Beacons, Heard of Them Yet?
You may have heard about this technology known as “Beacons”, but maybe you don’t have all the info on it just yet, allow us to enlighten you. Beacons are small (often battery powered) devices that that emit a signal that an app can be programmed to detect. You might think that doesn’t sound very interesting, but oh contraire mon frère, they can do a lot. As an example, let’s say your business has its own mobile app, and you want to offer people something special for entering your business, or provide information about an upcoming event. The beacon would allow the app to do that, because by using the beacon the mobile app “knows” that the customer is indeed within the small radius of the beacon.
Beacons are great because they’re inexpensive to purchase (often under $20) and they’re cross platform, meaning they’ll work with Androids and iPhones, and they require no maintenance. That’s right, once a beacon is setup initially, you just need to make sure its powered…most devices can go up to 2 years on regular alkaline batteries.
We’ve developed many solutions and scenarios that utilize beacons to save time, money, increase customer loyalty, etc. We believe this is a “technology to watch”, and will only get bigger. The possibilities on how beacons can be used to keep your clientele engaged is seemingly endless.
Touchscreens, smart phones, beacons, what will they think of next? …Probably something to do with Augmented Reality (AR).