Here’s how: a booking agency as an example of clever app use

Now’s the time! – Digitalisation made easy, part II

In the first part of our series we got ourselves in the mood for digital transformation: which digital structures can and should I use for my business model, and which work steps and methods should I adapt flexibly?

If you haven’t looked into this in depth yet, it is easy to get into a spin, because every area of work is affected. Still, the motto is: stay calm and go step by step. We would like to help you with that.

Communication channel no. 1: with the smartphone you reach every target group

To begin with, this series focuses on external and internal communication: how, where and when do I reach my customers, partners and colleagues? How can the flow of information be optimised, the paths shortened, the benefit increased?

With your own app as a touchpoint, you can tackle these points effectively: the smartphone, our constant companion, is always there, the information is accessible without a browser search and lots of clicks, and using it is intuitive and inviting.

And the best part: today anyone can create their own app! No expensive programmers, licences or software, no lengthy development process or complicated manuals.

Down to brass tacks: this is what the road to your own app looks like

In the first post of the series we set out the steps to your own app: plan, attract attention, create, design and take off. It sounds simple – and in reality it is! We want to prove this with concrete examples and make getting started even easier for you.

Let’s take MPM Music as our first example, a large booking agency for chart, Schlager and 90s acts. Here, event organisers can book stars and artists known from TV and the press for their events.

Planning: which target groups, features and content do we need?

To make access easier for its main partners as well as for anyone generally interested, to make the company’s portfolio available to them and to get the latest news to them quickly and easily, the company decided on an app of its own.

In the app, customers can see the agency’s entire roster of stars directly. That way they can quickly see who is available when, and send a no-obligation enquiry even on the go.

At the same time, the app is meant for presentations and research in sales meetings: agency staff can access all the relevant data on site with a few clicks and show it to the customer in an appealing way.

The company also wants to add a protected area to its app where terms, costs and the like are kept secure.

Beating the drum: win as much attention as possible before the launch

The booking agency MPM Music used its existing channels, digital as well as analogue, to point its customers to this new service. The newsletter and the website announce the app with pictures and information and describe the first features.

But that’s not all: staff also use face-to-face conversations with customers and partners to talk about the advantages directly – for example, that limited free dates and exclusive early-booking offers can be found particularly quickly and easily in the app.

Creating the app: what service do our customers need?

When creating the app, the booking agency was clear that two things mattered most and had to be there from the start: an overview of all the stars on its books and the option to send an enquiry directly. Because that is exactly what customers want: find quickly, book easily.

With a clear structure modelled on the website, they can choose a category – such as Charts or Schlager – and get straight to the list of artists in it.

Along with information, there are videos of the stars, so that anyone interested can, quite literally, get the picture.

Customers also enter their preferred date and the venue. In turn, the agency receives all the relevant initial details and can respond to enquiries quickly.

Your design, your branding: how your customers feel at home right away

This step was quite simple for the booking agency: like many companies, it already had a corporate design. Colours, style and structure were taken over from the website, and the company logo was added.

At the same time, the agency placed great value on intuitive use, so that customers know straight away where to find what, even the first time they use it.

Ready, steady, go! The test runs are a success

MPM Music has already run tests with smaller groups and so far received nothing but positive feedback: the features, the look and the handling went down very well. After just a few weeks of planning and preparation, it can start!

As you can see, it is not hard at all to create your own app with the features that matter to you and your customers. To show you the whole range of advantages and uses of apps, we will present a school’s app in the next post. There, quite different content and features were needed to reach pupils, teachers and parents.

We would also like to go a little deeper into the topic of pre-sales then.

Treat your app like a valuable product!

In this series we will place your app in a simplified model of pre-sales, sales and post-sales phases, so that we can deal with each of these topics separately. That sounds very much like selling, but at first it simply means that your app can play an important part – alongside phone, email and the like – throughout a sale and the follow-up care.

There are many approaches to pre-sales, and not all of them need to be put into practice perfectly right away. One thing is certain, though: once you build them in, they immediately improve how you come across to the outside world.

In pre-sales, people search – and find

The aim is to make existing and potential customers aware of the app and to present its advantages. Whether on social media, on the phone or in face-to-face conversations: what matters is that you encourage your customers, unobtrusively but steadily, to use the app – you have plenty of arguments!

Since every business deals with different processes, in the next post we will start with general approaches and solutions. With a little creativity and further ideas from best-practice examples, you can easily adapt them to your own purposes.

Do you have particular channels, target groups or products you would like us to discuss in connection with using an app? Are you unsure whether this could work for you too? Tell us about it – we look forward to hearing from you!