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Confessions of the “Check-in” Queen
This afternoon one of our developers got an interesting e-mail. It was from a woman who so kindly asked him to give her one of his Gowalla badges from his account that had been inactive for 6 months. Of course he agreed, but not before we could have a little fun with her first. He kindly agreed to give her the badge if she would be willing to answer 8 questions about the service and how she uses it. We gained some interesting insights from a faithful user and she said she was more than happy for us to share them. So here they are, for your reading pleasure... The Confessions of the "Check-in" Queen aka "The Gowalla Balla":
1. Explain how YOU use Gowalla and tell us how frequently you check in.
I usually only check in at new spots to make my count go up... a bitof a competition with my friends. I commute 102 miles every day, so Ipass a lot of spots, but my frequency of check-ins has slowed fromabout 1000/week to about 200/week as there are fewer and fewer 'new'spots I encounter. On the rare occasion I get to travel, I check-in toas many spots as I can.
2. What are the best offers/deals that you have come across using a location based service? Did you participate to receive the special?
Since I've been playing, the best deal was checking in at Best Buy towin an Eye-Fi card. I did participate, and I won. Well worth the tripin the car for this specific item.
3. What are the top five types of locations you visit on Gowalla and how frequently do you visit them?
a.) Apple Stores (I used to work at the Apple store - AND - I'm a Macaddict) - at least once a week
b.) Starbucks/Coffee - at least once a week
c.) Office (5 times a week - when I'm at work)
d.) Electronic stores (in addition to Apple) - I'm a geek, what can Isay? - at least once a week
e.) Greek restaurants - gotta get my Tabbouli on... about once every 2 weeks.4. How many of your friends and family use Gowalla? Do you ever have competitions or play games with other users?
My husband and several (at least 10) of my former Apple co-workersplay Gowalla. The competition is friendly - we encourage each otherand help each other find spots... but I do secretly want to beat themall on the leaderboard.
5. Do you feel that more businesses could benefit from using Gowalla? If so, tell us why.
In this economy, it's hard to get people into stores that do not havethe staples everyone needs. Discretionary income is not a common thingnowadays... but people still treat themselves. Any company providing aproduct that people may not be aware of can really spread the word byoffering specials to Gowalla users. I think most Gowalla users aregoing to be tech-savvy as one thing they will all have in common...but as more and more people who don't necessarily consider themselvestech-savvy acquire iPhone, Palm OS, and other smart phones, evennon-tech companies may benefit from tie-ins with Gowalla. As for me -I didn't even know there was a Best Buy anywhere near where I livenow... so I have another location to look for deals on hard drives,etc.
6. If you could create one badge for Gowalla that didn't already exist, what would it be and why?
Virtual badges to represent those earned by boy scouts and girl scouts- based on locations such as BS & GS Headquarters and camp facilities.Why? I was a girl scout for 7 years - in that time, I only earned 4badges because my parents would never let me out of the house or takeme anywhere. Now I can travel, but am too old to earn the badges I missed out on.
7. When you explain to people that you just "Checked in" at a location, how do they normally respond?My Gowalla friends know I rapid-fire check-in everywhere I go - sosometimes I'll get a message like, "You're a machine!" I only share onfacebook when I take a photo and/or there is something I really wantto share w/ my friends about where I am. I am typically asked, "how isthe food?" and "how much does it cost to eat there?" and sometimes,"Oh, I LOVE that place!" as comments under my facebook posting.
8. If you could add anything to Gowalla, or location based "Check in" games, what would it be?
I do not see a benefit to adding friends to Gowalla other than sharingwith people (sometimes people I barely know) where I've been and thatmy house is unoccupied. If there was a way to truly compete, therewould be more incentive to add friends. Since I've become moreaddicted to Gowalla, I've found myself actually removing some friendsthat I had added earlier when I started playing.
We'd like to thank our friend for being a good sport. She is now the proud new owner of a Rocket Ship Badge and I don't think she could be more happy. As for us, I think this shows us that there are opportunities out there to engage our customers and build brand loyalty that some of us are not seizing. It is important to offer your client every opportunity to be noticed, and offer a solution that is successful from all perspectives. With social media being so big right now, more imporantance is being placed on quality one-on-one interactions. How does your brand stack up?
Posted by Hudson Haines on Thursday, July 08, 2010 in 0 Comments| Share
