Article

#CONNECTsummit14: mobile experience first, payments second

Brands are more concerned about creating the right overall mobile experience that will keep users coming back again and again.

August 26, 2014 by Will Hernandez — Editor, NetWorld Media Group

Sometimes, payments might be the last thing a merchant should add to a mobile application.

That is not to say payments is an afterthought in a mobile environment. But consumers will not reach a point to pay if other features within an app offer a poor overall experience.

This notion was one of several overriding themes from the CONNECT Mobile Innovation Summit last week in Chicago.

Jared Miller, the chief technology officer for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, might have said it best during the conference's last session, which also included executives from McAlister's Deli, Pizza Hut and Firehouse Subs.

"Consumers don't have a lot of tolerance for a bad mobile experience," he said. "We're open to testing new things [such as payments], but we want to make sure it's an experience the [customer] will come back to use."

Miller's comment echoed what James Lux, vice president of information technology for QSR chain Cosi, said during the Summit's first session about the future of mobile relationships and engagement.

"The best mobile app needs to be part of the broader experience," he said. "It should make interacting with the brand better. An app is not going to make someone loyal. It's going to be part of the larger experience."

Theme park chain SeaWorld took this approach with its mobile app.

Len Dudis, who is the corporate director of information technology at SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, explained to attendees during a session about mobile point-of-sale integration how the company started with standard mobile app features such as a map and show schedules.

SeaWorld added features over time that enabled its customers to buy park tickets and express line passes and acquire daily in-park offers and deals. The company then provided another neat app feature: a car finder to help patrons locate their vehicles at the end of the day.

For merchants, the mobile endgame now might be ridesharing service Uber thanks to its simple interface.

Baron Concors, chief digital officer at Pizza Hut, told attendees during the conference's last session that his company's top priority with mobile is making it easy.

"People have a frame of reference in mind to what's easy or hard," he said. "The new frame of reference in mobile is Uber. They've changed commerce, period."

That is much different from what is usually said at these types of conferences, with Starbucks put on a pedestal for its mobile success. But of course, not everyone can be Starbucks.

"Everybody wants to be like Starbucks, but most don't have that kind of frequency," Don Fox, CEO of Firehouse Subs, told attendees.

Not everyone sells addictive caffeine like Starbucks, either.  

About Will Hernandez

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Will Hernandez has 14 years of experience ranging from newspapers to wire services and trade publications. Before becoming Editor of MobilePaymentsToday.com, he spent two years as the content manager for PaymentsJournal.com, a leading payments industry news aggregator and information hub published by Mercator Advisory Group. Will spent four years covering the payments industry as an associate editor for multiple publications in SourceMedia's Payments Group based in Chicago.

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