It’s all about the connected customer according to Cami Zimmer, director of communications for UIEvolution.
“What we’re seeing in the hospitality vertical is no different than what we are seeing in the hotel/restaurant world,” Zimmer told Loyalty 360. “The connected guest or the connected customer. We’re trying to build that loyalty so people will come back. You can’t just open your doors and expect people to come back. They’ll come back if they have that great experience.”
Zimmer said that her company recently announced the launch of Guest Evolution on Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess. Guest Evolution connects screens of all types – mobile, tablet, digital signs, on premise TVs – to create a memorable mobile guest experience.
UIEvolution has also partnered with Hotel 1000 in Seattle to deploy Guest Evolution very soon.
“We want to bring that wow factor,” Zimmer explained. “We wanted a technology platform to provide people with the opportunity to be connected at all times.
UIEvolution’s Campaign Manager is a digital sign creation and content management solution that combines the power of mobile and augmented reality engagement. It publishes multimedia content to smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and other devices through a web browser to allow non-technical resources to easily schedule content across digital signs.
Campaign Manager is a cloud-based software that:
· Uses a web-based dashboard to build template-driven content for digital signs
· Updates and manages the content on signs individually or in groups
· Assigns schedules to one or more groups of digital signs
· Publishes sign content from an easy-to-use drag and drop interface
· Manages many signs across multiple properties
· Integrates content management systems, third-party analytics and ad networks
It’s no longer about building a “bunch of apps,” Zimmer said.
“When it comes down to it, we use apps for weather and games,” she said. “This is more about keeping customers loyal. We talk about the connected customer from a multitude of touchpoints. This solution helps them have a great experience. We’re looking at various restaurants as well where guests would be able to order from a screen, and keep that guest engaged and connected.”
Regarding With hotels, Zimmer said much of the industry discussion revolves around Wi-Fi connectivity and whether hotels should charge for the service.
“I travel every other week and refuse to stay in a place that doesn’t have Wi-Fi,” Zimmer said. “When you get in a hotel room now, the first thing isn’t turning on the TV, it’s plugging in all of your devices.”
Zimmer sees hotels doing away with room keys in the future and allowing guests to unlock their rooms via their mobile devices.
“We want guests to have a seamless experience by connecting screens,” Zimmer said.