7 News Belize

Bze Companies Create Apps To Drive Mobile Business Their Way
posted (September 16, 2014)
A month ago, we told you about the PUC's one week Mobile App workshop to train youths to develop their own apps. Well, this trail blazing initiative has not only inspired the youths but also businesses to create a mobile apps to enhance the quality of their products and services and create a more complete customer experience. Courtney Weatherburne found out more about two trend-setting apps:

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
There's a multitude of mobile applications to choose from, there are apps to access the famed and popular facebook and the convenience of whatsapp and of course there are the addictive mobile game apps all for one's personal use.

But apps aren't only for fun, increasingly Belizean businesses are seeing them as a way to attract and keep customers. Two companies who are joining the main stream mobile platform are Flavors of Belize and Central TV and internet.

The two companies provide different services and cater to different target markets but share one common goal: they want their product on your mobile phone:

Emaun Hyde, Sales and Marketing Representative, Flavors of Belize
"Flavors of Belize is actually multi-part organization. We have the cookbook, we have the magazine that we do every year, we have the cooking shows that we do and we felt that just the app was the next step to take in marketing for the Flavors of Belize brand and helping to push everyone that works with us, all the restaurants, all the hotels - all of our clients. What we do we push Belize; we try to get Belize out there recognize by international basically. People from all over the world can download the app to the phones - google play, the app store and they have all of that right there on their phone. If they are coming to Belize, if they are planning a trip, if they are thinking of planning a trip they have all that information and it's really helpful and useful. The more useful part of the app is the fact that we have all the properties that you would find in our magazine for example. You are looking for somewhere to stay in San Pedro you can go islands and cayes - San Pedro and find places to stay and places to eat, things to do and whatever you want to find - it's all separated properly, so it's easy to maneuver for anyone using the app. The usability I think is really good."

Now after a fun filled day at that Resort in San Pedro, you might want to relax and catch up on some TV, for which Central TV and internet has a mobile solution.

Pedro Lizarraga, CEO Central TV and Internet
"What it is really, it's a player, it connects you to our server at out head end and it allows you to watch channels that we put on the mitv app. For our customers we have decided to encourage loyalty - we are offering it to our customers for $10 a month and as an added on service when they bundle their cable, internet and mitv with us. Anybody that is not our customers will pay $20 a month. We invest in cutting edge technology and we pride ourselves in always being ahead and we will continue to invest in technology to please our customers and to make our customers brand loyal."

And building loyalty means getting the word out. Flavors of Belize used a novel approach this weekend: they put a float in the carnival - and it wasn't just for branding, they were giving these away - they called QR, or quick response codes: scan one of these on your mobile phone and you've got the app.

A new kind of promotion in an era when businesses are finding ways to harness your cell phone addiction to drive business their way.

The Flavors of Belize mobile app is free.

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