Improving Service Experiences with Mobile Ethnography: The Case of two Attractions in Toronto

Introduction: Tourism destination competitiveness has been one of the main areas of research in the past twenty years (e.g., Dwyer & Kim, 2003; Enright & Newton, 2004; Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). The competitiveness of any destination relies, in part, on the quality of the customer experience that is delivered in its tourist attractions. More specifically, tourist satisfaction is based on visitors’ assessment of an experience as compared to their expectations. It is therefore essential for attractions to not only monitor visitor satisfaction, but also to continuously improve the design of the services and experiences that are provided. The purpose of this study was to conduct a service evaluation of two Toronto attractions with an innovative mobile ethnographic method. Literature: Tourism marketing is evolving at a fast pace. Because of rapid and recent technological advances (e.g., Internet access, web 2.0 technology and the ubiquity of smartphones), consumers are increasingly becoming the voice of destinations and tourist services (Dimanche, 2010). They voice their opinions in blogs, review and rate facilities, hotels, and restaurants, and share this information with pictures and videos on social media. We are shifting towards a peer-marketing approach where consumers are the most effective medium to communicate about a brand and the experiences it proposes (Buhalis & Law, 2008). As a result, it has become more important than ever for managers and marketers to focus on the quality of the experience and to work on experience design and improvement with their customers (Andrades & Dimanche, 2014). Service design has only been recently used in tourism management and tourism research (Dimanche, Keup, & Prayag, 2012; Stickdorn & Zehrer, 2009). In particular, a mobile ethnographic methodology was developed in Europe to provide destinations and service providers with alternative tool to consumer surveys that would provide richer and innovative information (Stickdorn & Frischhut, 2012). Methodology: This research uses an innovative methodology, mobile ethnography, to help improve the tourist experience in two Toronto attractions: the CN Tower and the Royal Ontario Museum. Service design is a customer-based approach to designing and improving visitor experiences. The methodology (Dimanche, Prayag, & Keup, 2014; Stickdorn & Frischhut, 2012) relies on volunteers to use their own smartphones to document their customer journeys through an App called ExperienceFellow (please visit experiencefellow.com for more information about the research tool). Other researchers have previously used and recommended mobile ethnographies (e.g., Hein, O\u27Donohoe, and Ryan, 2011; Tan, Foo, Goh, and Theng, 2009). Benefits of this method are that we can collect data on the service delivery site, at the time of service delivery, and in an unobtrusive way. About 50 students from a large urban university were asked to upload the App ExperienceFellow before a visit to (1) the CN Tower or (2) the Royal Ontario Museum. They were asked to identify and rate through the App the various touchpoints that mattered to them, either positively or negatively (i.e., on a 1 to 5 point scale), during the visit. By doing so, they built their own service journey and had to document each touchpoint with evidence recorded on their smartphone (i.e., a picture, a video, a text message, or a voice recording). Results: All information collected through the App was then uploaded on the ExperienceFellow server. Once all data were uploaded, the researchers could analyze the experiences through the eyes of the visitors, and make recommendations to the CN Tower and to the ROM for improvement. An application was used to graphically illustrate the visitor journeys with a storyboard including comments and testimonies made by visitors. As a result, researchers identified significant points of the service journey. Quality points to be emphasized and promoted, areas of improvement, significant problems were then synthesized in reports with recommendations for the attractions. Conclusions: This research responds to the conference call for helping destinations and attractions reimagine and reinvent customer experiences. It describes an innovative method that involves young visitors and their ability to easily use smartphones to address tourism service evaluation and identify significant service touch points, from the customers’ perspective, in the context of two urban attractions. Different from traditional service evaluation studies where visitors are asked to rate pre-identified items, this approach gives the subjects a free-hand in identifying touch points and in documenting not only how the touch points are evaluated and why, but also how the service can be improved. Rich audio-visual records of the visitor experience contribute to service improvement and service innovation. The Director of the Office of Tourism in Antibes Juan Les Pins found the tool and method useful and promising; he intends to propose to his board that this method be integrated into the DMO’s quality control process. References: Andrades, L., & Dimanche, F. (2014). Co-creation of experience value: A tourist behavior approach. In N. Prebensen, J. Chen, & M. Uysal (Eds.), Creating experience value in tourism (pp. 95-112). London: CABI. Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research. Tourism management, 29(4), 609-623. Dwyer, L., & Kim, C. (2003). Destination competitiveness: Determinants and Indicators. Current Issues in Tourism, 6(5), 369–413. Enright, M. J., & Newton, J. (2004). Tourism Destination Competitiveness: A Quantitative Approach. Tourism Management, 25 (6), 777–788. Dimanche, F. (2010). En quête de la génération “C”: Pour un nouvel agenda de recherche marketing et tourisme. [In search of the C-generation: Towards a new tourism marketing research agenda]. Mondes du Tourisme, 1(1), 30-38. Dimanche, F., Prayag, G., & Keup, M. (2014). Le service design dans le tourisme: Une approche ethnographique mobile [Service design in tourism: A mobile ethnographic approach]. Mondes du Tourisme Hors-Série [Special Issue], 32-42. Dimanche, F., Keup, M., & Prayag, G. (2012). What is service design? The service experience (Ch. 1.1). In M. Stickdorn and Birgit Frischhut (Eds.), Service Design and Tourism (pp. 11-14). Norderstedt, Germany: Books on Demand. Hein, W., O\u27Donohoe, S., & Ryan, A. (2011). Mobile phones as an extension of the participant observer\u27s self: Reflections on the emergent role of an emergent technology. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 14(3). 258-273. Doi: 10.1108/13522751111137497 Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G.I. (2003). The Competitive Destination: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective. Wallingford, UK: CABI.Stickdorn, M., & Frischhut, B. (Eds.) (2012). Service Design and Tourism. Norderstedt, Germany: Books on Demand. Stickdorn, M., & Zehrer, A. (2009, October). Service design in tourism: Customer experience driven destination management. First Nordic Conference on Service Design and Service Innovation. Oslo, Norway. Tan, E.M.Y., Foo, S., Goh, D., & Theng, Y.L. (2007). An analysis of services for the mobile tourist. Proceedings of The International Conference on Mobile Technology, Applications and Systems, Singapore, September 10-12

Visitor Driven Service Experiences in a City Destination: A Mobile Ethnographic Approach

This paper reports on an innovative qualitative method, a mobile ethnography, where visitors are asked to use mobile technological devices such as smartphones to identify service gaps, evaluate service journeys, and help improve tourist services

Designing a Mobile Linguist Guide Application to Facilitate the Communication Between Malaysian and Arabs

Mobile device can be used anywhere and anytime. Relying on this characteristic, the research aims to introduce electronic linguist guide can be applied on the mobile devices in order to obtain the communication between the countries which are talking different languages. Facilitating or enhancing the communication leads to convergence of cultures. As long as the research deals with Malaysians and those people who talk Arabic language, that will be useful for both sides where the Malaysians will be more familiar with the Arabic language which is the Holy Quran language and Arabs can spread the Islamic language actively. Learning common phrases will urge users to have more about a specific language. Hope of the benefits of this study serves more than two kinds of people if we have knew it can expand for including many languages

Mobile Translator Guide for Tourism Destination in Langkawi (MTGTDL)

Mobile devices can be used anywhere and anytime. Relying on this characteristic, this search aims to introduce mobile electronic translator guide for tourism destination in Langkawi in order to ease the communication between the who are talking in different languages to have easy access to places of interest in Langkawi and facilitate the user to use this application without internet. Facilitating or enhancing the communication leads to convergence of cultures. As long as the research deals with Malaysians and tourists who talk Arabic language, the prototype created will be useful for both sides where. Learning common phrases will urge users to have information about a specific languag

A Human-Centric Approach to Group-Based Context-Awareness

The emerging need for qualitative approaches in context-aware information processing calls for proper modeling of context information and efficient handling of its inherent uncertainty resulted from human interpretation and usage. Many of the current approaches to context-awareness either lack a solid theoretical basis for modeling or ignore important requirements such as modularity, high-order uncertainty management and group-based context-awareness. Therefore, their real-world application and extendability remains limited. In this paper, we present f-Context as a service-based context-awareness framework, based on language-action perspective (LAP) theory for modeling. Then we identify some of the complex, informational parts of context which contain high-order uncertainties due to differences between members of the group in defining them. An agent-based perceptual computer architecture is proposed for implementing f-Context that uses computing with words (CWW) for handling uncertainty. The feasibility of f-Context is analyzed using a realistic scenario involving a group of mobile users. We believe that the proposed approach can open the door to future research on context-awareness by offering a theoretical foundation based on human communication, and a service-based layered architecture which exploits CWW for context-aware, group-based and platform-independent access to information systems

QuizQuiz: um jogo que une M-Learning a M-Tourism

Com os avanços na área da telefonia móvel os celulares deixaram de ser apenas máquinas de realizar ligações para acumular funções conhecidas dos computadores convencionais. Estender os conceitos e plataformas educacionais produzidos para computadores convencionais para serem usados em ambientes móveis oferece oportunidades potenciais. Com isso, cresce o uso do conceito de Mobile Learning, que consiste na utilização de dispositivos móveis para aprendizagem. Este artigo tem como objetivo unir os conceitos relacionados com Mobile Learning e Mobile Tourism. Para isso, foi desenvolvido um jogo de perguntas e respostas intitulado QuizQuiz, o qual aproveita dispositivos de localização geográfica embutidos nos celulares para se contextualizar com o mundo físico em torno do jogador.

Integración de estrategias de márquetin en actividades específicas para el desarrollo de software centrado en el usuario

The present work represents an analysis between two different fields, which are: Economics, addressing the Marketing field and Human-Computer Interaction, by studying the Usability field. The motivation of this present work is based on the fact that there is no systematic adoption in the form of activities and techniques focused on the development, that allow conducting a formal integration of Marketing techniques in User-Centred development processes. The main goal of this project has been the analysis of existing Marketing strategies and their concrete integration in the form of activities in a User-Centred Process Model. In order to accomplish the realization of this main objective, firstly an intensive research of the bibliographical literature has been made in order to see if there are some common points of interaction between the two fields and in what measure. Unfortunately, no studies were found containing these two different fields, focused on Marketing activities in the development of a User-Centred Process Model. After analysing the main usability models: Usability Engineering of Nielsen, the Usability Engineering Lifecycle of Mayhew, the standard ISO 9124-210 and the standard IEEE 1074:2006, it has been seen that these models do not present specific activities related with the identification of the Marketing strategies and processes that are being applied when developing a software product. Some references of these activities are presented in the IEEE 1074:2006 Standard, but there are only referred to as general Marketing Information. For this reason, the above mentioned standards have only served as models in order to realize this paper’s Marketing Activities Model. The classification of these Marketing activities that have been used in the present model, has been realized from the IEEE Standard 1074-2006. The Marketing Activities realized in this present work have been obtained after realizing a SWOT Analysis of the general Marketing Strategies that exist nowadays. The most important Marketing strategies were selected in order to be integrated in the User-Centred Process Model. These strategies were classified in the following categories: Pre-development, Development and Post-Development, and have been sorted in this way in function of the Marketing processes that take place, before starting the development of a product, during the development of that software product and after the development of the software product. Furthermore, it is very important to mention that these activities have been created in order to improve the usability of a software product. Finally, the Marketing Activities Model that was obtained has been validated by envisioning an e-commerce application, and the products that were obtained have been explained by concrete examples of the products, that have been launched for the chosen e-commerce application. The products were developed taking into account the area of expertise of the application and the field in which operates internationally.Este trabajo representa un análisis entre dos campos diferentes, que son: la Economía, abordando el campo del Marketing y el campo de la Interacción Persona-Ordenador, que ha sido realizado mediante un estudio del campo de la Usabilidad. La motivación de la presente tesis está basada en la cuestión de que no existe una adopción sistematizada, en forma de actividades y técnicas enfocadas al desarrollo, que permitan llevar a cabo una integración formal de las técnicas de marketing en los procesos de desarrollo centrados en el usuario. El objetivo principal de este proyecto ha sido el análisis de las estrategias de Marketing existentes y su integración concreta en forma de actividades en un modelo de proceso centrado en el usuario. En primer lugar, para llevar a cabo la realización de este objetivo principal, una investigación intensiva de la literatura bibliográfica se ha realizado con el fin de ver si hay algunos puntos comunes de interacción entre las dos áreas y, no obstante, en qué medida. El estudio realizado determino que no existen artículos conteniendo los dos campos diferentes, centrándose en las actividades de Marketing en el modelo de proceso centrado en el usuario. Después de haber analizado los principales modelos de usabilidad: la Ingeniería de la Usabilidad de Nielsen, el Ciclo de Vida de la Ingeniería de la Usabilidad de Mayhew, el estándar ISO 9241-210 y el estándar IEEE 1074:2006, se ha constatado que estos modelos no presentan actividades específicas relacionadas con la identificación de las estrategias de Marketing y procesos, que se están aplicando en el desarrollo de un producto software. Algunas referencias de estas actividades están presentadas en el estándar IEEE 1074:2006, pero de cualquier modo se refieren de forma general a la Información de Marketing. Por esta razón los estándares anteriormente mencionados solo han servido como referencia para realizar el propio modelo de actividades de Marketing y su integración en un modelo de proceso centrado en el usuario. La clasificación de las actividades de Marketing: obtenidas utilizada en el modelo presentado, ha sido utilizada a partir del estándar IEEE 1074:2006. Las actividades de Marketing realizadas en el presente trabajo, se han obtenido después de realizar un análisis DAFO de las estrategias de Marketing generales que existen hoy en día. Se seleccionaron primero las actividades de marketing más relevantes, con el fin de integrarse en el Modelo de Proceso Centrado en el Usuario. Estas estrategias han sido clasificadas en las siguientes categorías: Pre-desarrollo, Desarrollo y Post-desarrollo y han sido ordenadas de esta manera en función de los procesos de Marketing que tienen lugar, antes de iniciar el desarrollo de un producto software, durante el desarrollo de dicho producto software y después del desarrollo del producto software. Por otra parte, es muy importante mencionar que estas actividades se han creado con el fin de mejorar la usabilidad de un producto software en general. Por último, el modelo de Actividades de Marketing que se ha obtenido, ha sido validado mediante la conceptualización de una aplicación de comercio electrónico y los productos que se han obtenido han sido explicados con ejemplos concretos dependiendo de la aplicación de comercio electrónico elegida. Los productos fueron desarrollados teniendo en cuenta el área de conocimiento de la aplicación y el ámbito en el que opera a nivel internacional

Os dispositivos móveis no apoio a visitas a museus : um estudo da participação através dos dispositivos móveis no apoio à informação e comunicação em

Doutoramento em Informação e Comunicação em Plataformas DigitaisO trabalho de investigação aqui apresentado carateriza e propõe possíveis soluções para algumas das condicionantes associadas à utilização de sistemas de m-Tourism em visitas a museus, relacionadas com mecanismos de disponibilização de conteúdos multimédia e com o acesso e partilha de informação entre visitantes. O estudo empírico parte da realização de entrevistas a profissionais da área do turismo e museus e da aplicação de um questionário a visitantes de museus, para melhor compreender as relações entre as instituições de turismo e os turistas com a internet, Web 2.0 e dispositivos móveis e para caraterizar o cenário atual de utilização destas tecnologias pelos visitantes de museus, bem como de serviços de m-Tourism. A utilização destes instrumentos contribuiu também para o desenvolvimento de um protótipo que concretizasse o conceito de m-Tourism 2.0, o qual estabelece como um dos seus pilares a necessidade de soluções que permitam aos turistas comunicar o que estão a sentir e vivenciar, em qualquer momento da experiência turística, e partilhar essas informações com alguém. Os resultados revelam que um número reduzido de visitantes está envolvido em atividades de partilha de conteúdos e alguma vez utilizou sistemas móveis de apoio a visitas a museus, embora a utilização destes sistemas seja reconhecida como sendo uma mais-valia nesse tipo de visita. Verifica-se, ainda, que há alguma predisposição para os visitantes partilharem comentários e exprimirem as suas preferências, bem como para aceder às informações partilhadas por outros visitantes, em sistemas de m-Tourism. A investigação realizada permite ainda concluir que o protótipo desenvolvido potencia uma melhoria da experiência turística, revelando-se um sistema adequado para a disponibilização de conteúdos multimédia complementares à informação já existente no museu e para a criação de novas dinâmicas de acesso à informação e de comunicação entre os visitantes.The research presented here aims to characterize and propose possible solutions to some of the limitations associated with the use of m-Tourism systems in museum visits, related with multimedia content delivery mechanisms and with information access and share among visitors. The empirical part begins with interviews to tourism and museum professionals, followed by a questionnaire to museum visitors, to better understand the relationships between the institutions of tourism and tourists, on the one hand, and the internet, Web 2.0 and mobile devices, on the other hand, and to characterize the current scenario regarding the use of these technologies by museum visitors, as well of m-Tourism services. The use of these instruments also contributed to the development of a prototype that materializes the m-Tourism 2.0 concept, which is based on the need for solutions that enable tourists to communicate what they are feeling and experiencing, at any given moment during the tourism experience, and to share that information with someone. The results show that a small number of visitors are involved in content sharing activities and have, at some point, used mobile systems to support museum visits, although the use of these systems is recognized as an added value in this type of visit. It also seems that there is some predisposition for visitors to share comments and express their preferences in m-Tourism systems, as well as to access information shared by others. The research also allows to conclude that the prototype leads to an improvement of the tourism experience, revealing to be a suitable system for the delivery of multimedia contents that complement the existing information in the museum and for the creation of new dynamics of access to information and communication between visitors

An analysis of services for the mobile tourist

10.1145/1378063.1378142Mobility Conference 2007 - The 4th Int. Conf. Mobile Technology, Applications and Systems, Mobility 2007, Incorporating the 1st Int. Symp. Computer Human Interaction in Mobile Technology, IS-CHI 2007490-49