Innovative mobile technologies for moments that matter
Leveraging innovative mobile technologies can also help to define luxury brands as cutting-edge companies. Balancing innovation with user-friendly interaction helps to create dynamic campaigns that provide real-time benefits to customers and followers at key moments. These types of mobile campaigns are much more relevant than traditional advertising.
The Mercedes "Tweet Fleet" campaign assisted hundreds of drivers searching for parking in downtown Stuttgart, Germany, during last year's busy holiday season. The campaign was comprised of a fleet of Mercedes looking for empty parking spots. When an empty space was found, a tweet would be automatically sent through the Tweet Fleet account with GPS directions. The solution merged the in-car park assist feature of Mercedes vehicles with crowd-sourcing to push content via the drivers' dedicated Twitter accounts to both the dashboard and mobile interfaces with alerts and directions.
Enhancing the human touch
For luxury travel consumers, the brand must be synonymous with personalized and memorable "once in a lifetime" experiences that cut across all touch points, from digital to in-person interactions. While hotel travelers still expect face-to-face attention for core guest services such as checking in (according to a survey conducted by the Four Seasons), there are opportunities to foster immediate staff attention through appropriate use of social media with mobile.
Prestige hotel brands can respond to a guest's implicit pre-arrival requests ahead of time, or address immediate in-transit needs through the Twitter channel. For example, after a guest at a Four Seasons resort made a light-hearted comment on Twitter about the hotel's music, she later received a bottle of wine and a note from the general manager apologizing for the "Muzak" tunes along with a listing of local radio stations. When a guest lamented via Twitter that there were no good movies on TV that night, the concierge pointed her to the hotel's expansive DVD movie library.
From the harried business traveler to the family on vacation, mobile combined with social media has tremendous potential to enhance customer service and build brand equity for high-end hotels.
