London, March 10 2011: Collinson Latitude, a global provider of ancillary revenue products and services, is calling for the travel industry to maximise the potential of apps in customer loyalty packages.
Collinson Latitude director Janet Titterton says: “Apps are ideal for inclusion in subscription-based membership packages or loyalty benefits packages. Digital inventory like an app can be delivered to a mobile phone, anywhere in the world, instantly and at minimal cost, which is very different from the time and expense involved in sending a physical item. Such immediate and direct personal connection is a great way of ensuring your customer is consistently engaged with, and rewarded by, your business.
“Furthermore, specific apps are aimed at certain types of people, so you can target those same people in customised benefits packages. Our new ‘Resort Maps’ skiing app, developed for insurance specialist Complete Ski, is a perfect case in point. The free app brings you a GPS-based guide to 22 ski resorts across Europe and North America, so users can quickly find out which restaurants, bars, hotels and ski lifts are located near them. An offline (roaming-fee free) version is also in development, the first element of which – an Offline Resort Map for Lech (Austria) – has already been released.
“If you know that certain customers love skiing – and as an airline or hotel chain, their travel habits with your business will make that fact clear – you could add our app to a package of winter sports-based benefits. This kind of third-party lifestyle inventory means your customers enjoy a sense of high value from your company even when far from your hotel or aircraft.
“We’re constantly looking to work with travel sector brands and companies to bring exciting and innovative apps to the market,” concludes Titterton.
Collinson Latitude’s understanding of what makes a top-class app was demonstrated in the summer of 2010 when the company’s ‘Fly&Share’ social networking app hit the top spot in the iTunes Store’s travel ‘What’s Hot’ list. In a world of volcanic ash and industrial action, the ‘Fly&Share’ app helps air passengers keep friends, family and colleagues aware of their movements with ‘as-live’ coverage of their flights through Facebook and Twitter.
