Working Anywhere

Let's Face It, You Get Hungry

Working on the road often means room service. Sometime, working on the road has you staying in extended stay hotels like Homewood Suites by Hilton or Staybridge by IHG. Those offer small kitchens but shopping for food isn't always convenient. Thankfully, today we have options that solve both the "I'm hungry now" and "I need some food in the fridge" for many of us.

For the hungry now crowd, there are now new services like GrubHub, Delivery.com and Doorstep Delivery, all of whom make it easy to have hot, or cold food, salads and beverages delivered usually within an hour.

For those who feel the need food to cook, or simply need things like shaving cream, mouthwash, toothpaste, deodorant, soaps and more, there's now Amazon Fresh in more cities. With Amazon Fresh you can order what you need, in advance or even in some cases, same day, and have it waiting for you. Just make sure there's a way to receive it, where you are staying as some AirBnB or VRBO locations may pose challenges for delivery.

Options on the road for the road warrior are changing, and getting better for us. All it takes is a little knowledged and some planning.

How Design Influences Travel Experience

The web site Future Travel Experience gives us a good look at what may be possible for our air travel, from check in to exiting the airport, exposing what we will be seeing and feeling. Much of this "experience" derives from design, which is all about setting up the "user experience" that we desire. Unfortunately, often the experience falls short due to poor implementation or skipping steps that are important to the passenger, or adding layers to the experience that either complicates or inconveniences us all.

As someone who regularly has taken the EuroStar and the Heathrow Express in France and the UK, as well as being a regular Amtrak passenger here in the USA, it's great to see how design is being thought of by the railroads. The Eurostar has always been at the forefront of a good travel experience once you get on the train, but after you check in, the experience is never smooth, as it feels more like a cattle call than a leisurely entry to the train. In the railway car, you'll find in seat power with both EU and UK outlets varying by seat, comfortable seats that recline with ample leg room, non-obtrusive service and for the most part, a quiet journey. Now, ten years later, the experience is being upgraded and design is at the heart of it.

By the way. This week at GigaOm's Roadmap is all about exposing more deeply how design and experience are changing everyday business for us all. If UI, UX, Design or Product Development and Delivery are in your wheelhouse, you'll want to look at what gets said there

 

 

Brands Want You To Buy Your Loyalty

I'll be the first to admit that I've lost my love of brand loyalty programs. You know, the ones like American Airlines Advantage that pretty much kicked it all off. Well now, American and Southwest in the past two days have both offered to boost my status by my buying my loyalty level. 

To me this is a number game, not a loyalty game. If the airlines offered me things like no cost redposit of my scheduled flights that I had to change, the ability to do name changes for business tickets (we do change people in companies sometimes), no hassle booking for seats that are available on all flights using points/miles, a resumption of seats that are not so squeezed together where you can't work in coach I might think about the program's value.

So, rather than pay for what are perceived benefits, I'd rather simply use the pay as you go approach, and put my money into paying for a better seat, than hopefully earning a better seat because if I'm being offered the move up to the next level, you have to realize those above me are being offered even more.

 

Wi-Fi-For Marriott It's All Hacking For Profit. This Is How You Hack Back

Marriott wants your business. Directly. And to get it they're offering free Wi-Fi to lure you, like a fish. The catch? You have to book via their website, using the mobile app, the call center or the property directly. But, if you're a business traveler, who has a corporate travel agency working on your behalf, you better have them negotiate the free Wi-Fi option or you'll find yourself paying.

This is in Marriott's mind, about loyalty programs, or in their case, Marriott Rewards. For the business traveler who has racked up thousand of miles, nights and bonuses, turning in a bill for Wi-Fi is sometimes aggravating, especially when the promotion about "free" Wi-Fi has attracted so much attention will cause grief.

This means that corporate travel buyer has choices. They can negotiate the rate directly with Marriott, or they can work with a Corporate Travel agency, but what's clear is Marriott is working to leverage their loyalty program, and put the power back into the hands of the traveler to let them do their own booking.

The way this can be done is with the business traveler using the rate code vs. booking it through the travel agency. The rate code insures the negotiated rate is applied, but there's no comission back to the agency. For agencies, they need to work on a fee basis, vs. the commission basis. That means negotiating for their clients vs. buying for their clients. They have to manage, not just sell.

For in house travel departments this isn't a problem. The travel manager can establish a direct relationship with Marriott vs. going through their agency. For the agencies, they see this as one more effort by the travel industry to catch up and flatten the business model, squeezing out more profits vs. paying commissions.

What Marriott is doing is hacking the travel purchase model, doing pretty much what Uber is doing with transportation and Amazon is with shopping. They are breaking down the model to change what the middleman does and how they make their money.  At the end of the day, this all means the traveler needs to establish better relationships at the properties they stay at. Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. If you're a one time only guest, don't bother. Use your status and ask for as much as you can get in perks.

2. If you're a guest who will be regularly staying at a property, take the time to meet the hotel GM, Rooms Manager. When you know you're returning, given them a heads up as soon as you make your reservation, or better yet, let them book it directly.

3. When you are on property, ask to meet them for a coffee or a drink. Spend time, let them know what's going right, and wrong with your stay. Share other hotel experiences, both good and bad.

4. Become their favorite guest. As you visit other cities and if you stay in the same brand or family of brands properties ask them to give their peer a heads up for you, and let them share what you like, and don't like. The idea is to get you treated as well in the one time property the same way you do in your home away from home.

5. Be nice and be helpful. If you have some way of returning the favor do it. If you learn of someone's birthday, send them a note, or a small gift. By taking care of the people who take care of you, you'll win.

The key to all this is about what I call property loyalty. It goes well beyond brand loyalty because people in the hotel industry move around, and as they move around, you're reach and benefits of personal relationships will benefit you, and your business.

Silent No More-The Return of Working Anywhere

I realized over the weekend that I've been silent too long on the subject of working anywhere, something I pioneered pretty much at the age of 14 when I was pulled into the world of sports, sports marketing, public relations, game and event operations and more. So I guess, now 40 years later it's time to put all that I've been learning to practical use.

For starters, people work in more places today than ever before. Working from Home (WFH) isn't the abnormal for many. Working On the Road isn't just reserved for truckers and field force technicians. Being at the clients offices is no longer just for a meeting. Doctors, once those who made house calls but who became restricted to offices by draconian insurance industry regulations now use mobile devices, video and more to evaluate their patients and keep office time for those who need it. 

As someone who has closed deals in bed, worked from the beach, on snow covered mountain peaks, on planes, trains and automobiles, in restaurants, on ferry boats and yes, in the doctor's office too, I'm not shy about working wherever I may be.

As a frequent business traveler, one who logged on average more than 200 days a year on the road the past three or four years, the idea of working anywhere is as second nature as brushing one's teeth. Our world has changed, and as someone who has been using a cellular/mobile phone for what feels like 30 years, and who has had his own phone for 40 plus years, one can only look ahead at what being mobile has done for us.

For starters its created freedom for many. No longer bound to desks, offices and meeting rooms, we are now working in many more places. Once thought to be only for sweatshops, the idea of a giant communal workspace is being fueled by the fact that people talk less but use text more. This has given rise to IM, SMS, third party apps, services like HipChat, Slack and more. Connectivity via the Internet, both wired and wireless at speeds that are over 1000 times faster than my first 300 baud modem are just around the corner for many of us. 

Video conferencing, once only ready for the boardroom is now available to just about anyone using any number of services. Conference calling, once the bane of group participation is now sounding better as HD Voice is part of some services like GoToMeeting, ZipDX and Voxeet. VoIP, once taboo compared to circuit switched telephony is now so widely deployed it's begging for the major telephone providers to all work together to insure seamless, high quality audio, rapid connection times, and more services as part of you plan vs. third parties who provide just that.

The devices and "things" we take with us are also getting better. My keys are tracked by my iPhone as is my wallet and billfold. Leave my iPad in a cab or shopping cart? I'll find it and have it back in thirty minutes or less. Devices like TrackR and TILE are always telling me where my THINGS are so as I get older, forgetful (or is that mind too busy) I can locate them quickly, send a signal to them, or in the case of a lost smartphone or tablet, wipe them out and not worry about what's on them.

When it comes to travel, our boarding passes and reservations are now electronic. This makes changing flights and hotels faster. Why we can't pay less is because the yield management tools are geared to getting everything lined up as far in advance as possible, and hotels, trains and planes operators have not yet mastered just in time travel the way McDonalds has nailed down their supply and staffing systems. Toss in security and the layers of what's possible just isn't there yet.

The hotel concierge, once the expert on dinner, theatre, shopping and sights to see are having their roles changed to. Today they need to know as much about Uber, TaskRabbit, Fiverr, Washio and other on demand services. Local on demand services is where the hotel concierge used to excel, but as online has replaced the phone book, and as Uber has replaced the cab, you can order just about anything overnight, and now with GrubHub, Delivery.com, Doorstep Delivery and other "local" services, what the guest's needs from the concierge and doormen has changed.

So too has the technology in our rooms. Televisions of old never let you plug in, but now an Apple TV or Google Chromecast can make you in room TV an in room extension of your Mac, PC, smartphone or tablet. This means your room is now your office on the go, and instead of having to go hunt down a Starbucks in hopes of a "work place" or venture out to a Regus location, you can work in silence in your sweatsuit, getting things done. Technology now tells the hotel chambermaid if you're in, or out, so no more knocks on the door when you're in deep thought, or on that important call.    

We now can be working anywhere, and I should know, as I wrote this over breakfast at SNOOZE AM, in Del Mar Highlands on my MacBook Air, connected via a Verizon Mobile Broadband device running LTE.....