Skift x checkmate report preview

WHAT’S NEXT IN MOBILE: MESSAGING STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL BRANDS IN A POST-APP ECONOMY

Skift + Checkmate Present:

specialreport

Today’s messaging platforms provide an appealing alternative to native apps, welcoming in a new framework for how the travel industry reaches its customers. Smart marketers are adapting to this change, ringing in a new era of better customer service and streamlined operations. Welcome to the Post-App Economy.

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What’s Next in Mobile: Messaging Strategies for Travel Brands in a Post-App Economy SKIFT REPORT 2016

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Checkmate’s communications platform enables businesses to engage customers across any channel – SMS, email, messaging apps – and improve coordination within their teams. Checkmate gathers all this communication into one inbox shared by every employee, creates a single conversation thread for each customer, and facilitates team collaboration. As a result, businesses can better delight customers, prevent service shortfalls from turning into negative reviews, and strengthen their operations.

Founded in January 2013, Checkmate was acquired by Room 77 which has raised $43 million from leading travel and technology investors. For more information about Checkmate, visit www.checkmate.io.

About Checkmate


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About Skift

Skift is a travel intelligence FRPSDQ\�WKDW�RƪHUV�QHZV��data, and services to professionals in travel and professional travelers, to help them make smart decisions about travel.

Skift is the business of travel.

Visit skift.com for more.

Introduction: Welcome to the Post-App Economy 5

How Traveler Communication Preferences Have Evolved 7

The Rise of Conversational Marketing 9

Why The Contact Center Model Must Evolve 11

Messaging as an Operational Strategy 13

Hospitality: Creating The Next Generation Of 16

Operations With Messaging Technology

(Free Excerpt from Skift’s The Future

of Messaging Technology trend report)

Insights and Strategies 18

A Note to Travel Marketers: Adapt or Fall Behind 19

About Skift 20

Table of contents

This report has been adapted from the co-branded Skift and Checkmate series Welcome to the Post-App Economy.

Read the full series here and learn more about the future of messaging technology at Checkmate.io.


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Introduction: Welcome to the Post-App Economy Whenever a traveler is faced with a challenge, big or small, a common phrase will be uttered by a friend or colleague: “There’s an app for that.”

This refrain has defined the mobile space for nearly a decade. But today, an emerging alternative is driving significant change and providing a more effective way for travel businesses to deliver mobile experiences. Welcome to the Post-App Economy.

What is the Post-App Economy?

The Post-App Economy consists of rapidly growing messaging channels that provide brands and businesses with real-time opportunities to interact with customers. This economy includes both new platforms like Facebook Messenger’s ambitious scope, WeChat, and Google’s soon to be launched messaging app, as well as established channels like SMS and web chat. All of these channels allow for real-time, one-to-one communication, providing an alternative model for the development and distribution of a mobile experience.

When the iPhone launched in 2008, native apps were the only game in town. They are powerful tools, but apps have not taken root in categories with infrequent purchases. As apps proliferated – today the App Store alone has over 1.5 million apps – consumer engagement concentrated to only a few apps. Last year, consumers spent 79 percent of time on their mobile phone using five apps. Furthermore, only 10 percent of apps downloaded are ever used more than once. Thus, it is a growing challenge for businesses – especially those in infrequent purchase categories such as travel – to develop an app that is discovered, downloaded, and used.

Today, messaging platforms provide an appealing alternative to native app development. These platforms - Whatsapp, WeChat, FB Messenger, and Line - have more active users and are growing faster than leading social networking apps (see chart above).

Growth of Messaging Apps vs. Social NetworksMonthly active user for top 4 social networks and messaging apps

Big 4 Messaging Apps

Big 4 Social Networking Apps

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0

Mill

ions

Source: BJ Intelligence

2012 2013 2014 20152011


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Messaging platforms provide development and discovery tools that address the challenges of native apps and the app stores. Analyst Benedict Evans provides an outstanding description of these trends in his 16 Mobile Theses. Three characteristics of these messaging platforms stand stand out:

1. Easy engagement: Unlike apps, messaging services are present on every user’s phone, as every device comes with SMS (and Facebook Messenger, the other top messaging app, has over 1 billion users). The user does not need to visit the app store and download an app to engage. Messaging with friends and family have habituated consumers to this communication channel, and travel brands must be ready to engage in the conversation.

2. Multi-channel: Consumers use many channels in the post-app world. An individual consumer uses SMS, Facebook Messenger, and Whatsapp when interacting with friends and family. Unlike apps, where a phone purchase would lock a user into Android or iOS, individual consumers bounce across channels in the Post-App Economy. Travel brands must move seamlessly across all of these channels to connect with their customers.

3. High signal: Messaging demands relevancy. The ping of a new message pulls the consumer away from his or her day and into the phone. Unlike apps that could sit undisturbed on the back screen of a user’s phone, messages clamor for attention. Messaging services know they cannot abuse this privilege with blast marketing, and travel brands must ensure their messages contain relevant content based on a consumer’s unique interests and needs.

These characteristics present major opportunities for travel brands for two reasons:

•Messaging depends upon real-world, last mile activity. Messaging rewards real-time responses and emphasizes messages that result in action, areas where travel brands excel. Consumer requests through messaging platforms may demand real-world follow-up (e.g., “please have room service send up a burger” or “your room has been assigned”). These messages are only helpful when they result in a real-world action.

• Purchase frequency is relatively less important. Messaging channels solve for discovery and engagement, a real challenge for infrequently purchased categories. In the app economy, discovery was controlled through the popularity of Top 10 lists, which bene ted intermediaries with the greatest breadth of inventory and product uses (e.g., explore, compare, and book across product categories). Infrequent purchase patterns limited travel brands’ reach. However, in the post-app economy, reach matters less because businesses interact directly through the channels that consumers already use.