Self-service travellers taking over...or not?

Travellers - whether it is travelling by bus, train or air - are quickly recognising the benefits of serving themselves and using technology to ease the travel process.

Self-service machines have become more common place and allow travellers to book and print travel tickets rather than waiting in a queue for a member of staff to carry out this transaction. This is hugely beneficial for travellers with time pressures and helps make the journey more effortless and relaxing.

With the introduction of the Internet, travellers flocked online to book travel as this provided a new channel for accessing high volumes of information and to easily compare pricing making the process quicker, more informative and convenient compared to visiting the nearest travel office or speaking to someone on the phone. Mobile technology complements this even further by making it even easier and more convenient for consumers to book travel as they can do so from anywhere, at anytime.

It is therefore not that surprising to discover that mobile travel bookings are expected to reach $26 billion by 2014 as more companies begin to cater for mobile customers searching for travel options online via a mobile device. Travellers are also becoming more accustomed to searching online using their mobile and travel apps to find the best prices, deals and information. For example, the Skyscanner mobile app quickly identifies all available flights enabling travellers to find the best flight available and book their flight on their mobile.

Airlines are becoming heavily involved in using mobile to streamline journeys and improve efficiencies allowing them to not only save money but also deliver better customer service. A SITA survey found that 100% of airlines surveyed intend to offer mobile check-in and flight status alerts by 2015. Travellers can now legitimately queue jump using mobile check-ins reducing the number of staff required and time spent waiting around leading to quicker journey times and more happy travellers. Flight status updates received to travellers' mobiles alert them immediately of any changes to their flights, removing the need to speak to a member of staff and allow them to adjust plans if necessary. Additionally, mobile boarding passes are also being adopted by airlines such as Ryanair to provide a secure way for travellers to store ticket information and remove the hassle of printing boarding passes.

However, a more recent SITA survey found that although more than 90% of airline passengers are using technology to ease the travel process, only a small percentage use their smartphones to help them when travelling. They found that although travellers have mobile services available to them, as 76% owned a smartphone, most did not use them due to worries over usability and limitations of the device.

It would seem that self-service travellers are not yet taking over. Although there are undoubtedly benefits for both transport companies and the traveller to use mobile services, there are still some concerns about usability which need to be addressed. SITA recommend that companies focus on making it as easy as possible for travellers to adopt and use mobile services and we expect if this is carried out, self-service travellers will increase in numbers.

Discover more about how travel apps can make a difference or read our Transport section to find out more. As part of our mobile communications portfolio for enterprises, we are now supporting Apple Passbook for boarding passes, tickets and coupons.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

The benefits of effective enterprise communications: Part 2

This is the second and last installment in a series of posts about the benefits of effective enterprise communications. In today's post we will look at the importance of external communications and the difference mobile communication services can make.

 

Enterprises must communicate with people and systems external to the organisation – customers, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders. Its absence, or done poorly, can have a negative impact on the performance of the enterprise.

As touched upon in part 1, mobility is also adding another layer of complexity to enterprise communications. People move around. Fact. This makes them less accessible and more difficult to reach. By recognising and addressing this dependency on mobility, enterprises are able to perform better as they are able to communicate with people on the move, whether it’s a customer travelling on the bus or a supplier away from their desk at a meeting.

Mobile communications enable enterprises to reach more people and in turn, they are more likely to respond to messages. Think about it. When was the last time you did not have your mobile phone within 5 feet of you? We live in a society where more than half of people in the UK say they suffer from ‘nomophobia’ – the fear of being out of contact with mobile phones such as no signal and dead battery. For businesses, this is great as it means people are more accessible as they have their mobile in sight and studies show SMS messages have read rates as high as 97%. 

Communicating effectively with customers is an essential part of all businesses. The Department of Health published figures last year showing a total of 5.5 million missed patient appointments across the UK, potentially causing delays of treatment to others and wasting taxpayers' money. However, communicating with customers through text messaging has helped reduce the number of missed appointments. Records show that between April and December 2011 missed appointments fell by over 12,000 compared to the same period the year before.

NewVoiceMedia found UK businesses stand to lose a huge £12 billion every year as a result of poor customer service. Customer service was rated as the biggest influencer in customer loyalty by 34% of consumers. Enterprise (text) messaging can be used by customer service centers to increase efficiency and responsiveness as it reduces waiting times leading to higher customer loyalty and retention rates as well as reducing staff and resources required.

Logistics companies can also use enterprise (text) messaging to inform customers of the status of their deliveries. Such communication not only gives customers a greater certainty over the order, but it can also significantly improve the management of the logistics chain, since the logistics firm can give a more detailed time frame for the delivery. This reduces the number of failed delivery attempts which from the carrier’s perspective wastes both time and shelf/van space and from the customer’s perspective improves the overall experience.

Read part 1 to find out about the importance of effective internal communications or learn more about how businesses are using mobile communications services by visiting our case studies.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

The benefits of effective enterprise communications: Part 1

This is the first in a series of posts about the benefits of effective business communications. In today's post we will look at the importance of communications within a business and the effects absent or poor communications can have. 

Part 2 will examine external business communications and will be available on Friday 11th October.

For any internal communications within a business, it is paramount that communications are secure. Symantec shows that the average cost of a data breach to UK businesses is over 2 million pounds, which is an increase from the year before. Staff will exchange information between team members daily and a proportion of the information exchanged will be sensitive, and this needs to be kept safe.

Living in today’s world, there are typically multiple systems within organisations that are used in everyday business activities. When systems fail it is important that relevant staff are notified as soon as possible to reduce downtime and negative impact on the business. According to the 2012 Acronis Disaster Recovery Index survey 86% of companies suffered downtime in the last year, and lost an average of 2.2 days annually as a result.

Enterprises that communicate with staff well can also see positive differences in performance and reduced costs. For example, Unum found that the failure to effectively communicate company benefits available to employees costs UK businesses £2.7 billion every year through higher employee turnover and sickness. Furthermore, CEB found failure to inform employees about organisational change in advance increased misconduct by 42 percent!

Businesses must also think about the wider environment and possible factors that may cause disruption to everyday operations. This can be anything from heating system failure, severe weather to a leaky gas pipe in the area affecting staff's ability to commute to and be at work. Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found severe weather is the top cause of business disruption, with average costs to organisations reaching more than £52,000. Disruptions to the business can be minimised by communicating office closures to staff and enabling them to work from home. It is also important that businesses do not have staff travelling in to work under dangerous conditions as they are expected to keep employees safe under Health and Safety regulations.

Business mobility has become a buzzword in the industry and is presenting further communication considerations that businesses must address. Every enterprise has a degree of dependency on mobility as individuals are mobile by nature - they can move around. Within the organisation, mobility can range from a team member popping over to a colleague's desk to attending a meeting. People need to be mobile in order to get the job done but this makes them less accessible.

Using mobile messaging such as SMS and instant messaging for internal communications can make the enterprise more effective and efficient through increased accessibility and responsiveness. 97% of mobile subscribers will read an SMS (text) message within 15 minutes of receiving it meaning issues can be dealt with promptly wherever they are. Instant messaging is also ideal for immediate communications as well as being used for secure messaging via end to end encryption, reducing the likelihood of costly security breaches.

Find out more about how SMS improves business communications strategy or the different mobile communications services available to help your enterprise become more effective and efficient through increased accessibility and responsiveness.

This post is part of a series. Part 2 will be published Friday 11th October.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com