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How Social & Mobile Tech Unlocks Loyalty

9/5/2014
Hospitality Technology (HT) has partnered with leading Universities to produce the third annual  Customer Engagement Technology Study. The complete study can be downloaded online and it will be presented at the 2014 Restaurant Executive Summit taking place November 3-5 at The Ritz-Carlton in Ft. Lauderdale.
 
Through surveying hotel and restaurant executives, HT  chronicles the trends associated with customer engagement technologies (CETs) — including installation rates and the nuances of their use — to help hospitality providers make smart technology choices. CETs refer to the guest-facing technologies and applications used throughout each phase of the guest lifecycle to better engage and serve customers. These include such technologies as mobile devices, apps and websites; social loyalty (that is, the ability of a company to track and reward consumers’ social media activity through a loyalty program); interactive digital signage; tableside ordering and payment in restaurants; tablet-based hotel check-in; and others.
 
The results of this research are segmented into two distinct reports for the hotel and restaurant industries. Findings confirm that there’s strong interest in social loyalty by both hotels and restaurants, and that investment in mobile apps and websites will continue. However, many organizations have not yet monetized their mobile initiatives, and are struggling to measure results. That said, the research shows a high correlation between customer engagement and business performance – technologies that effectively engage customers are also having a positive impact on the business. This is welcome news to the large numbers of businesses that are still working to identify the best ways to measure ROI.
 
Some study highlights include:
  • 42% of hotels and 54% of restaurants plan to integrate social loyalty functionality in 2015.
  • 79% of restaurants plan to roll out a mobile app by the end of 2015.
  • 80% of hotels plan to roll out a mobile app by the end of 2015.
  • 43% of restaurant apps allow users to place orders.
  • 59% of restaurant apps offer menu access.
  • 54% of hotel mobile apps cannot take a room reservation.
  • 25% of hotel mobile websites cannot take a room reservation.
  • 49% of hotels will focus on tablet-based check-in in 2015.
  • 53% of restaurants plan to focus on mobile payments in 2015.
 
The full report can be downloaded here.
 
To register for the 2014 Restaurant Executive Summit and view the full agenda, click here.
 
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