Mobile search keeps hotel call centres busy.. If you thought mobile search was the beginning of the end of talking, think again. In fact, according to independent market researcher BIA Kelsey in 2016, 70 billion calls will originate from a mobile search. Further proof comes from Google, which finds that one of the most popular actions from a local search is a call. “In the US, many of our clients are seeing unexpected activity to their call centres from mobile search,” says John Busby, senior vice-president at Marchex, a mobile marketing solution that puts the humble telephone call at the centre of its business strategy. In fact, the rapid adoption of smartphones has made it entirely natural for consumers to conduct a local on-the-move search for a hotel, or rental and in some cases even airline travel. “This is not only natural consumer behaviour, it is also changing consumer behaviour because it’s so convenient,” says Busby. That search is happening more and more is something that EyeforTravel research– the result of 30+ industry interviews, surveys of 2,000 executives and 20,000 consumers - backs up. It shows that in the year to July 2013, 37% of consumers worldwide accessed the Internet for travel purposes via their smartphone. It also found, however, that travel transactions via mobile are still relatively low (around 10%), possibly because many are higher value than typical retail purchases. So when people find what they are looking for and want to book they still want a human connection. “Interestingly our data shows that this is even true for young people,” argues Busby, who says he wrongly held the view that the youth would rather text than call.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:24:02 +0000
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