The Impacts Of Mobile Applications On The Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

?The Impacts of Mobile Applications on the Hospitality Industry The impacts of mobile applications on the hospitality industry Introduction This study focuses on the impacts of mobile applications on hospitality industry. Hospitality industry comprises all activities that make clients comfortable and to feel accommodated. The industry encompasses various other sub-industries like tourism and catering. In such industries, many strategies to ensure clients are treated with topmost hospitality exist. But one rapidly emerging strategy surpasses the others – the advent of mobile applications (Engel, 2013). Mobile applications include mobile phones, iPods, iPods and other tablets, computers, social media and the internet altogether (Engel, 2013). Such mobile applications, obviously coming with enhancing technology such as the internet, have had huge impacts on the hospitality industry, to be particular. In this paper, the various impacts are addressed including: providing high levels of efficiency; reducing operational costs; improving image of the hospitality agencies and entities; reaching high of clients; providing an efficient platform on which clients table their comments; and encouraging organizational accountability to the clients. Providing high levels of efficiency Needles to mention, it is a goal of every hospitality organization to make its daily operations efficient (Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000; Kotler & Keller, 2009). This the juncture at which various mobile applications pop in with full swing. They have completely wiped out the old manual ways of performing various activities. Engel (2013) gives an example of how tedious and clumsy things were before the introduction of Wi-Fi technology – house keeping supervisors used to walk long distances just to ensure room attendants stuck on their duties and to give directions. Later, the advent of Wi-Fi technology came with iPod Touch and iPad devices (Engel, 2013). These devices only required an onscreen touch or a button click to send messages to the room attendants (Engel, 2013). In other words, communication was made easier and repeated walks became a thing of the past. In a similar way, the receptionists had an easy time recording the number of guests going in and out of the respective premises(Engel, 2013). Mobile phones have as well improved communication efficiency. It is easier for a client to directly call the management to raise complaints and book appointments than with the old way of using letters (Engel, 2013). Also, almost all hospitality organizations have pages on social media and/ websites where potential clients can post comments and ask questions while sitting at their respective homes (Withiam, 2013). In the meantime, it is now possible, in many hospitality firms, to buy tickets online while sitting at home. Obviously, such clients are happy about how easy such and similar processes become and any hospitality organization that runs its operations using the manual ways of the past is considered as lagging behind times (Barnes, 2004; Hotel News Resource, 2013). Reducing operational costs Mobile technologies have gone an extra mile in reducing operational costs. Advertising costs, for instance, have been greatly cut short by the presence of social media. It is hard to find any meaningful hospitality organization without Facebook, Twitter and website to name a few (Hotel News Resource, 2013). Such social media platforms assist in reaching great numbers of potential clients from diverse background and or round the globe (Withiam, 2013). All the clients need is to know that there exists a company page or website from where he or she can learn more about the company, ask questions and post comments. All operations involving organizational performance analysis are made easy what with the use of social media commentaries, retweets and likes on Facebook (Engel, 2013). Travel costs are also greatly reduced. Aforementioned, rather than managers moving long distances just to inform other workers about their duty schedules, it currently only takes a mobile phone to communicate. Better still, internet enabled mobile phones and touch pads enable, for example, a manager, to update business information online while sitting at home. Such information reaches large numbers of clients at the same time. Paperwork costs have as well been reduced greatly. Nowadays, things like internal memos are sent simultaneously to all workers. Transactional costs too have been reduced (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Today, it only takes a mobile phone and/or debit cards make business transactions over long distances whereof cheap online shopping and shipping are provided (Engel, 2013). In short, mobile applications have led to reduction of operational costs amounting to huge profits for a particular hospitality organization. Improving image of the hospitality agencies and entities Definitely, mobile applications enable hospitality organizations build well on its image. The more an organization fosters services that utilize mobile applications means more transparency, accountability and up to date-ness of that organization. This means more comfort, entertainment and enthusiasm to the clients buying such an organization’s products. This translates to more confidence in the organization (Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000), more clients, more profits and greater capacity to expand the business. An organization that does not foster and move along with mobile applications is utterly doomed. This observation only means one thing: the more the hospitality organization embraces and incorporates mobile technology, the bigger its name grows and the more the clients and profits altogether. Reaching high number of clients Every business management struggles to reach high numbers of potential clients (Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000; Kotler & Keller, 2009). The mobile technology has provided an easy avenue through which such goals are achievable. The social media and internet enabled electronic gadgets are currently excellent and easily available utilities for this course (Engel, 2013). A good example is Facebook where, once an organization has created a page, many numbers of people are only required to like the page and every new update appears on their News Feed platform (Engel, 2013; Withiam, 2013). Mobile phones form another useful utility for this call. It only costs a particular hospitality organization connection to the mobile phones services server company to send multiple text messages to all mobile subscribers. This means that same message is received by the largest number of potential clients possible by a single button click. Almost all hospitality organizations and agencies have individual websites (Engel, 2013). All an organization with website needs is to inform the public that the website exists from. Numerous clients who prefer the services and products the organization offers the market and visit the website from any corner of the world (Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000). At the same time, such an organization can easily market its website by way of search engines prioritization and back-links which increase the chances of internet surfers to locate the website. Providing an efficient platform on which clients table their comments The provisions for the clients to post their comments is perhaps the ultimatum for the enhancement of control in the hospitality industry (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Virtually all hospitality organizations, like in any other industry (Barnes, 2004), often want to know the reactions of their clients to their services because this suggests areas that need improvement. The mobile technology has made it easy achieving this objective. Today, as most if not all hospitality organizations have websites and social media pages (Withiam, 2013), the mobile applications enable clients to post as many comments and critics as possible. As a matter of fact, this has completely defaced clumsy old ways such as the use of suggestion boxes, letters and comment notes. Encouraging organizational accountability to the clients Mobile applications have transferred business control powers from the managers to the clients. The online comments and critics, for example, are open for everyone to see. Clients not only post praise comments, but they also post critics and complaints. Such critics and complaints and the common business phrase ‘the customer is always right’ only suggest one thing: the hospitality organization’s management in question must address all complaints and critics (Kotler & Keller, 2009) left behind by way of finding quick solutions. In other words, as the mobile technology as so explained leaves the company in the open for scrutiny, the management must always ensure highest level accountability is kept intact as far as the comfort and satisfaction of the client is concerned. Anyhow, it is possible that in the same way the mobile applications can build a name for a hospitality organization, in the same way it can destroy the organization’s image (Barnes, 2004; Hotel News Resource, 2013). Conclusion As the study has shown, it is safe to conclude that mobile application have developed positive impacts on the hospitality industry. For one, they have led to more efficient business operations such as easier and faster modes of communication both internally and between the management and the clients. Two, mobile applications have cut short many operational cost. Examples are transport and shipping costs, transaction cost and communication costs. Three, the mobile applications are good utilities in building the name of the respective hospitality industry. With the technology, it is possible to inform multiple numbers of people about the organization’s product by just a screen touch or a button click. This encompasses the fact that mobile technology enables an organization to reach large masses of people simultaneously hence ease of marketing – promotion and advertisement (Barnes, 2004). Fourth, the technology provides clients with a platform on which they can post comments, critics and complaints they wish known. Lastly, these mobile applications indirectly ensure that an organizational management remains accountable to its clients. This is because the clients’ provisions to comment what they wish leave the respective organization in the open and subject for scrutiny. And it is for this reason that hospitality organizations and agencies must ensure high accountability to the clients (who have the control anyway) or else the organization’s reputation may be destroyed. List of references Barnes, S.J. (2004). Mobile Marketing: The Role of Permission and Acceptance. International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2(2), pp. 128-139. Engel, P. (2013). Delivering High Impact Operational Efficiencies through Mobile Applications. Retrieved: [31 October, 2013). Hotel News Resource. (2013). Technology: Hotels Slow to Act on Mobile Apps despite Belief in Their Future. Retrieved: [30 October, 2013). Singh, J. & Sirdeshmukh, D. (2000). Agency and trust mechanisms in consumer satisfaction and loyalty judgments. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science 28 1 Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2009). Marketing management. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Withiam, G. (2013). Social Media and the Hospitality Industry: Holding the Tiger by the Tail. The Center for Hospitality Research, 3(3), p. 1. Read More