Today’s consumer uses mobile applications to instantly get whatever they need in life—from food to dry cleaning.

Take Uber for example.

The ride-hailing service provider—whose market value is estimated to exceed $60 billion and availability covers more than 575 cities around the world—is a great case study.

Soliciting a ride through Uber means plugging in your destination through a mobile device and within seconds your driver is notified where to pick you up and where you want to go.

Why is Uber so successful? Transparency in price, destination, and a simple user experience are key reasons the ride-hailing company is considered the market leader in the face of competition. In addition, Ubers rapid response to complaints has won customers over and turned them into true advocates. The fact is, customers now expect to receive credit or response within moments of any service breakdown instead of the traditional 24-48 hour response window. Understanding this consumer psychology is integral for thriving in the modern mobile economy.

What Does This Mean for Organizations?

Instant gratification and personalized experiences are now what consumers expect everywhere they go—including live events. Now is the moment to leverage advances in mobile technology to put guests in control of their journey.

The challenge is how do organizations make the experiences personalized, minimize wait times, and make it more convenient?

To overcome that challenge, let’s take a look at where mobile ordering started.

Mobile ordering at live events began to gain traction in the industry in 2010, but the offering was undoubtedly ahead of its time. Connectivity and fulfillment were erratic and rates of use by fans were low, remaining below 5 percent of total sales volume in many markets for several years.

Fast forward to 2017, and the mobile, on-demand economy has finally caught up to what several organizations and technology companies first envisioned at the beginning of the decade. Organizations are starting to offer some sort of mobile-based food and merchandise ordering but only 6.65% of customers currently use mobile ordering due to limited availability at venues.

Organizations today are focused on implementing a mobile ordering solution, driving user adoption and optimizing back-of-house operations to prepare for further shifts in fan buying patterns, but the sports and entertainment industry is still behind compared to other industries and markets.

Let’s face it, your guests are constantly on their phones. So, why not capitalize on that?
Providing your guests with the ability to engage with your venue from their smartphone, place orders and process payments gives them a convenient way to get what they want – when they want.

Establishments offering guests mobile ordering are seeing the average wait time cut in half, 35% increase in average spend, and nearly half of them are ordering a second time during their visit.

The benefits are immediate for fans and operators:

• Streamlined Fulfillment and Operations
• Decreased Wait Times
• Increased food and merchandise sales
• Improved customer experience
• Enhanced customer engagement
• Increased opportunities to gain greater knowledge about customers and their preferences

Shorter concession lines, streamlined fulfillment and incremental sales achieved by involving more customers (who otherwise would have skipped making purchases), mobile ordering offers organizations a variety of benefits. But, arguably, the most important is their ability to nurture relationships with customers for the long term. A great guest experience is built on memorable employee-to-customer interactions. In other words, it’s still about the people and the experience you create.

Key Takeaways

1. Today’s consumer uses mobile applications to instantly get whatever they need in life.
2. Instant gratification and personalized experiences are now what consumers expect everywhere they go—including live events. Now is the moment to leverage advances in mobile technology to put guests in control of their journey.
3. Establishments offering guests mobile ordering are seeing the average wait time cut in half, 35% increase in average spend, and nearly half of them are ordering a second time during their visit.
4. The most important benefit of mobile is the ability to nurture relationships with customers for the long term. A great guest experience is built on memorable employee-to-customer interactions. In other words, it’s still about the people and the experience you create.