed to collect compound interest forever !
That’s why the Lawyer guy was ready to commit murder, he hadn’t read the contract but instead became obsessed with the dream property on the Golf course.
After extensive negotiations with the Developer, I explained that the value of contracts was in the change of the contract.
It took 3 years to talk to nearly every contract owner, usually in the bar area on the complex.
We charged more than the original value contract, by and large , the additional benefits in the contract outweighed the extra investment.
How I sold £5 million worth of new contracts in a bar !
In conversation with the “wired magazine” Tam Duran talked ‘off piste ‘ about the savviness of the Millennial generation using the smartphone as their life tool.
He has identified a massive shift into the trust of strangers on social media.
He claims that it would be infinitely more difficult to sell a contract like this in the first place.
The first sniff of an problem would be shared and re-shared, or as Tam highlights, made more searchable and more searchable.
Why business has to be developed on the technology that the millennial yearns.
Tam Duran spoke of generational digital divide and the consequences that invoke digital inequality.
Put another way, the Millennial’s have developed an in-built ability to rapidly close any knowledge gap.
They are comfortably self sufficient leading their lives on the internet.
Millennials actively dismiss tech platforms in less than a second.
And they actively and rapidly dismiss tech platforms that fail to deliver their considerable needs in a blink of an eye.
The vast majority of Websites are included in that dismissal.
The DO and DELETE culture of APP usage with the Millennial
The Millennial crave for the simplicity and responsiveness of an APP
An not just any APP, they hate downloading APP’s that impinge on their precious Smartphone memory.
They also search and work on the APP that can be shared on their social media.
And they know that if its an APP from the APP store they probably cannot do that.
It feels like a fabulous opportunity for small business with vision because the production and hosting costs of this new technology are so dramatically lowered.
Gen-z-
And before too long the GEN Z generation spending power will impact the digital high street in many shattering ways.
Look out business people, adopt or die.
Tam Duran trend adviser and coach in the new digital high street
Tam Duran a Maltix board member and support partner.
Deliveroo deliver on the short comings of Hotel Directorships !
Where hotels are going wrong in implementing technology
Kevin Edwards, business development director at Alliants says properties should better use the tech available by Kevin Edwards Reprint on newswire July 18, 2021
The Middle East has become the primary destination for obtainable luxury when it comes to the hotel sector globally.
The continuous development of hotels continues to drive the bar higher in terms of facilities, amenities, and technology.
However, with the pandemic hitting, the expected impact on top-line spending isn’t necessarily keeping pace.
When we look at the demographic and segment changes in hotel occupants over the last two years, have the hotel operators hit the mark when it comes to savvy technology investment to drive revenue?
For the 12 months prior to Covid, hoteliers had a sharp focus on key technology areas such as revenue management, and with Expo 2020 it made sense.
How can you optimise your inventory for the period of the event? Room nights, meetings, and events were the core revenue generators.
The guest drivers changed overnight and people wanted home comforts.
In-room TV streaming, room service ordering online, electronic keys, and contactless check-in and out.
And if they couldn’t get it from the property they would do one of two things:
Stay elsewhere
Use third parties to facilitate their needs
The first option became a clear opportunity as rates plummeted and with them access to properties with little demand and low occupancy.
The second option is a more complicated issue best explained by a recent real-life stay.
How hotels are failing to use technology
I arrived in typically efficient Middle Eastern style through the airport to a five-star business hotel with 800 rooms split between residences and hotel rooms.
I approached the front desk where service was diligent and warm as they checked me in and cut two keys.
Upon arriving at my room I noted that it had been cleaned to the brand new Covid cleaning standards, but there was no mention at the front desk of the mobile key that could have enabled me to ditch the plastic cards.
Having worked closely with this hotel, I am aware that the owner has invested significantly in mobile key technology (circa US$1m+) but there was no communication before my stay alerting me of the ability to utilise this innovation.
Nor was it mentioned on arrival. The experience wasn’t bad, it just missed the chance to be something better.
As I am now stuck in my room for 24 hours while I await my PCR test result, I am further disappointed by the fact that whilst there is a QR code to get to room service it is just a menu which means I have to pick up the telephone to place an order and hope that I can accurately convey what I require.
Alternatively, I could just follow what everyone else seems to be doing and order from Talabat or Deliveroo and do it all on my device.
Food ordered, work completed for the day, time to catch up on another box set on Netflix… Or not as I cannot stream a thing so it looks like I’m going to have to concentrate on that five-inch screen a little longer.
Technology is here to stay
Putting this all in perspective, Covid has probably simplified the guest journey.
However, it has now enabled a significant revenue opportunity in ancillary spend which many are missing out on due to technology adoption.
In my opinion, the operators have focussed on the whizzbang of technology rather than focus on the business case.
Meanwhile, the Talabat and Deliveroo drivers mount up in the hotel reception giving the hotel guests more triggers to order from them.
The bill for unaffordable business methodology is overdue.
Mary-Ann-Dougherty Maltix Partner.
Think this through for a minute, and yes Im shouting at you.
As prices continue to fall the value of your money goes up….. correct ?
Technology is incredibly disruptive and causing deflation.
Technology that used to cost millions to build can now be rented for pennies.
App share technology
The smart phone is literally replacing the high street.
Since Covid, technology is doubly accelerating this trend.
The value of our money is going up because prices are going down…… now do your agree?
Government panic is accelerating the reaction to the point that money printing is at the point of by passing banks all together because banks are failing to lend.
Call it furlough, call it helicopter money, our Chancellors are not sleeping properly.
And in a deflationary cycle, obsequious debt deflation inhibits and prohibits the ability to pay off historical debt. It’s literally impossible.
Most people do not understand the difference between a million and a trillion, its time you looked at the 12 zeros in a trillion.
The bill for unaffordable business methodology is overdue.
Two party politics has produced an unprecedented dichotomy for the electorate. Do we vote for socialism for the rich or socialism for the poor?
Both political divides sit on a system that historically relies on inflation to pay off historical debt.
Covid is forcing us into a scarcity mindset, the abundance mindset is long gone.
The Age of Cheap is Over
But stocks and property are our salvation right ?
Without 220 Trillion of printed money being printed what would the value of your UK property actually be?
Would your stocks actually have increased?
Inflation matches our picture memory.
The notion of deflation goes against our education.
It also flies in the face of everything in our fiscal life, even if we are 90 years of age.
The bill for unaffordable business methodology is overdue.
Questioning the economic picture from the inside is impossible.
It’s like trying to invent a new colour..
Government is preventing a free trade fiscal economy
The clues are all around.
Cash is out of favour.
PROOF: They even stop you on your travels if you carry too much !
Are you a business owner?
The opportunity for business to adapt quickly is only hindered by FEAR.
The tools to adapt to the new digital high street, to conduct A to Z business , remove Fixed costs and survive are in the palm of your hand.
You just have to grasp it before the wind blows it away.
I cannot shout any louder, talk to a partner today.
For 10 years I worked for a very famous long established Florist in West London.
I became an all rounder, administration is really important, but it also gave me access to business information that I just accepted was the cost of doing business.
That was until I decided to set up my own business !
We had our own London based website, but the vast majority of orders came from a very well known third party order company.
Their annual costs and commission cost were quite frankly eye watering.
After being layed off during Covid, I decided to open my own Florist shop near my parents home in Telford, Shropshire.
There is a lot to consider setting up a new small business, the physicality’s were exhausting.
And further down the list of things to do, I became perplexed about the cost of an internet presence without using a third party ordering company.
Weighing up the advantages I had almost made the decision to sign up.
It seems to me that a website is too big for a fancy phone these days.
I was swayed by so many “truths” out there.
For example “fewer than 1% of Google searchers get as far as the 2nd page” and “25% of people click on the first result “
But it was my Dad who made a basic suggestion over his birthday Sunday lunch.
I had ordered a birthday card from an APP called Thortful the day before, it all began to click into place.
Dad said “it seems to me that a website is too big for a fancy phone these days “
My lightbulb moment had arrived, what if I bought an APP ?
And just when I thought I had embarked on a journey I could afford, all was smashed when the first 3 quotes came in from random APP development companies.
But there was a video I came across on you tube that changed everything.
It explained that I didn’t need to use the Apple store, there is a new type of APP, cheap to produce and host.
Perfect for small business.
It appeared as a website on a PC and an APP on a smartphone !
I wanted to use local social media effectively and go contactless as much as possible.
I also wanted to offer personal touches using QR codes on the bouquet such as music, personal messages, promotions.
Its endless and I feel confident customers who do business with me on their smartphone will spread the word.
Just like Thortful, I can now use SMS promotions, send out notifications, set up subscriptions, take payments, all the stuff I wanted to achieve but didn’t know how.
A Medium Daily Digest article published on newswire 19 07 2021
Valuable insight is still a top way to reach and connect with customers, partners, and other industry influencers.
Will Temple works in many sectors, but recently the problems inside the Property market industry are much more focused on the needs and expectations of the Smartphone user.
Thought leader
A Thought Leader is an individual or firm ascribed the quality of ‘Thought leadership’.
Thought leadership is influencing a narrative by understanding what needs to be done
Real Advice to Share
No one rises to the top without a few war stories and major lessons learned.
In this age of mentorship and yearn for professional development, people want to be able to understand how you got there and what you learned along the way.
There are no shortcuts, but writing gives you the opportunity to spread your message to a larger audience.
Driven to Help Your Audience Solve Real Problems
A common misconception of thought leadership is that it’s a soapbox and an ego boost for one person.
And while one’s expertise and wisdom is incredibly valuable, the rules of engagement are changing at tremendous speed.
Learning More From Your Peers and Pioneers
The best leaders admit when they don’t know everything, and the growing challenge is making decisions on future proofing,
It’s not down to the techie in the office anymore, its a much broader brushstroke.
Interviews with others in your industry—learning their founder story, mistakes they’ve made along the way, and the best advice they’ve received—is interesting and inspiring.
Although eventual solutions for our clients may well be complex, that is an irrelevance with the majority of my clients.
Reaching out on a telephone call is usual, movers and shakers have no time for phaff, they have problems on their mind that need to be solved, putting trust in the solution comes from putting their trust in me.
The questions I ask come from hard earned industry knowledge, they focus on identifying the problems and resolving the issue.
The majority of my calls result in decisions being made on the day, it like a weight is lifted off my clients shoulders.
In 1988, the Louvre Pyramid was completed in Paris, adding 95 tonnes of steel and 105 tonnes of aluminium, stacked 70 feet in the air, to the grounds of the Louvre Museum.
At the time, people hated it, saying its modern, tech-filled and stripped back design had no place on the grounds of a 200-year old palace.
Now, however, the Louvre Pyramid has become an iconic sight and a physical representation of Paris’ past and future coming together.
Why are we telling you all this? Well, the hospitality industry is at a similar juncture right now.
A traditionally analogue industry, hospitality has gradually introduced more and more technology. Some say it enriches the human side of things and others fear the personal touch will be lost.
As anyone who has stayed in a well thought-out hotel will tell you, it’s about far more than just somewhere to stay for the night.
A visit to a hotel should be an experience from start to finish.
From the doorman tipping his hat to guests as they swing open the grand doors, to the shimmer of the mahogany desk as people check-in, or the appealing clunk of the door as a room key registers.
These are little details which by themselves may go unnoticed, but once combined, create something beyond the sum of its parts.
What would a hotel be then if that doorman was replaced by motion sensor system;
If the check-in process was done in advance via an APP, and if the room door swung open after recognising the guest’s face as they approached it?
A personal touch
The equilibrium of maintaining the personal touch but using technology for convenience, efficiency and, most importantly in 2021, health and safety, is something Marko Zirdum, general manager at Bishop Design by Paul Bishop, has been thinking about.
The design firm is one of the most forward-thinking in the region and has worked on some of the most striking hospitality projects in recent times, including SLS Dubai in Business Bay.
SLS Dubai by Bishop Design
Zirdum says: “Hotels are aspiring to find that perfect balance across both guest-facing and operational technology.
“For instance, there is a need to operate with fewer people and this comes at a cost of personal interface.
From an operations point of view, this reduction in staff is certainly more evident in light of the pandemic.
Personal interface is lost as we transgress into the future, especially when referencing such notions as moving away from traditional check-in experiences.
However, this certainly wasn’t caused by the pandemic, rather just a result of natural advancements.”
Bruno Pessoa, director of design and technology services MEA at Minor Hotels, has a different outlook.
He believes hotel technology can only increase a property’s personal touch.
Human interaction
Where does all of this leave the traditional, human concierge? Cleatus George, chief concierge at W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island isn’t worried about being replaced by robots.
He says: “A concierge is important.
You are an advisor, a counsellor and a guest’s best friend.
You are the one-stop person when a guest needs help.
The most important thing is that the guest puts their faith in you.
Even more now, when technology has made information available at one’s fingertips, the tourist is overwhelmed with the amount of data online, opinions and options.
“Human beings seek personal recommendations based on subjectivity and emotion. Concierges are the ones to provide it.
We use knowledge, as well as our own experience to show our expertise to the guest while adding a personal touch.
“While it is a great tool for the concierge, technology will never be able to replace personal service and emotional bonds.
I always like to think that a service professional should go on a partial emotional journey with the guest, just enough so that the guest feels empathy but not so far as to be intrusive.”
Cleatus George
Guests are the priority
For Accor, the role of technology of hotels is two-fold:
To maximise comfort for the guest and to smooth operations. Tariq Valani, senior VP IT, India, MEA and Turkey, says: “From a design perspective, guest-facing technology is the new priority on their Smartphone.
Per Hotel its very good value and runs independently in the cloud
This meant that offerings such as WiFi, interactive television, guest room telephones and other solutions were always given importance over the rest.
Following the pandemic, there has been a shift to ensure that solutions put in place make our guests feel safe and have an “at home” experience.
“While we move through this pandemic, it has been clear that the guest’s voice and needs have played a much bigger part in driving the technology strategy.
Where guests were not interested to use certain technologies in the past, this has changed dramatically.
“We are seeing a rise in comfort levels when it comes to online payments, using APPs for various purposes like opening door locks, switching on lights, opening curtains and scanning of new generation QR codes to access services in their room and in open spaces.”
Room QR on beautiful wall signage can directly connect to staff departments within the Hotel and the Hotel CRM
QR can also connect to pay here enabled smart form pages
This is revolutionary for pay for use or purchases facilities within the Hotel or future promotions.
Interestingly, the professional QR code system we adopted allows us to change the destination of the QR code without reprinting.
More importantly, new Generation APPs, dont have to be downloaded from the APP store and are super light on customers smart phone memory.
We are building a database for future APP notifications and direct SMS for valued clients.
Tariq Valani
Changing spaces
How will people interact with the physical hotel space in the future? With automation being rolled out as quickly as possible in some new properties, designer Justin Wells, founder of Wells International, fears hospitality could be losing its tactile nature.
He says: “The philosophy of my business is around the theatrics and pageantry of hospitality.
I consider the way spaces perform, their illumination, the movement and change of shapes under the guise of theatrics.
And this is a trend being picked up by the global operators within the lifestyle brands.”
Justin Wells
Having led designs for the striking W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island in a previous role, his approach to design is self-evident.
He adds: “Humans are very haptic, we love the feel and touch of things.
We can see luxury by its plushness and its detail, and at times, you really just want to feel it. In a world where everything is hard and easy to clean, visually it feels like a lessened experience.
I fear that diminishes the experience of the guest.”
Garage at W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island
Hotels’ hesitance
When it comes to owners and operators actually installing new pieces of technology, Wells says their is far too much resistance at the moment.
He explains: “You look at it through two different pairs of eyes. One pair is the owner/operators, and the other is designers.
For the owners and operators, technology is a cost and investment.
“We’re not at the beginning of the pandemic but we’re certainly not at the end”
Since we’re in the middle, owners and operators are really questioning what is needed.
If an operator has 10,000 hotels and then has to tell each owner to invest in certain technologies, the magnitude of that investment is so much.
It’s a difficult conversion to have, so economically, hotels are being cautious with what they implement. Therefore, we’re only seeing what’s purposeful rather than what’s flashy.
Some people want to take a leap, but others are watching things unfold.”
Awakening the senses
Diane Thorsen, design director at Gensler thinks that while touchless technology will mean the tactile experience decreases, it doesn’t mean guests can’t be immersed into experiences.
Diane Thorsen
She says: “We experience spaces using all of our senses. All of them are really key, touch is only one of five.
“That being said, Gensler was recently challenged to design something that used sight and sound instead.
Typically hospitality designers focus on the tactile aspect, but we thought we could create a space where you could hear birds singing, smell bespoke room fragrances, and create your own experiences with taste, even.
“The sounds are artificial, but the way we captured those sounds in nature was natural and the audio has been beautifully done. It’s about innovation.”
Thorsen believes hotel design is going back to its basics.
She adds: “We’ve crafted a new niche whereby we can tell our owners we can create experiences that activate senses in an experiential way.
Sure spaces are becoming simpler, but in its place, spaces have been going back to their roots, and that’s beautiful
It’s a well known fact that Company Directors skills are visionary and conceptual, with a notorious blind spot when it comes to too much detail, especially technology.
An article in conversation with Maltix Consultancy Partners who specialise in digital transformation.
And thats reinforced more and more by a junior asking for clearance on tech projects which the Director has absolutely no idea what it’s for.
It’s as if other departments do their thinking for them.
“I have people who do that, go talk to Nigel he does that”
With an open mind, Directors are fully equipped to force downward change, but feel that they lack the ability or the knowledge to talk “savvy tech”
Worse still they assume that technology marketing is automated in all their processes.
It can be, and there is a whole new emerging technology connected to payment systems, especially subscription based business models.
They readily sign off the expenditure for SEO and Google this that and the other but neglect the knowledge and experience from their past.
Companies with savvy boards easily outperform their competition.
Marketing is not the Horse, marketing is the cart.
Marketing people have nice comfortable salaries to protect, they see their job as complex and safe, and that might be true.
But if the Marketing people do not fully understand that the sales cycle is connected to the marketing model, then it’s a Company Directors job to rap the knuckles and ask some serious questions.
It’s too easy isn’t it?
Pay out a bunch of cash and people miraculously come to your website from Google.
But the metrics and KPI’s are a bewildering moving target and the Company Director can find it nearly impossible to evaluate what the marketing budget is actually achieving.
A Company Directors cart before the horse
It’s time to focus on the horse.
Prioritising the focus back onto the horse has a profound affect with the smartphone generation.
The Millennial’s and increasingly the Gen Z Smartphone generation have up-ended the sales cycle.
WHY WHY WHY 3 words that end in Y
They require immediacy and APP simplicity and the reward is advocacy
Marc Lambert online shoe and sportswear retailer Newswire July 06 2021
I inherited a business through my mother in law, a retail shop with 22 staff and a consistent $900,000 turnover
The business had lost profitability year on year for 7 years straight.
I could see the symptoms but didn’t understand the cause.
I very nearly spurned the opportunity all together, the hours were crazy and the back office systems chaotic.
The business was just about breaking even on a very modest Directors salary.
I had actually inherited a gobble monster inside a vicious spiral of upward costs.
By chance I came across some videos on you tube under “Break even analysis “
A light bulb went off in my head, my garden was full of weeds and the pruning was going to be brutal, I needed help and fast.
My first port of call was The Maryland Chamber of Commerce in Annapolis.
I met a highly regarded Consultant in the harbor, where we sat and talked for 2 hours.
The culmination of thought had one simple answer, we had to digitise as much as possible, as soon as possible.
We had to reduce the moving parts of the business, generate more business and lower variable costs.
That was phase one and we completed that in 6 months.
What happened in reality was floor to ceiling change, so much in fact, the main shop front asset was sold and fixed costs almost completely removed.
One month in tech is like a year.
It felt like I was destroying 27 years of business knowledge.
In fact the telephone system which cost $16,000 in 2011 was the first casualty.
APP based telephony was key when Covid broke, we needed our home workers to act on order deliveries and I had to manage that through a CRM and billing platform connected to their own smartphones.
The e-commerce part of the site we kept, we removed the website and replaced it with an APP.
These decisions fundamentally changed us from being a bricks and mortar retailer to a full online retailer selling and distributing to our target sportswear audience.
My staff were amazing and turned garages and workshops into storage and distribution.
We now operate with 7 staff, all on higher salaries. Our turnover is rapidly climbing and we hope to overtake the 2019 turnover within 2 years.
We now ship coast to coast and our reputation is growing on social media.
My advice to anybody contemplating the digitizing of their business:
You have to trust your clients, it’s what they want, it’s where they do business, it’s on their Smart phone.
Marc Lambert online shoe and sportswear retailer Newswire July 06 2021
Millions of ultra-conservatives are ditching Facebook for a new social media platform that respects their right to be deluded.
They are Jumping ship in colossal numbers to the “Free Speech Social Network.”Parler
What’s Left Won’t Be Worth Keeping
The Gen Zers ditch, the Millennials ditch, the far-left ditches, the far-right ditches, and what remains?
Non-political sixty-somethings who like cat pictures and dancing dog videos, plus a few trolls with too much time on their hands.
75 % of all business will be conducted over the Smartphone within the next 60 months.
Gen Z
Directors who move from marketing their Website to genuine APP advocacy will reap the rewards on any platform!
Change will be very good news for marketers, entrepreneurs, social media users, and the public at large.
For marketers, more platforms give more marketing options, more niche specificity, and Progressive Web APP’s for A to Z Smartphone business and genuine customer service.
For entrepreneurs, there’s the opportunity to build bona fide, elegant, innovative Facebook challengers for the first time in a decade. As individualist-consumerist society grows, expect to see a proliferation of niche-specific sites in the years ahead.
Future events are uncertain, and detailed information about times to come is impossible. But we can use current trends, technological innovation, and reliable information to predict likely scenarios.
During most of my career, this is what I did while working for global airlines.
It worked fine — most of the time we were right.
Predictions saved considerable money for these companies.
Saving money. In that lives the biggest benefit of futuristic reflections. Predictions are useful when we are planning our next investment or career choice.
The billionaire Bill Gates wrote a book called The Road Ahead twenty-six years ago.
There he predicts the impact of the Personal Computer revolution.
Many of these predictions materialised.
In the same book, there is also a phrase that stands true to this time.
We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.
Considering the technological, socio-economical, and environmental changes of the next years, here is the list of 4industries that likely will disappear (or become niche) before 2030.
Telemarketing
This form of marketing will fade due to automation, and also because it is often annoying and intrusive.
In 2017, the Guardian published an article predicting which jobs would disappear. Telemarketing had a 99% chance to be fully automated in 15 years.
Besides, their business is changing from offering products to services like credit collection.
Therefore, instead of a telemarketing operator interrupting your dinner to offer you a new credit card, soon we will only receive a call if we forget to pay for the credit card company.
Staffed retail
As with telemarketing, staffed retail will also fade because of increasing automation.
Take a look at the picture of any supermarket 10 years ago and compare it with the same place right now.
Chances are that the number of self-checkouts at least doubled, reducing the need for human cashiers.
Customers who have the Amazon Go app just need to enter the store, grab whatever they want and walk out with the items. Later, their account is charged.
Of course, few retail sectors will remain staffed. While people do not need help to buy their groceries, niche industries like luxury stores will opt for the personal touch of sales assistants.
Staffed banking
A few months ago, I asked all my friends in our chat group when was the last time they visited a physical bank.
Of the 8 respondents (yes, not an enormous sample size, I know), only one answered less than 1 month.
On average, the last time they stepped into a bank was 3 to 4 months ago.
Ask yourself the same question.
Ask your friends and family too.
There are exceptional cases still requiring the physical presence in a bank agency, like a few businesses or people who are not tech-savvy enough, but they are becoming a diminutive minority.
Finance leaders warned that those in customer service, middle and back-office roles likely will lose their places to computers soon.
IHS Markit estimates that 1.3 million bank workers in the United States will be affected, and 500,000 in the United Kingdom.
Unless you feel some peculiar pleasure by waiting in lines (I will not judge), I bet you prefer to make bank payments remotely instead of driving to the local branch.
Travel Agencies
Of all the sectors in this article, if there is one that I bet will disappear not before 2030, but even before 2025, are travel agencies.
Or at least the ordinary travel agency.
Besides all the data (see more below), I base this guess on my observation as a Hotelier.
Only 4 years ago we still had a considerable share of our guests coming from travel agents. Today they are rare.
Most people make their reservations using portals like Booking.com, Hostelworld.com, Airbnb.com.
Others book direct, using the resources from Google Hotels or TripAdvisor.
Even elders do that now.
But imminent change is on their horizon as well, Winding TREE innovations will completely remove commission based portals, they simply will not be able to compete.
For that, you will need a travel agency since there are no rooms at the International Space Station available at Airbnb !
App stores are almost certainly on the verge of redundancy.
” The vast majority of small business do not yet operate an APP. “
New generation APP’s are a hosted product under the control of the small business owner.
They are cheap to manufacture, replacing websites and massively move the focus away from search engines to natural distribution on smartphone social media.
New generation APP’s do not require a distribution hub.
A prediction: App stores are almost certainly on the verge of redundancy.
Footnote Interview : Will Nicholls Director of The Maltix partnership.
Here’s a story for you regarding PWA’s as compared to dinosaur web sites.
A newswire article originally published byIntimita.
Italian language, glossy women’s magazine that covers the very latest in fashion, family, health and celebrity news.
Millennials are predicted to control over 75% of Smartphone business within 60 months and the vast majority of small business have absolutely no idea what’s coming.
A millennial talks about dinosaurs.
Alecia Bibione wrote:
I have/had a scooter that I used to use as a run-about.
It stood for a year during the Covid-19 pandemic and I decided to sell it.
It was at a scooter spare-parts dealer to be sold.
There was some interest from the walk-in trade, but no sale.
So yesterday, I brought it home, took some photo’s and advertised it on Facebook’s Market Place and also on Gumtree (the dinosaur).
I placed these ads around 2pm.
Within 15 minutes I started receiving messages on Messenger around 10 came in.
Two hours later it was sold, paid for, paperwork done and delivered to the new owner.
At 10pm last night while watching Andy Murray battle it out against Nikoloz Basilashvili which he won eventually, I checked my ad on Gumtree, one reply!
Progressive Web APP’s are the only way to go.
PWA’s are where its at !
A subscription newswire article originally published byIntimita.
Italian language, glossy women’s magazine that covers the very latest in fashion, family, health and celebrity news.
Paula Maynard, BA in medical administration with her assistants Sheri Holding and Emma Star
Failure of digital transformation haunts me.
Interviewed by a leading medical journal June 2021 newswire article
Moving from the public sector to the private sector was a big move for me in 2019
Working at a senior level within the NHS was rewarding but frustrating.
My dream was always to simplify, my dream turned into a never ending nightmare of failure.
Without pointing the finger at anybody in particular, the skill within the method was absent.
The NHS winner is still a paper based system, distributed by an army of messengers.
The Managers Digital dilemma
So when the Partners in the Medical Practice asked me to be more involved with digital transformation, I was full of apprehension and trepidation.
As I eased in to the project, I spoke to my husband who is a work flow graphic designer for a London Borough and he asked some strange questions which led to a realisation.
He asked to see my office, he wanted to look at the age of the equipment and the signage within the building.
He promised me a report, which came inside a pretty box and all that was inside was his Smart phone and a brochure.
Let me help he said.
A huge part of his programme for the borough was based on QR and what that QR is connected to, especially around the pandemic.
For me he printed a list of options QR can be joined up to, it was as long as your arm.
He explained that all the complexities of QR print and the Departments responsible were in one shared place called SLACK, and that was the clue, it was on his Smartphone.
“Everybody carries a Smartphone these days, the vast majority are QR enabled”
The mock brochure he made had 6 example dummy QR codes
They can be changed even after they have been printed!
Each had a call to action within the code.
Join WI-FI here
Reserve appointments here
Map location here
Free QR reader here
Pay for a consultation here
Front desk information
Going digital CAN be paper based !
Its full circle, the Partners like the idea as a start point
The idea of a brochure that connects to the clients smartphone resonated.
QR codes will also be used as a wall collage, designed by my husband of course!
Education videos, information videos and cartoon style info-commercials for specialist services within the practice.
This time my digital transformation fills me with confidence, and the reality is I was wrong all along.
Going digital CAN be paper based !
Paula Maynard, BA.
Interviewed by a leading medical journal June 2021 newswire article
David is a veteran of change, Director and the board of three US Companies.
My focus is the balance sheet, thats my main job. I am responsible for my share holders, the board and I dislike uncomfortable conversations with my senior, the Chairman.
The battleground for business is a constantly shifting threat.
Smaller agile business operate without the infrastructure costs of an established Company.
Guerrilla tactics to control costs inside my own business.
It’s the mindset of the Company to continue do what’s worked in the past, and from my experience of completing an MBA, far too much of what I was taught seemed out of date, even when I was learning to qualify.
So I have been taking a more radical approach by introducing external, fleet of foot, marketing tactics and technology, using a kind of Gorilla tactic to make changes to my existing staff assumptions.
I’m interested in the consequences of that external change.
It’s an uncomfortable personal growth for some but a necessary survival technique for their future.
I am sure I’m onto something !
We are seeing hybrid sales and unexpected new markets emerge, especially when we move away from the main stay of Google marketing into the more fluid world of Progressive Web APP distribution and a focus on immediacy of service and dispatch.
I say to any Director or CEO, its time for an old phrase of the 90’s to re-emerge. JFDI.
David Kalowski CEO Gadget -OPS-Michigan Newswire 23/06/2021
Solution provider for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce
Tom Rice Chief Executive chemical cleaning distribution Co West Midlands
This is a cathartic exercise, baring my business troubles from the last 2 years to my local small business community.
I wanted to share the pain but also encourage change in business operations for their survival.
We are a 40 year old industrial cleaning company distributing across the UK with a turn over of over £18 million.
The Company moto above the main entrance door to our premises hasn’t change since my late father created the company back in 1979
“If you do what you always done your gunna get what you always got”
And with the stratospheric growth of the younger faster generation, desperate to do business with us, we knew we were so behind the curve it was embarrassing.
We had lost over 20% of our contracts in 9 months.
Top heavy with administration, dated computers running spread sheets and word documents all cobbled together inside a telephone system we none of us had ever figured out.
You have to let go of the stuff that used to be important but no longer is.
So embarrassing in fact, the bust up inside our family business has been excruciating but unfortunately necessary.
Each department has been power washed, scrubbed with a nailbrush and desanitised !
Every Monday for 2 months I held “Starter, bumper, shaker, mover, let go day today, cat amongst the pigeons, out with the old in with the new, repaint, rethink and push the envelope of change” days.
The changes are astonishing but logical.
And all consequential, just part of the journey of change.
The staff age group that took to the challenge are dramatically more dynamic.
We moved to our own App based ordering system for clients.
No more paper invoicing, in fact no paper anything!
No telephones in the office, all replaced with an APP based system.
Adopted a Cloud based management system we calibrated ourselves in just 2 days!
The only thing that is recognisable from the brand of old is the brochure and even that is completely Smartphone enabled !
Tom Rice is guest speaker for online Events associated with the FSB and this article is distributed by Newswire. June 21 2021
A conversation with William Nicholls MD Maltix App and QR brochure company.
What Is the National Association of the Deaf? The NAD is a non-profit organization that works to protect and promote the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing people.
Over 400 members.
The charity wants to update their brochure, a perfect time to introduce automation, particularly banking, subscription and education.
They regularly host lectures, seminars, exhibitions and courses alongside social and fund raising work.
Automating a charity to control administration costs.
As a non profit organisation they are open minded, and like the idea of switching from a static website to a dynamic APP, well suited to their Smartphone subscribers.
Firstly, the brochure can be designed to directly connect to the Smartphone using smart QR codes.
It’s important not to duplicate future printing costs, this can be achieved with new generation Smart QR.
Will Nicholls impressed:
Want to change an infomercial, an educational video, subscription charges after print ?
No problem, all changes made are part of the service !
Maltix build or create every aspect of the choices available on the self help link below.
Secondly the NAD want to place QR with a call to action within their building and on social media.
Example of a call to action
Example using a clear QR code connected to banking via a smart form page
That’s a two-pronged attack says Will Nicholls.
Firstly strategically framed and branded QR can connect from within the building.
( Advice on QR size and positioning part of the service )
Secondly, connecting QR to their new Charity APP enables their subscribers and family to distribute directly within their Social media channels.
“That couldn’t happen with old APPS, they have to be downloaded from the APP store”
Websites are not suited to social media distribution.
All has changed with the Maltix Progressive Web APP (PWA)
In a Committee meeting all the options of what can be achieved were listed.
In fact, Maltix Partners use a smart form page as an aid in consultation, William was more than happy to share.
A little knowledge is everything, let your imagination explore the possibilities.
So many ideas!
Take a look!
Go ahead, tick the boxes, CLICK SUBMIT the email goes to your in box for future reference.
Self help prompt, what can I connect QR to in my business or organisation ?
Damac General Manager – operations Ali Sajwani believes hotels will continue to embrace new technologies by HME Maltix Newswire June 16, 2021
Damac General Manager – operations Ali Sajwani
When I think of hotels, I don’t automatically view them as technology-driven businesses nor incubators of innovation.
But, if we examine how hotels operate, the amount of technology involved is remarkable.
What is truly remarkable is that Hotels increasingly rely on cloud based actions directly off the Hotel customers Smart phone.
Property management systems for example, are complex software programmes that facilitate the entire guest experience from check-in to check out.
Artificial intelligence take PMS to a whole new level.
Smart hotels might look pretty much the same as regular hotels, but they operate in a completely different way.
The importance of connectivity
Like smart homes or buildings, futuristic smart hotels aim to connect devices and appliances to each other and the internet.
This is where the internet comes into play — even ordinary devices can now send and receive data, which makes them ‘smart’.
The internet of things is accelerating smart growth.
Even where multiple devices communicate with each other, they can still be managed by a single user from a remote point, smartphone or tablet.
Some appliances can locate and decipher information from the internet, allowing them to respond independently or intelligently to user instructions, for example, lights, curtains, and sound systems.
The possibilities are seemingly endless and accelerating.
Who doesn’t want to stay in a hotel room with automated check-in, intuitive temperature and lighting controls, entertainment-on-demand from your own streaming video or music accounts, and other highly personalised experiences, all enabled by these emerging technologies?
Why hotels should bother
I believe there are excellent reasons why major Hotel brands are waking up to change.
Technology can improve the guest experience.
It makes hotels less labour intensive and more efficient, which ultimately saves money.
Remove the Hotel switchboard for customer service.
Technology improves the guest experience
Guests don’t need to physically check-in, registration can be completed via any smartphone
Voice recognition can control in-room features such as TV, lights, curtains and A/C
Switchboard are over
Multi-language robotic concierge services available 24/7
Automated room service menus improve delivery time and reduce human error
QR APP enablement using quality wall mounted smart QR codes with a call to action ( Room service for example )
QR direct to over 25 possibilities within our portfolio ( so far)
Damac room QR example.
Technology makes hotels more cost-efficient
Less security needed with facial recognition systems in place
Computerised check-in/out means less front-office staff.
No need for lift operators or baggage porters as these tasks can be automated
Smart cleaning devices reduce the number of housekeeping staff
Reduced requirement for room service.
APP based food delivery using new generation Hotel bespoke delivery APP
Smart A/C modules and lights lower energy demand and utility bills
Because leisure resorts have a more relaxed atmosphere than bustling city hotels, automation could be perceived as a novelty rather than a necessity.
However, this perception is changing at break neck speed.
At the other end of the scale, I can imagine certain hotel brands becoming synonymous with a fully automated service offering, appealing to, or creating demand for, a certain type of guest and priced accordingly.
Smart technology is undoubtedly not a passing phase; it is a trend that is here to stay. It will increase in the years to come with the notion of personal service taking on a whole new meaning.
New technologies by HME Maltix Newswire June 16, 2021
How the luxury sector has changed since the pandemic
Fiona Noble, chief growth officer at concierge service Quintessentially, shares the latest trends in luxury travel Hotelier Staff June 9, 2021 Maltix Newswire
How the luxury sector has changed since the pandemic
There’s no disputing that the pandemic severely disrupted the luxury sector. The luxury market in the Gulf alone declined 17 per cent in 2020 to $7.4 billion, with countries impacted by varying degrees, based on factors such as volume of foreign tourism.
In the Middle East, a break from the usual physical experiences that were an integral part of consumers’ daily life meant a revisit of priorities. During lockdown, the idea of what luxury consumers want and put emphasis on shifted and continues to evolve.
At Quintessentially in the Middle East, we witnessed an immediate focus among our members on self-development.
Lockdown was a catalyst for online experiences, from learning languages and musical instruments, mastering Pilates and meditation, and enjoying digital lessons from leading authors, artists and educators.
Privatised and curated experiences also trended highly, and continue to do so, as members consumed everything from exclusive film screenings and at-home spas to cookery masterclasses.
Quintessentially will continue to curate a robust suite of bespoke experiences for our members, both online and in person, allowing them to immerse themselves in their passions and burgeoning interests, especially off their Smartphone.
How the luxury Hotel sector has changed.
Gifting has increased, as members look to spend time – and money – on presents and experiences for their family to celebrate milestones.
Jewellery purchases spiked – the only luxury category to achieve value growth in 2020 – and Chaumet, for instance, reportedly enjoyed booming sales.
There has also been a shift regarding sustainability and the environmental impact of the brands consumers wish to invest in.
From sourcing rare pearls from Paris, tracking down a hand- rafted Yves Saint Laurent handbag or antique Patek Philippe watch, or even designing a miniature zoo of customised, life-sized stuffed toy animals, the demand for luxury – albeit more meaningful – continues to flourish.
Travel is now front of mind and members are keen to not only tend to their businesses abroad, but also discover their own respective regions.
Behaviour regarding last-minute bookings among our members hasn’t shifted and has become even more prevalent in the recovery phase as they look to us to provide them with expert advice and guidance, mitigating uncertainty.
Unexpected results:
With advanced room QR code services connecting to a plethora of ideas all managed from our individual Hotel APP has gained in popularity, noticeably as repeat business.
Cross fertilising marketing from Room QR to Hotel APP and Room delivery APP is ongoing with unexpected results.
We had never thought the data from a Room upgrade, for example, would benefit the booking of wedding parties or Room service off the APP data could be channelled to business bookings.
QR room gifting has been especially successful, substantial orders right off the clients Smartphone.
Automating smart forms into the Hotel CRM has enabled us to better track client habits, one high end guest recently returned the favour of extra flowers in the room for flowers delivered to the front desk!
Domestic travel in the Middle East, along with the Seychelles, will remain popular for some time and is why Quintessentially curated multi-faceted, immersive breaks in partnership with Marriott, embracing the very best each region has to offer.
Answering luxury consumers renewed sense of discovery and desire for personalised experiences, guests can enjoy Doha’s renowned art scene, sample world-class culinary experiences in Dubai, explore the marine eco-system in Abu Dhabi’s mangroves and learn about Bedouin life, or discover the beautiful archipelago islands off the coast of East Africa, and much more.
Although global outbound travel from the Middle East is still impacted by restrictions, there has been increase of enquiries and bookings to Greece, US and France. In response to European market demand, Etihad is now flying to Malaga, Santorini and Mykonos.
As Saudi Arabia opens its doors to international tourism, we also anticipate destinations like Alula in the north west – steeped in Nabatean heritage and culture to appeal to that desire for transformative and adventure travel.
Overall, there is much to be optimistic about as the luxury market in the Middle East looks set to make a healthy rebound, with tourism playing a crucial role coupled with the region’s high local purchasing power and luxury brands willing to enhance their digital presence and offer bespoke products and individualised service and experiencesthrough the clients Smartphone.
Luxury takes a back seat as affordable hotel brands boast bigger pipelines in the Middle East.
The Hotelier article today.
There are more than 500 hotels on the way in the region, mostly from Hilton, Marriott or Accor
08 Jun 2021
There’s an impressive 534 hotel projects currently under construction in the Middle East, totalling 153,225 rooms.
That is according to Lodging Econometrics’ latest Construction Pipeline Trend Report, which revealed which destinations have the most hotels on the way.
And 48 percent of the projects in the pipeline in the Middle East belong to three companies:
Hilton with 93 projects and 25,200 rooms, followed by Accor with 89 projects having 25,882 rooms. Next is Marriott International with 75 projects and 22,160 rooms.
Luxury takes a back seat as affordable hotel brands.
The leading brands in the pipeline for these companies are Hilton’s DoubleTree with 27 projects and 6,083 rooms.
Hilton Garden Inn with 20 projects and 6,566 rooms;
Accor’s Ibis brands with 12 projects and 4,274 rooms and Movenpick with 12 projects accounting for 3,153 rooms;
Marriott Courtyard with 15 projects/3,432 rooms.
Residence Inn with nine projects and 1,196 rooms.
Unsurprisingly, Dubai in the UAE takes the top spot with 115 projects and 32,596 rooms on the way.
On a country-wide level, Saudi Arabia leads the way with 185 projects and 66,898 keys; followed by the UAE with 154 projects and 42,327 rooms.
Egypt with 61 projects and 14,912 keys.
Qatar with 57 projects and 14,047 rooms;
Oman with 32 projects and 6,474 rooms.
Capital cities Riyadh and Doha hold the most projects behind Dubai,.
Sharon Terlep | Photographs by Desiree Rios for The Wall Street Journal 2021 subscription newswire.
One fitness club franchisee plans to open a dozen new locations, while a national chain is selling digital memberships.
A Pilates studio in Houston is requiring masks; a family-run gym in Indianapolis isn’t.
America’s gyms are reopening to a markedly changed fitness world as coronavirus pandemic restrictions lift.
Each business and its customers must decide how to navigate new workout habits and conflicting demands around Covid-19 safety protocols.
Some people won’t exercise in a face covering; others will only frequent a gym with a mask mandate.
Still others purchased pricey fitness machines for their homes and have spent months taking virtual classes.
“Many of our members have developed habits in a significant way, routines they never had before Covid,” said Jeff Zwiefel, chief operating officer of Life Time Inc.
I’ll never go back to the Gym again
The fitness center chain, with 150 U.S. locations, now offers a $15 monthly digital membership, where people can work out to streaming classes.
Gyms, from boutique studios to sprawling fitness centers, have been among the industries hardest hit by the public-health crisis, as concerns about people spreading the coronavirus during group exercise led to mandated shutdowns and member exoduses.
A cleaning station for gym members at a Life Time health club in West Harrison, N.Y.
The pandemic’s toll has been profound:
Nearly half of the 3 million jobs in U.S. health clubs disappeared last year along with more than half of the industry’s revenue.
Legions of independent gyms and studios have closed, crippled by state-mandated shutdowns.
Several corporate chains, including 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. and Gold’s Gym International Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganized or closed.
Demand has been so high for Peloton exercise bikes and treadmills that customers have waited weeks for deliveries.
“I know there’s chatter of, ‘We are a stay-at-home stock, and we get back to normal and Peloton dies or whatever,’ ” John Foley, Peloton co-founder and chief executive, told investors in February.
“We obviously are taking the other side of that. Every year in the U.S., there’s been 5 million treadmills sold. So it’s not like working out at home was a Covid thing. It has always been a thing.
It’s just the products have been dopey and not connected.”
How might the coronavirus pandemic transform the fitness industry? To find out, WSJ spoke with the CEO of Planet Fitness, an independent gym owner, and an industry analyst to learn about what we can expect for the future of fitness. (Video from 9/11//20)
Gym owners and industry experts say the fitness landscape is likely forever changed by the pandemic.
When the Covid-19 risk passes, they say, the business of fitness will increasingly become a mashup of bricks-and-mortar and online virtual offerings, much like the coronavirus-hastened evolution of retail, office work and education.
“At-home will become a part of the fitness ecosystem, it’s going to have an outsized platform,” said BMO analyst Simeon Siegel. “But for the vast majority of people, the fitness industry will still revolve around bricks-and-mortar.
Heading into the pandemic, the U.S. had roughly 40,000 health clubs generating $35 billion in annual revenue, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sports club Association.
At the end of 2020, the industry has lost $20.4 billion in revenue, while about 6,400 clubs—17% of the total—closed permanently.
A recent survey by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that 68% of those who started using an online fitness program during the pandemic said they planned to continue for the long term.
The survey of 2,024 adults was conducted Nov. 9-13, 2020.
Crunch fighting back with smartphone based APP marketing and QR technology.
Geoff Dyer, owner of more than two dozen Crunch Fitness franchises in Georgia and Florida, said Covid-19 won’t change Americans’ gym habits for the long term.
A Crunch membership, starting at $9.95 a month, is cheaper than many online subscriptions.
Mr. Dyer said his membership is almost at the same level it was before the pandemic. He said he is opening another dozen locations in the next year, including four that will replace now-shut 24 Hour Fitness clubs.
Crunch offers streaming workouts, but they aren’t popular, he said, but we are working on new ideas, especially dedicated APPs that dont have to be downloaded from the APP store.
Crunch have adapted advanced QR technology, connecting bespoke work outs with low levels of Gym equipment to live streams and video.
Notifications off the APP constantly remind clients whats available.
Dyer is also adding SMS to the portfolio, for the more up market clients who like a personal connection.
“It’s hard to replace the excitement of a live class, and there’s a huge barrier to entry if you’ve got to pay $2,500 to get that bike,” he said, referring to Peloton, which sells bikes starting at $1,895.
Amid Covid-19, he said, “we realized people were desperate to get back to the gym.”
Exercise bikes are spaced out to maintain social distancing at a Life Time health club in West Harrison, N.Y.
All but one state—South Dakota—shut down gyms last spring as the pandemic took hold, and others have fully or partially closed gyms for varying durations.
By last month, California, the only state remaining with a blanket order keeping gyms closed, started allowing facilities to reopen with various restrictions.
Gyms allowed to open in many cases face restrictions that range from cost-prohibitive for businesses to off-putting for some members, including capacity limits as low at 10%, outdoor-only classes and mask mandates.
Ardizzone & Nalley Gym in Indianapolis shut down for about 10 weeks in the spring and has been open since, and doesn’t require members to wear masks.
The gym, opened 42 years ago by owner Tony Ardizzone, has a big base of elderly members, including many who say they won’t return until they are vaccinated.
“The older people are more fearful and more cautious and vulnerable, and young people are less so,” he said.
Other customers were so eager to be in the gym even at the height of the pandemic, he said, that he had to confiscate keys they were using to get in despite the gym being closed.
In Texas, as soon as Gov. Greg Abbott announced in early March that the state would allow all businesses to fully reopen and lift its mask mandate, many customers of Houston-based Citizen Pilates called and messaged founder Jess Hughes asking her to keep rules requiring masks in class and maintain 6 feet of space between machines, she said.
Sharon Terlep | Photographs by Desiree Rios for The Wall Street Journal 2021 subscription newswire.
A reactionary article published in the Hotelier magazine Dubai and released on newswire.
The Hotelier: June article:
Speaking at The F&B stakeholder Hotel Show Dubai 2021, a Balkan restaurant boss said that “discounts should be a tool to reward loyal customers, not to attract new ones”.
“It time for restaurants in Dubai to end their reliance on discount APP’s, such as The Entertainer, to get customers through the door”
That’s certainly the opinion of 21 Grams owner Stasha Toncev
Reaction: “We took an opposite view to articles like this”
Hazeem Nadim Director of a prestigious Dubai boutique destination states that Hotels that use third party APPS are giving their data away instead of keeping it to market internally themselves.
If they do not own and operate the APP themselves, there is anillusion that past clients will simply move on to the next discounted outlet.
That was his conclusion after time spent time with a new marketing manager after their previous manager left when Covid struck.
Sandeep Patel is a recent graduate and marketing manager from the Indian institute of Technology, Delhi.
Hotel Directors unwittingly give their data away.
His forward learning graduation programme focused on rental cloud technology to enable their clients Smartphone.
Hazeem Nadim Boutique Hotel Dubai
With visitor numbers down 60 %, Hazeem was curious how they could use a new generation Progressive Web APP in combination with QR codes within the hotel to generate future business on social media.
Sandeep Patel focused on the combination of a hosted room service Food delivery APP in combination with advanced QR marketing ideas.
The QR codes all have a clear call to action and are distributed in every room and open space.
Hazeem Nadim and Sandeep Patel are encouraging their past and present customers to distribute their promotions on social media.
Some of the ideas developed so far.
Future discounts on multiple stays. Inviting friends rewards.
Hen or stag nights Vouchers to book a table for larger parties. Wedding deals. Book a birthday present. Meet the manager drink at the bar. Book another night with a free bottle of bubbly.
Quiet mid week booking success!
Special offer during the week stay for 3 nights pay for 2
Vast amounts of automated data into the Hotel CRM allow us to get even more creative with cross marketing.
It’s a new beginning, we are excited to explore new marketing techniques.
Amazon and Supermarkets have stolen half your staff.
The few you have left are stuck doing annoying admin and jobs they didn’t sign up for.
William Nicholls Director Maltix.
Thought Leader: William Nicholls
The competition has stolen your staff.
Technology isn’t here to replace human interaction.
The Hotel industry is in a recruitment crisis.
Covid hasn’t just cut guest numbers, it’s sent staff packing back to their countries… where they’ve stayed.
And they are not coming back.
Added to the nightmare is the local supermarkets and online retailers like Boohoo, Amazon and top supermarkets are paying better wages than hospitality.
Hotel staff are spending time multi-tasking, doing manual administration and tasks not originally in their job description.
And not focusing on their area of expertise or looking after the guest experience, which doesn’t always allow for an engaged workforce.
The only solution to this dilemma is using technology that powers your guest experience from beginning to end.
You can’t avoid it any longer – you need to make better and more efficient use of technology that will save your staff from doing time-consuming jobs and manual tasks,
Here are pain points that we hear time and again.
Will occupancy return to 2019 levels?
Does it matter?
You need to be at the top of your game regardless.
Staycations are booming at the moment, but are they going to be consistent?
The travel industry is going to change as international travel opens up and occupancy rates are bound to improve.
Have you ensured your technology will future-proof your business?
QR Smartphone resurgence ( Dummy )
Technology has changed hospitality forever.
The hospitality industry has relied on manual processes and staff to operate hotels and restaurants. Progressive Web APP’s (PWA) are designed specifically for the Smartphone user.
Does your hotel still rely on these manual processes ? you’re behind the curve.
Technology such as contactless check-in, APP food-ordering , Room service and bookings are now the norm, and will be expected by a large portion of your target market, ON THEIR SMARTPHONE.
A number of hotels have technology at their fingertips they aren’t making the most of. Having an integrated CRM system, for example, can be a powerful tool to use your guests data to market to them using upselling and cross-selling campaigns, using SMS and APP notifications allied to digital loyalty cards.
The technology available for your hotel can change the way you speak to your customers, and generate more revenue for you.
Room service off your clients phone
New normal and Covid readiness
Covid has changed the face of the hospitality industry forever.
Guests are more concerned about safety than they have been before, and you need to make sure your hotel is as safe and reassuring for nervous guests as possible.
Using contactless technology, for example, will reduce the points of human-to-human contact, putting your guests at ease.
It also focuses on business flow, logic and touch points for happier customers within your Hotel.
CRM connected to APP
The online experience is not about googled websites !
According to our research, 55% of millennials research their holiday destinations on Facebook or Instagram.
You need to ensure that your online platforms (APP and social media presence) are accessible and enticing, and will draw your target market’s attention to choosing your hotel for their stay.
Shareable discounts and promotions
APP in APP tools are essential for clients sharing your deals, vouchers, promotions and loyalty card naturally on social media.
Instantly connect paper to Smart phone
Adopting social media as your natural APP distribution ledger is dramatically different to the tactics of SEO and Google search
Summer Hopkins is a Registered Realtor from Mississauga Toronto.
She was asked to write an article for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce after addressing the needs of fellow Realtors online.
This article was consequently published on subscription Newswire.
“If we do what we always done, were going to get what we always got”
That was the opening conclusion in a pretty damming report of MY business !
I was in tears and angry for 2 days and two nights.
We firstly identified 5 problems in the business using a smart consultancy service registered with the certified management of consultants (CMC)
My mindset had to change and it started when I sacked my marketing manager.
He simply refused to change our quite expensive strategy.
That was really tough, he had worked for me for 8 years.
Problems identified by the certified management consultancy.
Intermittent inventory levels.
Online competition.
Not addressing the needs of a Smartphone user.
High marketing budgets.
Poor database management.
My Realtor brokerage was strangled by my Agents.
The changes are very much work in progress, to be honest it was a struggle to transform old practices in our office alongside communications.
The first task was going paperless. Removing the printer was a massive change.
It’s as if a cooker had been wrenched out of our kitchen!
The next big change was putting our entire database into a CRM.
That took a long time to literally handball all history, names, telephone numbers, emails and addresses into one cloud system and then joining to an accountancy package.
We opted for Xero.
The training for Agents to use the CRM resulted in a couple more casualties I’m afraid.
But we are getting there, the changes are being managed by younger team members who have rapidly risen through the ranks.
The speed they get stuff done is mesmerising, its as if all the time they spend on social media is just an extension of what they achieve at work!
Very impressive.
Our inventory levels have grown by 16% in 8 months and the marketing budget has dropped significantly.
Our attention to detail with client Smartphone communications pays dividends through natural online marketing.
I’m pleased and happy to share.
The next phase is quite revolutionary, we are copying trends from other markets.
Listen out for an update in a few months time.
Summer Hopkins is a registered realtor, business woman and writer.
It’s been a tough 18 months but we had time to think and do some Hotel upgrades that needed getting on top of.
That’s done now along with a new booking system and food order system.
The bit we nearly missed was a food delivery app. I resented the charges of Uber eat and the like and researched the idea of a food delivery app.
Initially I was so desperate to keep my kitchens rolling and retain some good people, I was only thinking delivery within a few blocks to give the staff work.
That went fine, we continued with 2 delivery companies initially and put our app details inside the delivery packaging using a QR code.
We toyed with the words but ended up with “next time order here for a free beer “
Something we were not expecting began to emerge.
We hesitantly opened the Hotel with closed restaurants on special deals, we put the app QR code in the rooms for room delivery only.
So not only did we get orders from downtown, we also got orders from our own Hotel rooms.
By chance the app we opted for doesn’t have to be downloaded from the app store and once it has been used once we can send out notifications.
I was talking to the Chef team about the surprise we were experiencing, and Doodle, the pastry chef said ” Lets put our signature dessert dishes on the app”
In the next breath he said ” Cornhusk Meringue and a thang for Ma’am”
What he meant was, promote special room rates alongside the food.
With over 800 orders off the app we can now send regular notifications through the app right onto the clients phone.
Yeah, although we were not monitoring repeat business as well as we should, now we can see it and its working !
London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful.
“With delivery sales as much as 70-80% of restaurant sales, the delivery companies are now taking 18-30% of restaurant revenues”
Deliveroo, Hub Grub, Uber Eats and the like enjoy huge growth on the back of restaurants who are trapped by the problems inside their business.
With an open mind, restaurants re- imagine a picture perfect secure future, illuminating real growth and profits for 2022
Open your eyes and watch your business grow with the happy faces of your customers repeat business.
Do these words resonate with you ?
“Food delivery companies offer good value because they do all our marketing” WRONG !
“Allowing food delivery companies open access to client data is cool with me” WRONG !!
” A food delivery app doesn’t work inside a restaurant ” WRONG !!!
” Ghost kitchens can’t steal my business, people trust our brand ” WRONG !!!!
” Hotels cannot use their own food delivery app inside their Hotel ” NUTS !
Introducing the restaurant Progressive Web APP ( PWA ) for Restaurants, Hotels and Ghost kitchens.
Opting in to a 2.9 % delivery charge
Restaurants client data is theirs, it has incredible value.
Tune in to the sound of your till ringing, reach out and grasp your futurewith your own APP.
“Not taking responsibility of your own app is the equivalent of handing your restaurant booking diary, names and telephone numbers to your competition ”
Consider this,for the price of a modest piece of kitchen equipment, restaurants can take control of their future dreams and profits !
Delivery companies charge restaurants a minimum of 25-30% for their standard service of placing an order, picking it up and delivering it.
It wasn’t that long ago that Estate Agent offices disappeared and consolidated on the back of huge jumps in interest rates.
Now we have a Government manipulated property market alongside money so cheap it beggars belief.
But those are not the Laurels under scrutiny today, this market could last for years and whether prices continue to rise or fall a bit, thats irrelevant to the Millennials aged 20 to 50.
Julia Skern observations as a new house ownerpurchased on her Smartphone.
“We are not old enough to remember any corrections or problems in the property markets, its a none sequitur in fact it’s a red herring.“
Julia Skern posted her joy of discovering and purchasing her new house on her Smartphone.
A republished Newswire article.
I’m 33 years of age, I know !
Bayr ny Skeddan , my red door on the Herring Way Isle of Man.
The Real Estate industry is resting on its laurels.
More than 70 percent of today’s buyers search for homes online using their Smartphone.
From blockchain to quality video tours, technology is shaping the real estate industry for the better.
Now is the time to focus on the Millennials expectations and that will hedge against any bumps in the market place for sure.
They love moving pictures to send to their friends on social media and they adore connecting to QR codes for property videos.
If they love it, then Property Agents can feel their love with a little focus on change.
“I noticed a wee Agents window in my village had made the effort to connect to my phone, and I bought the house.”
An article from Julia Skern a surfing and observational writer originally from Cornwall who has just bought her first house on the Isle of Man.
An article focusing on clientele perception as a route to market.
Lord Sainsbury was the Chairman of a major supermarket chain in the UK.
He was once asked:
“Is the Sainsbury’s supermarket offering for the middle classes or for everybody “
He answered:
“Everybody”
The interviewer stated categorically “His brand would be damaged irreparably”
Many argue to this day that the brand never recovered from that statement.
So how a Business owner or Chairman perceives his clientele is critically important.
Using restaurateurs as an example, it’s probable that route to market and the target clientele will define the prosperity of a huge swathe of eating establishments in the future.
Especially if a restaurateur wants to do business with the majority section of potential clientele on their smartphone.
Much like Lord Sainsbury defining his supermarkets were “a shop for all”
A Restaurateur must firstly define if he can afford to wait for the customers to return.
Because if he cannot he has choices.
Restaurant food is not enough.
One: Are we a dining restaurant only and probably go bust ?
Two: Can we offer take away food?
Three: Can we deliver food?
Many restaurants have chosen to wait, but they cannot wait any longer, they are bleeding cash.
Some food establishments have opted for somebody else’s business model such as Bolt or Wolt, Deliveroo, Just eat and the like.
The upside of this is that your target clientele or who you perceive as your new customer base is relatively happy ordering on their Smartphone.
The downside is that the Restaurateur is paying 30% of the food cost directly to somebody else’s business model.
Secondly:
The food delivery business model is built on data capitalisation.
In other words the individual Restaurateur is donating his/her client data to another business model for FREE.
Restaurateurs do have other options:
One: invest in their own delivery APP
Two: Use the features and components of the APP to satisfy their Smartphone user target audience.
Use QR, SMS, Notifications, Driver notification, digital loyalty card, low cost payment gateway, APP in APP hosting, opt for a non-downloadable Progressive Web APP
A ghost or DARK kitchen is a delivery-only restaurant.
Other names are virtual kitchen, shadow kitchen or commissary kitchen.
Our favourite is DARK kitchen.
Sound much more sinister doesn’t it ?
Almost ominous.
A DARK kitchen differs from a virtual restaurant.
A DARK kitchen is not necessarily a restaurant brand in itself.
A kitchen space and facilities for more than one restaurant brand
With more than one food offering.
This kitchen contains the kitchen equipment and facilities needed for the preparation of restaurant meals.
And has no dining area for walk-in customers.
Lower costs incurred by using kitchen facilities located outside of high-rent, high-foot-trafficked urban locations.
Dark kitchens have emerged as a business model in response to the rapid growth in consumer demand for restaurant delivery meals.
This frees up parking taken by the delivery vehicles, and allows them to enter new postcodes at low cost.
An opportunity for DARK kitchens to develop multi ethnic menus.
Compete directly with established restaurants in their back yard.
Using a DARK kitchen allows established restaurants with dining-in service to expand their delivery operations without adding stress to the existing kitchen.
How to set up a dark kitchen
How DARK kitchens steal food delivery business.
Individuals can set up a DARK kitchen to start their own brand, which is identified with their own online restaurant.
Each DARK kitchen has its own Progressive Web APP on a set of sub domain names delivering singular food styles or multi offerings into specific postcode delivery areas.
Every takeaway container has a dedicated APP QR code on its lid with a clear call to action for repeat orders.
This is where the DARK side of owning a PWA really becomes distributive.
A Progressive Web APP is incredibly cheap to own and host.
There is no room for the vanity of restaurateurs .
Most restaurants actual name is easily forgotten.
Much more likely a Smartphone user will search Indian food Frogmore street or Pizza Cardiff west or Fish and chips Brighton seafront.
Perfect for the Black kitchen to weave its work.
All the tools for repeat business !
PWA investment
BLACK kitchen requirements.
Own their own Progressive Web APP.
Manage their own drivers.
Define their postcode area.
Control their own payment and banking.
Print QR codes onto sticky labels.
Retain their client DATA for SMS and notification campaigns.
Get creative with their integral Digital loyalty card.
A: £1.80 a day. Or in other words, your first daily order above £7.20 will cover it.
Q: How do I market my new APP?
A: Maltix provide QR codes that you print onto sticky labels for every food container and vehicles.
Q: How else can I market ?
A: No APP download required, it distributes freely on social media. Encourage your clients to share your digital loyalty promotions.
Q: Why would my clients use our own dedicated APP for future orders ?
Digital loyalty card
A: Because you have a built in Digital loyalty card.
Q: How does a Digital Loyalty card work?
A: You decide. For example. Free main-course with your 5th order. Or free bottle of wine when you spend £75. 20% off 6 to 7pm deliveries Monday to Thursday. Get creative !
Q: How do we track clients using the Digital loyalty card?
A: It’s built into the management system.
Stripe connected to Apple Pay
Q: How do we get paid ?
A: APP order payment system takes all payment gateways through Apple Pay.
Q: What are the transactional costs of payment?
A: Stripe negotiated 2.9% plus 20 to 30 cents per transaction.
Q: Can designated delivery drivers take secure payments as well ?
A: Yes through their Smartphone to your designated bank account.
Q: How do we control the delivery area?
A: Easy to use drag and drop Geo fencing feature in back office.
Q: How do delivery drivers gets notified ?
A: Rotated designated drivers receive email and SMS.
Q: Can I send messages and promotions ?
A: Every single client who touches your APP agrees to future notifications.
An APP with SMS
Q: Can we SMS ?
A: Yes free 200 SMS included in your hosting.
Q: Can I use the APP in my restaurant?
A: Yes. For table order and table booking.
Q: Internet connectivity varies in my area, does this matter?
A: No. The Maltix PWA has a “work offline feature” All orders are retained.
Q: I have multiple kitchens, do I need an APP for each area?
Mobile usage has increased by over 70% since before the pandemic, and people have come to expect a mobile-first way to engage with the businesses around them.
The weather is getting warmer, and we’re starting to see the light at the end of the (very long) COVID tunnel.
That’s why at Maltix, we are offering a very special, limited deal to help you power up your business as we get through the pandemic, and beyond:
For the next 72 hours only, we create the perfect delivery APP for your restaurant.
Restaurant booking PWA DEAL!
Restaurant food delivery APP
Onboard today, book a 30 minute chat below.
Delivery companies such as BOLT, UBER EATS etc charge 20 to 30% ( OUCH )
For £299 Maltix will create the perfect delivery APP and you only pay 2.9% for each transaction.
Includes Apple Pay to your bank.
Limitless inventory.
Order process function.
Driver notification.
Digital loyalty card.
GEO fencing delivery area.
And more !
An APP that acts as a tool for customer engagement and conversion…..Powerful indeed.
An APP that’s accessible via a single click – no APP stores required.
An APP that can be accessed simply by scanning a QR code.
Just as a reminder, here are some of the features you’ll get in your Restaurant delivery APP
An interesting idiom but a difficult nut to crack especially when it comes to marketing your small business.
Hands up anybody who is content with their internet marketing ?
No such thing is there ?
Who are the experts ?
One of the never ending stream of people who claim they are internet marketing experts ?
Social media experts ?
SEO professionals ?
Pay per click providers ?
That old chestnut eh?
The old adage that “50% of all marketing is wasted, but the trouble is you never know which 50 %” is as true now as it was before the internet came along.
What if we could look through the other end of the telescope ?
To do that, do we agree that marketing you business is connected to the sales cycle?
A bit like this:
Generating leads to prospects to sales that become customers.
Sounds OK?
This graphic is much more realistic using the internet these days.
What is happening is that Smartphone users are starting with advocacy that leads them to a purchase- thats hugely different.
That the sales cycle reversed
The arrow through the middle is actually a human being !
Time for small business to grasp their future on the smartphone.
A well established brand has an unassailable head-start compared to a small business.
So you would think, but thats not true.
Googles invention of the PWA has changed everything.
We are a coach to destination management company, looking to manage our coach pick ups and coach destinations from ferry terminals, rail and coach stations and airports throughout Europe and the UK.
We are taking advantage of the shut down to revamp, automate and streamline our business.
The APP has to be accessible for REP’s in the field on their Smartphone.
It has to be a simple calendar booking system
We need to allocate the coach company and the driver for their day to their destinations.
The allocation has to automatically confirm the destination and coach driver via SMS
Estimated time of arrival, number of people on the coach.
Cancellations and severe delays.
Automatically inform the head office of the Coach company via email.
And inform the head office of the destination company via email.
Allocate all the information to a CRM.
Capsule CRM free trial
Additional marketing planning.
Collect coach clients voluntary data for future newsletter deals and promotions through a single QR code.
Allocate all the information to a CRM.
QR tourist brochure distribution
Click on the book and message ‘e-book’ for latest updates and discounts
PWA e-book discount priorityPWA e book from Maltix a working document
If you have a problem that you think could be solved with a PWA please onboard below.
I went to Bark on Tuesday last week after proposing to my girlfriend.
We set the date, March 2022, Weston Super Mare registry office.
To be honest I was just thinking 50 invitation cards, hand written, in the post.
A call from Maltix changed my thinking.
They produced a couple of beautiful designs connected to a QR code.
Connected to a RSVP form they made for us, it was beautiful.
No fuss, the diary overflowed with acceptance messages.
Thank you all at Maltix
Paul Hartley
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Paul Hartley
Groom to be
Pretoria lions register
Maltix designed a Paperless Attendance Register using QR Code and Smart Form Page. Service was excellent. Changes are done super quick. recommend Maltix any time!!
Fabulous attention to detail
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Riaan
Co Director
Dr Haris Akhter Vitamin Suite
vitamin suite
Dynamic QR
Fantastic experience. Personal caring approach and make sure you are happy with the final product.
Quality leaflet design, unbelievable Dynamic QR solutions
Astonishing new generation Avatar treatment explainers.
Project managed on budget, on time and within SLACK
A great example of why Maltix enables organisations to create mobile apps that deliver.
Proposition Builder is an end-to-end agile innovation process.
It is based on the challenges and experiences that businesses of all sizes and sectors face when trying to develop successful new propositions.
We had a challenge upon realising they needed some form of an APP and assumed the cost of developing an app would be expensive.
Quotes for Native APPS were eye watering
Maltix built the Proposition Builder PWA in 10 days
We now have the tools to mange our database
We assumed that creating an app would cost several thousand pounds and require a dedicated app developer.
Using Maltix has enabled us to manage and update our APP with out technical assistance.
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Carey McEvoy
Proposition builder
EIE investor CONFERENCE 2021
EIE CONFERENCE 2021
EIE is Scotland’s premier technology investor showcase.
The annual EIE conference features Scotland’s most promising high growth companies from the life sciences, ICT and energy sectors, seeking funding from seed to series A.
EIE needed a progressive web app for the conference that would help attendees and investors have instant access to relevant information on each company, to help them to make informed decisions.
With the agenda front and centre, guests were never confused about what was going on or where certain events were taking place.
Absolutely brilliant.
Maltix was an absolute pleasure to work with, it made creating our conference app so easy.
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Tobias Barnes Hofmeister
Director
Ted X
TEDx Glasgow needed a fully comprehensive mobile event app that guests at The SEC Armadillo in Glasgow could use.
The app had to provide relevant information for guests, especially those from out of town who would need more help accessing the event and making their way around.
As a one-off annual event, the cost of developing an app would’ve been a massive expense. Luckily, Maltix was here to help make sure TEDx Glasgow could have a fully responsive app that didn’t need an enormous amount of upkeep or development time.
Maltix created a mobile event app for all 1600 guests during the event.
The app could be shared by TEDx Glasgow via SMS and e-mail through the distribution dashboard provided.
Users had the opportunity to install the app on their phone and opt-in to receive push notifications on the day.
The app allowed delegates to view agendas, sessions, sponsors, venue maps and twitter feeds. This meant the entire event programme was at their fingertips without the need for expensive print collateral.
Comments and Votes from each section of the App could be collated to understand where the event could be improved in future years and which sessions provided the most engagement levels.
Over 1600 votes were gathered and over 150 comments.
Guests found the mobile conference app easy to use and navigate, enabling them to access vital information throughout the day.
Over 75% of the delegates installed the App onto their device with even more accessing the browser version of the Progressive Web App.
Click on the book and message ‘e-book’ for latest updates and discounts
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Loud and Clear
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Dr Andrew Sciberras
Director and owner of Loud and clear
Wedding invitations
I went to Bark on Tuesday last week after proposing to my girlfriend.
We set the date, March 2022, Weston Super Mare registry office.
To be honest I was just thinking 50 invitation cards, hand written, in the post.
A call from Maltix changed my thinking.
They produced a couple of beautiful designs connected to a QR code.
Connected to a RSVP form they made for us, it was beautiful.
No fuss, the diary overflowed with acceptance messages.
Thank you all at Maltix
Paul Hartley
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Paul Hartley
Groom to be
Pretoria lions register
Maltix designed a Paperless Attendance Register using QR Code and Smart Form Page. Service was excellent. Changes are done super quick. recommend Maltix any time!!
Fabulous attention to detail
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Riaan
Co Director
Dr Haris Akhter Vitamin Suite
vitamin suite Dynamic QR
Fantastic experience. Personal caring approach and make sure you are happy with the final product.
Quality leaflet design, unbelievable Dynamic QR solutions
Astonishing new generation Avatar treatment explainers.
Project managed on budget, on time and within SLACK
A great example of why Maltix enables organisations to create mobile apps that deliver.
Proposition Builder is an end-to-end agile innovation process.
It is based on the challenges and experiences that businesses of all sizes and sectors face when trying to develop successful new propositions.
We had a challenge upon realising they needed some form of an APP and assumed the cost of developing an app would be expensive.
Quotes for Native APPS were eye watering
Maltix built the Proposition Builder PWA in 10 days
We now have the tools to mange our database
We assumed that creating an app would cost several thousand pounds and require a dedicated app developer.
Using Maltix has enabled us to manage and update our APP with out technical assistance.
Like this:
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Carey McEvoy
Proposition builder
EIE investor CONFERENCE 2021
EIE CONFERENCE 2021
EIE is Scotland’s premier technology investor showcase.
The annual EIE conference features Scotland’s most promising high growth companies from the life sciences, ICT and energy sectors, seeking funding from seed to series A.
EIE needed a progressive web app for the conference that would help attendees and investors have instant access to relevant information on each company, to help them to make informed decisions.
With the agenda front and centre, guests were never confused about what was going on or where certain events were taking place.
Absolutely brilliant.
Maltix was an absolute pleasure to work with, it made creating our conference app so easy.
Like this:
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Tobias Barnes Hofmeister
Director
Ted X
TEDx Glasgow needed a fully comprehensive mobile event app that guests at The SEC Armadillo in Glasgow could use.
The app had to provide relevant information for guests, especially those from out of town who would need more help accessing the event and making their way around.
As a one-off annual event, the cost of developing an app would’ve been a massive expense. Luckily, Maltix was here to help make sure TEDx Glasgow could have a fully responsive app that didn’t need an enormous amount of upkeep or development time.
Maltix created a mobile event app for all 1600 guests during the event.
The app could be shared by TEDx Glasgow via SMS and e-mail through the distribution dashboard provided.
Users had the opportunity to install the app on their phone and opt-in to receive push notifications on the day.
The app allowed delegates to view agendas, sessions, sponsors, venue maps and twitter feeds. This meant the entire event programme was at their fingertips without the need for expensive print collateral.
Comments and Votes from each section of the App could be collated to understand where the event could be improved in future years and which sessions provided the most engagement levels.
Over 1600 votes were gathered and over 150 comments.
Guests found the mobile conference app easy to use and navigate, enabling them to access vital information throughout the day.
Over 75% of the delegates installed the App onto their device with even more accessing the browser version of the Progressive Web App.
Imagine your customers dismay when they take the time to scan your Code just to find a broken link or outdated information.
To keep from being stuck with a QR Code that you can’t ever update, Maltix create Dynamic Code.
With this type of Code, you can change the target URL or content any time even after you’ve already printed and distributed hundreds of your marketing material.
4 | Use high quality images
Avoid pixelated or blurry QR Codes and make sure to print them sharp and clear.
Not only do they scan better, but they also look more professional.
Depending on the size of your QR Code, JPG and PNG formats work well for small-scale printing such as business cards and brochures.
Graphic designers and print shops prefer vector files like EPS and SVG which can be scaled easily without losing print quality for sizable print projects.
5 | Material matters
Creativity can go a long way whether printing on paper, glass, aluminum or plastic.
Be wary of choosing material that reflects too much light or distorts the image and competes with the scannability of your QR Code.
Uneven surfaces that are ribbed may disfigure the Code and printing in between magazine folds sections off parts of it so it’s hard to view the full image.
Ultimately, use your best judgement and make sure to test so it’s scannable.
6 | Keep Codes within reach
The right advertising media for your campaign are those that literally reach your target audience the best.
Placing your QR Code too high up, too low on the ground or too far away means your customers will have a hard time reaching to scan the Code.
Place QR Codes within appropriate reach for maximum accessibility.
And remember your business flow.
The millennial generation are attracted to shareable discounts , vouchers and promotions that they can share for you on social media.
But remember the APP in APP components of your PWA
This generation are attracted to A to Z business, that could be subscription payments or digital contracts or signature or advanced booking capabilities.
*QR can be connected to all of this and more on your PWA !
Scanning a QR Code only takes a mere average of 15 seconds.
This already includes the time it takes to take out your smartphone, open camera, hold the device steady towards the Code and scan. Vehicles—unless parked—make them only partially suitable for QR Codes.
Electronic billboards and TV commercials may not give enough time, either.
Stagnant media outlets (posters, magazines, displays, etc.) are a safer choice so your customers have plenty of time to scan.
8 | Avoid multiple Codes at once
There are instances when you may need to place QR Codes next to each other.
However, keep in mind that printing multiple Codes close to each other or even placing QR Codes next to barcodes can lead to accidentally scanning the wrong one.
If you must, place Codes on opposite ends of your layout and vary the designs.
Did you know there are QR Codes that can link to multiple URLs?
9 | Give a reason to scan, whats your call to action ?
Become a Maltix partner educating small business about QR and PWA in your local community
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William Nicholls
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William Nicholls
Founder
Loud and Clear
loud and clear double sided double dynamic QR Logo Book an appointment connect wifi
Like this:
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Dr Andrew Sciberras
Director and owner of Loud and clear
Wedding invitations
I went to Bark on Tuesday last week after proposing to my girlfriend.
We set the date, March 2022, Weston Super Mare registry office.
To be honest I was just thinking 50 invitation cards, hand written, in the post.
A call from Maltix changed my thinking.
They produced a couple of beautiful designs connected to a QR code.
Connected to a RSVP form they made for us, it was beautiful.
No fuss, the diary overflowed with acceptance messages.
Thank you all at Maltix
Paul Hartley
Like this:
LikeLoading...
Paul Hartley
Groom to be
Pretoria lions register
Maltix designed a Paperless Attendance Register using QR Code and Smart Form Page. Service was excellent. Changes are done super quick. recommend Maltix any time!!
Fabulous attention to detail
Like this:
LikeLoading...
Riaan
Co Director
Dr Haris Akhter Vitamin Suite
vitamin suite Dynamic QR
Fantastic experience. Personal caring approach and make sure you are happy with the final product.
Quality leaflet design, unbelievable Dynamic QR solutions
Astonishing new generation Avatar treatment explainers.
Project managed on budget, on time and within SLACK
A great example of why Maltix enables organisations to create mobile apps that deliver.
Proposition Builder is an end-to-end agile innovation process.
It is based on the challenges and experiences that businesses of all sizes and sectors face when trying to develop successful new propositions.
We had a challenge upon realising they needed some form of an APP and assumed the cost of developing an app would be expensive.
Quotes for Native APPS were eye watering
Maltix built the Proposition Builder PWA in 10 days
We now have the tools to mange our database
We assumed that creating an app would cost several thousand pounds and require a dedicated app developer.
Using Maltix has enabled us to manage and update our APP with out technical assistance.
Like this:
LikeLoading...
Carey McEvoy
Proposition builder
EIE investor CONFERENCE 2021
EIE CONFERENCE 2021
EIE is Scotland’s premier technology investor showcase.
The annual EIE conference features Scotland’s most promising high growth companies from the life sciences, ICT and energy sectors, seeking funding from seed to series A.
EIE needed a progressive web app for the conference that would help attendees and investors have instant access to relevant information on each company, to help them to make informed decisions.
With the agenda front and centre, guests were never confused about what was going on or where certain events were taking place.
Absolutely brilliant.
Maltix was an absolute pleasure to work with, it made creating our conference app so easy.
Like this:
LikeLoading...
Tobias Barnes Hofmeister
Director
Ted X
TEDx Glasgow needed a fully comprehensive mobile event app that guests at The SEC Armadillo in Glasgow could use.
The app had to provide relevant information for guests, especially those from out of town who would need more help accessing the event and making their way around.
As a one-off annual event, the cost of developing an app would’ve been a massive expense. Luckily, Maltix was here to help make sure TEDx Glasgow could have a fully responsive app that didn’t need an enormous amount of upkeep or development time.
Maltix created a mobile event app for all 1600 guests during the event.
The app could be shared by TEDx Glasgow via SMS and e-mail through the distribution dashboard provided.
Users had the opportunity to install the app on their phone and opt-in to receive push notifications on the day.
The app allowed delegates to view agendas, sessions, sponsors, venue maps and twitter feeds. This meant the entire event programme was at their fingertips without the need for expensive print collateral.
Comments and Votes from each section of the App could be collated to understand where the event could be improved in future years and which sessions provided the most engagement levels.
Over 1600 votes were gathered and over 150 comments.
Guests found the mobile conference app easy to use and navigate, enabling them to access vital information throughout the day.
Over 75% of the delegates installed the App onto their device with even more accessing the browser version of the Progressive Web App.
Appointedd also powered virtual events with celebrity appearances that attracted more than 5000 retail customers
And saw another retail client introduce virtual events which sold out four weeks in advance.
As a retailer weathering 2021, here’s how (and why) you can make the most of virtual.
Enhance your in-store revenue via online channels
Appointedd powers online booking for Mamas & Papas and in the last year, we’ve helped them pivot from purely in-store experiences and events to 100% virtual.
Mamas & Papas Retail Director, Marcus Appleton led his team through the transition at the beginning of the first UK lockdown:
“Having worked with Appointedd for two years, we knew that the Personal Shopping service they support is an absolute revenue driver for every single store. We knew we needed to enhance that revenue through our online channels, but we were delighted when our first virtual group event sold out in 15 minutes.”
To hear more from Marcus, and how Mamas & Papas enhanced their in-store revenue via online channels, register for our webinar below:
By drawing inspiration from real life and our retail clients, Appointedd has created a frictionless booking flow for both the customer and the business. Our retail widget:
Adapts to the look and feel of each brand including font, colours, content and images
Captures unlimited number of bookings (hello revenue) and enables you to run multiple appointments at once
Creates a unique Zoom link for every booking, which is automatically sent via confirmation and reminder emails
Generates a 100% conversion rate from booked appointment to paying customer
Appointedd also partners with other retail tech providers, and together, we’re taking virtual experiences to the next level!
SpaceNK’s CRM and Loyalty Manager, Hannah Templeman pivoted in-store services to not only meet local Covid-19 restrictions (stores closures) but to continue serving customers virtually:
“Appointedd’s retail widget has helped us to be flexible and to offer meaningful engagement with our customers.”
Drive more revenue while keeping your staff off furlough
Covid-19 has been one of the most disruptive events to impact the retail industry.
Not only have brick-and-mortar stores been forced to close, retail and wholesale staff were the worst hit in terms of furlough – claiming £3.3bn for 1.6m workers.
The retailers who’ve introduced virtual services via Appointedd have given their staff a job to do:
Serve customers from the safety of their own home and as a result, they’re driving revenue via their online channels.
One of our retail clients has seen a 92% surge in orders since using Appointedd’s online booking tools and is hiring 300 people to cope with the demand!
Whether your staff are working from home, your head office, or from a closed store, Appointedd empowers your staff to connect with your customers virtually.
From wherever they are and especially the Smartphone through a PWA
We’ve seen many different operational layouts as to how retailers are running their virtual appointments – whether it’s virtual personal shopping experiences, virtual make-up masterclasses, virtual showroom tours, or virtual VIP events – we’re happy to share more recommendations on this and how you can maximise return from your virtual services.
It’s now or never
Having been here before, we know that it’s not the strongest that survives, it’s those most adaptable to change.
Appointedd is delighted to be working with some of the world’s best retailers to help them make the most of virtual services – we’d love to help you too!
Appointedd can help you kick off your virtual offering which includes:
Branded and bespoke retail widget creation
Unlimited bookings for virtual and click and collect services, at no extra cost
One-off custom reporting, detailing further information on where your customers are booking from
Account set-up, configuration and training with our expert Account Management Team
We are reviewing how we can encourage and enable retail businesses to level up their offerings and enhance customer experiences.
Appointedd’s own Leah Hutcheon sat down (virtually of course) with the Retail Director for Mamas & Papas, Marcus Appleton and Go-Instore’s Global Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Roger Sowerbutts, to discuss the changing landscape of retail and what opportunities are available.
So let’s review some of the key points discussed.
Virtual appointment services
Necessity
Necessity has definitely been established, we’re nearly a year into a pandemic with fluctuating levels of restrictions – locally and globally.
Flexible digital solutions are stepping up to the plate.
Go-Instore found client usage of their virtual retail experience service grew dramatically following lock-down measures.
With a modest number of 15-20 sales associates per brand using the service for their customers pre-lockdown growing to an excess of 2500 per brand.
It’s evident that your retail business needs to be ready to adapt.
There’s also the impact on consumer behaviour to consider.
At Appointedd it’s our business to understand changes in consumer habits in order for us to deliver our scheduling and engagement solutions effectively.
Pandemic and the continuing ripple effect this will have on the retail industry.
But appointment booking and virtual retail experiences aren’t brand new concepts, in fact Appointedd celebrated its 10th birthday this month!
This milestone is absolutely testament to the need for, and longevity of virtual and digital solutions.
Opportunity
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Supply and demand.
Whatever you want to call it, when your customer has a need to fulfil, you have an opportunity to deliver and grow.
Mamas & Papas, a client of both Appointedd and Go-Instore, is a great example of this.
Having integrated virtual solutions prior to lockdown, Marcus Appleton acknowledges the opportunities that are there for retailers to “embrace digital engagement from a brand perspective, customer experience perspective focusing on operational and commercial”.
How can you level up your retail experiences?
Create immersive experiences. Online video experiences are a great way to create a more human, immersive experience for your customer to still get a sense of your brand without physically being in a store.
Increase customer engagement. Appointment booking for virtual consultations will capture your online customers at the height of interest. Online events and employing brand ambassadors will also engage your customers and enhance your brand awareness.
Expand your geographical presence. Reach and understand new markets without the need for a physical store presence.
Develop customer insights. Use research tools and data to build comprehensive and reliable insights into customer behaviour.
Deliver customer care and support. Deliver in depth and consistent customer support services with touchpoints both before and after purchase.
All of the above and more can be utilised by retail businesses to develop and establish a valuable customer experience outside of bricks and mortar stores.
Take it to the customer and deliver experience, information, transaction and support.
On top of the pure demand for such services we are seeing increased conversion rates.
For example Mamas & Papas have been seeing conversion rates of 45-50% on their virtual appointment services with additional revenue gained through other services offered via their Appointedd retail widget.
At Appointedd we’ve had positive results from a number of clients, with one furniture retailer seeing a 92% surge in orders, subsequently allowing them to also expand their team and recruit 300 team members to meet demand.
Levelling up your retail experiences is no longer an optional upgrade for your business.
In order to future-proof your business for 2021 and beyond, they are essential.
Whereas we’ve previously seen a disparity between bricks and mortar and online offerings, services provided by businesses like Appointedd and Go-Instore can help to close that gap and deliver a seamless omni-channel experience for both the business and the customer.
This is an opportunity for you to deliver your service and engage meaningfully with your customers across all channels.
The majority of business traffic now goes through the Smartphone.
The all new Progressive Web APP is a website that works normally on the PC.
Behaves like an APP on the Smartphone.
An astonishing opportunity has arisen through spare production capacity.
PWA 70% off
Breathtakingly Smartphone agile
As light as a butterfly
No APP store required
Works offline
Including a bundle of optional FREE trials
Top of the range, customer service technology in one low PWA hosting package
Maltix PWA deal ends today
£399 build includes text, image, sliders, headers, buttons, all files, all media, i-frame, google maps, WordPress mobile integration, Website wrapper, 3rd Party Marketplace, Back office live updates.
£29 per month hosting includes Domain name, email and social media distribute, QR codes, 200 SMS credit, SMS distribution, unlimited push notifications, Analytics, User profiling, Member log in, Chat room, and advanced member specific data, delegates option, smart form pages, Feedback, Ratings, Roster, Schedule,Vote options, Countdown, Instagram, Twitter, You Tube, Vimeo, Momenzo property video, Appointedd*, E-commerce, Banking with Paypal, Stripe, Square
Oder your PWA today with free on-boardingMake a decision on a shiny new PWA today – 2 pricing plansTalk with Maltix and plan the correct PWA strategy for your businessOrder here
The combination of self help and customer service 2021
The entire website industry has focused on customer self help for many years.
From a business perspective driving down variable costs and allowing visitors to sort out their own problems initially sounded like a good idea.
The idea that expensive telephone support could be removed altogether was attractive to the board.
But unpleasantly attractive to the customer.
Many business fell on their sword, ask any bank just for starters.
Live ticket and a myriad of customer service tech evolved to help customer service.
CHAT rooms were embraced to provide customer service.
And then CHAT bots pretending to be a live support agent tried to solve the customer service problems of self help.
Now AI is all the rage.
And all along the most massive surge of change manifested.
The Smartphone USER.
In fact the whole idea of self help for the millennia generation suited their independent mindset.
Embracing self help smashed the traditional sales cycle.
Millennial’s simply by-pass the traditional sales cycle.
Their focus is on the referral.
The kudos.
The love of immediacy.
The personal relevance.
The ease of passing the word on social media.
The purpose of the website is being changed by the Smartphone user.
The self serving business interests of big business was just like squeezing a balloon full of water.
The new Smartphone generation took the best bits and took their interest and their cash else where.
Self help and the Millennial.
Websites deliver customer self help.
PWA provides customer service.
A PWA linked to your customer service portal opens up social media as a distribution ledger.
Why is PWA so attractive to the Smartphone user?
The make of their Smartphone is irrelevant, it just works beautifully at high speed.
It works offline.
They probably dont know its a PWA, its kind of like a cool baby website that doesn’t sit on their desktop taking up valuable memory.
They never have to delete it when their memory gets full.
It talks to them from nowhere with stuff to spread on social media like discounts, promotions, deals and tips.
They can respond for immediate reassurance or support if they need it.
Book appointments.
Cast their vote and send feedback.
The vouchers and discounts are one time redeemable right off their phone in store or online.
And all this incoming notifications are relevant to their purchasing habits.
Incoming and outgoing PWA notifications enables forwarding on social media.
From their hairdresser, their garage, their local pub, their shops of choice,their dentist, their estate agent,their church, their political party, their airline, their online bank their hobby group, their friends and their friends friends.
Recipients can forward it from APP to APP
Don’t need to download from APP store
PWA flies through social media unhindered.
How convinced are you that the future is PWA ?
Maltix has a FREE on-boarding process and a huge bundle of other stuff that might be relevant to your business for FREE.
Shop here.
PWA investment
Are you well connected to your local business community and like the idea of working for yourself but not by yourself ? Join the Maltix partner programme
So if the majority of the sales cycle is self service and the millennial numbers are so large and expect complete A to Z business transactions on their Smartphone.
Store owners shop owners / agents can no longer afford to neglect the importance of having a mobile-optimised online store within a PWA as well as their website.
And when we say ‘store owners’ we mean anything related to stock and window displays all connected to the sale cycle.
Only very very happy clients refer your business on social media.
Alarming APP stats from Smashing ideas
According to Smashing Ideas, companies that switch to Progressive Web APP notice an increase from at least 20% by up to 250%.
Understanding how consumers are using their mobile devices in 2021
So before you get started on making changes adopting a PWA, read on for the latest and most relevant facts and figures to guide your strategy.
The most advanced smartphone communication device ever.
Two way Comm’s and customer service is integral to a PWA
Push and pull info and promotions with a PWA
In this article, we’ll provide you with important mobile statistics on key aspects of mobile usage for your store and Smartphone APP delivery strategy.
This is a 10 minute read and explains the dominance of mobile Smartphones and why the normal website simply cannot cope with he Smartphone users needs.
How Many People Own Smartphones?
PWA for customer service
There are currently 3.5 billion Smartphone users worldwide (Statista, 2019).
Considering the total number of people using phones globally is at 4.8 billion, that means that nearly 73 percent of them are users of Smartphones.
This number is also rising rapidly with time, evidenced by the fact that just four years ago in 2016, there were one billion fewer smartphone users.
This is expected to rise to 3.8 billion in 2021, marking a 52 percent increase in a relatively short period of five years.
Time Spent on Mobile Devices
Daily time spent on smartphone
Now that we have an idea of how many people own Smartphones, the next thing you need to know is how much time is spent using them.
People spend more time on their Smartphone than watching TV !
Time spent on mobile devices is forecast to hit just under four hours (3 hours and 54 minutes) in 2021
People Using Phones for Product Research
70% attempt product research on Smartphone
PWA customer service
This next mobile statistic will show you how mobile devices influence consumers’ product research process.
The latest mobile usage statistics.
Nearly seven out of ten internet users say they would look for customer reviews on their phones while in-store before approaching an employee (e-Marketer, 2020).
And researching product reviews isn’t the only thing mobile users are doing in-store.
58 percent of them are also looking for other products similar to the ones they’re thinking about purchasing.
And 55 percent are looking up product specifications.
Such mobile usage statistics highlight the importance of providing consumers with a positive super fast mobile PWA experience.
Half of them have already included it among their most important customer engagement strategies using product specific QR.
Two thirds of smartphone users use APPS to purchase
More than half of internet users use their mobile phones to purchase products online.
Not only are people using their mobile devices to do product research, but many of them are also using them to carry out purchases.
The latest mobile statistics hint at a high reliance online shopping on their mobile devices particularly Smartphone friendly PWA
Millennial’s shop on their mobiles the most.
Nearly two thirds having purchased a product online with their mobile phone in the past month.
That’s just a touch higher than 55 percent in the 16 to 24 age group.
In comparison, over 40% aged from 55 to 64 have also done so.
With so many people doing mobile shopping, as an E-commerce business owner, you should consider prioritising your mobile PWA optimisation strategy.
A PWA is specifically built for the needs of the Smartphoneuser.
“Users who have come across a negative experience on a mobile website are a lot less likely to buy from that business“
The Option of Mobile Shopping
Poor customer service on smartphone
Many shoppers consider the a poor customer service immediacy as a deal breaker every-time.
So if you’re still not convinced of the benefits of setting up your e-Commerce offering for Smartphone mobile commerce using a PWA, consider this statistic:
Almost six out of every ten shoppers say that being able to purchase products on mobile devices is a key factor when it comes to choosing brands or retailers to buy from (Google, 2019).
A PWA strategy ensures available via your website for PC users.
AND availability and interaction to Smartphone users via a PWA off the exact same website address !
A PWA snaps into action dramatically quicker than a website and provides all the needs of a Smartphone user with no bother.
Mobile Time Spent With Digital Media
70% of time spent on social media
PWA customer service
Smartphones currently account for 70 percent of the total digital media time. (Comscore)
Delighted customers distribute a PWA so easily, it doesn’t live in the APP store !
Conclusion:
These mobile usage statistics can help you craft a mobile-first PWA strategy that will propel your business forward with higher engagement and stunning referral.
Onboard with Maltix and get a mountain of free advice and free links as part of the DEAL
What are some of the most important PWA statistics that we should pay attention to in 2021?
Businesses that switch to PWA notice an increase from at least 20% by up to 250%.
Over the last decade, mobile consumption is on the rise.
According to Statista, the number of smartphone users in 2021 is estimated to reach the mind-blowing number of 3.8 billion worldwide.
This is over 50% of the entire global population !
But, if that was not enough to convince you, just keep in mind that adults spend on average more than 3 hours daily on their phones.
However, while the overall mobile consumption is undoubtedly on the rise, native apps, which used to be the pinnacle of mobile devices, are now slowly but steadily getting substituted by progressive web apps.
And today, we will see some key PWA statistics that prove it.
A PWA requires no APP store
For those who are not familiar with the concept, progressive web apps, also known as PWAs, are web applications that behave and feel like a native mobile app.
And they don’t have to be downloaded from an APP store !
The key PWA statistics that we should all know in 2021!
1. PWAs have 36% higher conversion rates than native apps
In a study conducted by the TOP 30 PWAs report, the average conversion rate for progressive web apps was 36% higher than the one for native mobile apps.
The main reason why, as explained by Tom Karwatka, CEO at Divante LTD, is due to a curious phenomenon called the “mobile revenue gap”:
This gap, as Tom explains in his article, is particularly noticeable in the retail industry.
Mobile traffic and consumer time on mobile are much higher than on the desktop.
However, despite the higher consumption of content on mobile devices, and the amount of time spent on it, ” mobile sales numbers are much lower.“
According to Tom, there are numerous reasons why conversion on a mobile can be significantly lower than desktop, in some cases 2-3 times less, including:
Poor overall user experience on mobile.
Security concerns related to unknown sources.
Navigating through the app is difficult.
Challenging to see product details, or input personal data.
Can’t open nor browse multiple screens to compare.
Cannot use APP offline.
The majority of these issues, however, can be solved by switching from native apps to progressive web apps.
Because they combine the best ot both worlds – desktop and mobile.
And provide smooth mobile look & feel with the functionalities and user experience of desktop.
This explains the importance behind the first one of our essential PWA statistics – the higher conversion rate compared to native.
2. Progressive web apps register 50% higher customer engagement
two way comms
Next on our list of key PWA statistics is the higher customer engagement of Progressive Web APPS compared to old native technology.
According to Smashing Ideas, companies that switch to PWA notice an increase from at least 20% by up to 250%.
This is a significant difference that often translates to increased revenue for businesses.
Some companies that noticed an improved customer engagement include:
Lancome – which registered 53% more mobile sessions;
MakeMyTrip – 160% more mobile sessions;
Twitter – 25% more pages per session;
Trivago – 150% more repeat visits;
OLX – 250% more repeat visits;
Considering the fact that 65% of users download zero apps on their phone.
It is no surprise that PWA’s, that allow them to access their favourite website in a smooth and comfortable way from their phone, are significantly more engaging.
And drive more revenue for businesses in the long run.
3. Businesses switching to PWAs notice a decrease in page loading speed of up to 10 times
Only the PWA is built for the tremendous speed for the Smartphone user.
Speed is one of the most important factors when it comes to smooth digital experience.
For this reason, next on our list of PWA statistics is page speed, and how companies can benefit from it by switching to progressive web apps.
Speed is one of the most exciting features when it comes to PWAs.
Combined with their capability of working in offline mode, they make it possible for users to access their favourite APP in practically any moment.
Some of the companies that managed to reduce page load time by switching to progressive web apps include:
Wego – the travel booking website decreased their page loading time from 12 seconds to between less than 3 seconds, in many cases even less than 1 second;
Twitter Lite – this PWA is interactive in less than 5 seconds over 3G on the majority of electronic devices, with 30% faster average load times;
Forbes – the homepage of this progressive web app loads completely in just 0.8 seconds;
ZEE5 – after launching a PWA to expand its reach, the streaming platform achieved 3x faster loading times, and reduced buffering time by 50%;
Treebo – managed to drop its median interactive time to 1.5 seconds;
According to these PWA statistics, overall speed is not the only thing that improves when companies switch to progressive web apps.
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Another key speed aspect that improves is TTI, or the Time to Interact – in other words, the time until a user is finally able to interact with your page,
Even it hasn’t loaded completely yet.
This is due to the fact that PWAs use the so-called “service worker” cache to store detailed information and the features of the app so they can load immediately once the app is accessed.
4. On average, PWAs cost 3-4 times less than native mobile apps
Stay competitive using a PWA
Another mind-blowing fact from our list of PWAs statistics is the cost for development of a progressive web app compared to a native mobile one.
On average is 3-4 times less to build and host– but it can reach up to 10 or even 15 times in some cases.
Building a regular app from scratch is usually associated with high development costs.
Especially if the app is more complex and requires advanced features.
Additionally, the fact that each APP store and operating system require a completely separate development only adds to the cost.
In monetary value, this can mean an APP starting from £10,000 for a single app store !
In comparison, a Maltix PWA is significantly more affordable to manufacture and host.
The same development works for all APP stores and operating systems at once.
5. Progressive web apps cost 33% less to maintain
Costs a lot less to build and host
Of course, when we are talking about costs, the investment for building your mobile presence doesn’t just end with the development of the APP itself.
It is just where it starts!
Once your APP has been launched on the market, you will have to continue providing an ongoing maintenance to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
For example, if you spent £10,000 on building your native app, you could expect maintenance costs of £20,000 per year to provide a great mobile experience for your users.
Depending on the complexity of the APP, you could also incur additional costs for servers, bug fixing and updates, emergency maintenance, payment processing, push notifications, and so on.
Maltix is the first APP Company to offer fixed price APP build with fully inclusive features.
According to various PWA statistics and studies, progressive web apps require 33% less maintenance costs compared to their native counterpart.
One of the biggest reasons why is because you don’t have to maintain different APPS across different APP stores – with their specialised development tools, coding languages and resources.
With a Maltix PWA, you only have to maintain a single web APP
Another thing to take into account is that a company that runs a website and a mobile app needs to maintain both, which typically require separate – and more expensive – maintenance.
And more often than not, it also requires hiring separate teams to work for iOS, Android, and web.
However, because PWA have multi-platform capability, the costs as a result are significantly lower.
6. PWAs can be up to 90% smaller than native mobile apps
PWA fact
Next on our list of PWA statistics is size.
One of the biggest benefits of PWA is that they are significantly smaller and lighter than native mobile apps.
The majority of them are no heavier than 1 MB! Let´s see some actual examples:
Twitter Lite – the progressive web app Twitter Lite is one of the best PWA examples when it comes to improved efficiency and customer engagement. The company managed to achieve a size of barely 600 KB – in comparison, the weight of the app in Android is 23.5 MB, and in iOS – the overwhelming 116.5 MB! By using fewer and cached data, and smaller media resources, Twitter was able to provide a lighter and more accessible app for its users.
Pinterest – another success when it comes to the efficiency and accessibility of PWAs is Pinterest, which managed to achieve a size of just 150 KB – compared to 17 MB in Android and 56 MB in iOS, it comes as no surprise that new sign ups increased exponentially, and time spent on Pinterest from mobile devices increased by 5%.
Starbucks – with a ultralight and fast progressive web app of just 600 KB in size, Starbucks has increased its daily active users by two times. In fact, the order rate from mobile phones is now nearly the same as the one for desktop.
OpenSooq – the new PWA of OpenSooq is only 28.3 KB, and it has improved the company´s engagement rate with a 25% increase in average time on page. Which, as a result, brought 260% more leads.
To sum it up, Progressive Web Apps provide a great workaround to the typical problem that many mobile users have.
The constant and highly annoying task of having to delete old apps to make room for new ones.
PWAs are so light and practically don’t take any significant space on a smartphone.
You don’t have to worry about having enough space for it.
The amount of space that old native mobile apps occupy is one of the biggest reasons why people choose not to download them, unless it´s absolutely necessary.
7. The average bounce rate of a PWA is just 42.86%
To top off our list of PWA statistics, it is also important to notice that the average bounce rate for progressive web apps is barely 42.86%.
In comparison, an average mobile bounce rate is about 60%, the same one for tablets is about 49%, and for desktop – anywhere between 41% and 55%.
Of course, this will also depend on the industry as some industries will experience higher bounce rates than others.
PWAs register enhanced user engagement.
Faster loading times of less than 3 seconds, and a higher number of mobile sessions and page views compared to mobile websites, only shows that PWA’s are slowly, are substituting native mobile apps.
