Foursquare is fun. For me, Foursquare is a utility. I'm less into the standings than I am into remembering things I want to do and places I went that were good. I'm very much into hearing what my friends think about places I want to go. It's been getting a lot better at helping me 'explore'. I think that these are the pretty obvious use-cases from my (end-user) perspective.
But, the service is free for me to use. And, as they say, "if you aren't paying for a product, you are the product being sold." So, what are some possible use-cases for the real potential buyers, the businesses?
1) Venue Stats
The venue stats can be valuable to small business owners who do not have the time or tools (or the interest in investing in them) to measure traffic patterns. It does not require installing any hardware, and only minimal effort to 'claim the venue' and start understanding when people check-in to your business. Foursquare provides these basic analytics for free. Great. Now what to do with that?
2) Help Managing Inventory and Staff
To me, an industrial engineer and all around numbers guy, I love digging into the info about peak usage, flow rates, etc. I think improved inventory management is amazing because it often feels like free money. Or rather, what's so amazing is that it doesn't necessarily feel like anything and then, suddenly, money!
Regardless of the business, a better understanding of congestion can help better plan production. That's the same if I run a restaurant or a salon. Most business owners will tell you they already understand their peak times (e.g., lunch at a deli, "2:30 Feeling" for5 Hour Energy). But, for those places that do not invest in a high-end POS, Foursquare provides hardware-free analytics showing how busy business really is. These analytics could help anticipate growth/decline and manage it more effectively (e.g., through changes in staffing or offering specials as a means of congestion pricing).
3) Specials and Loyalty Programs
Ok. Specials. Daily Deals. Groupons. Whatever you want to call them. They exist already from multiple parties and are among the hottest areas in startups right now. Foursquare reaches lots of customers who are near a purchase decision. It already has specials and is distributing deals from partners (i.e., LivingSocial, AmEx). That’s great.
Futher, the Foursquare Specials platform can easily be a turnkey customer loyalty program (and it sells it this way). It provides additional value past punch cards because customers broadcast their spending to their friends. And, right now, it does not cost anything more than the cards for the free advertising. At redemption of “10th coffee is free” it would create desire in other customers wanting free stuff and could motivate new customers to choose that coffee shop over competitors.
4) Close the Loop & Estimate Cash Payments
Now it’s time to use the data you have on customer behavior. Other than credit card companies (and maybe Mint.com) no one has a better handle on customer behavior than Foursquare. There has to be more here than specials, right?
Foursquare gets data on consumer interaction regardless of their method of payment. Use that information to create some measure (estimate, SWAG, whatever you want to call it) of cash spending. That would be an enormously valuable bit of information for businesses and their payment providers, from established banks and credit cards to Square and PayPal all trying to grab a bigger share of payments.
5) Customer Experience Measurement
Provide an easy way for customers to share info about how long they spend in the store. Maybe they were going to come in, but didn't because it was too crowded. Maybe they didn't find what they were looking for.
I bet a delicious new burrito store would pay up to find out how long it takes someone to come in, get a burrito, eat it, and leave.
Adding this complexity could easily drive users away, but it might make the remaining users much more valuable sources of info. One way to implement could be a 'simple check-in' tab and a 'complex check-in' tab. Users would opt-in to sharing their progress through the line to give feedback that helps their favorite businesses improve their own experience, like a business focused version of the Yelp Elite.
6) Follow Up Feedback
Another way to improve data collection for businesses could be to let users receive email and quick (and I mean quick) surveys from venues they visited. I already get an email from online purchases I make asking me to rate the experience. Even the receipt (which I don't want, btw) at the Duane Reade encourages me to fill out an online survey for a chance at $10,000. There's value in fostering that data collection.
7) Potential Business Owners
Provide insights into the aggregate check-in data for a neighborhood. When a commercial real-estate agent says "great foot traffic", Foursquare can provide the real data behind that and the specific times of day. Is this a neighborhood for a late-night spot or a mid-day spot? How many locals are here? How many tourists? Where do the various groups check-in?
Show me the CarFax.
8) Business to Business Sales
Help business connect with each other to sell efficiency products (e.g., better registers, better inventory management, scheduling software, etc). If the data analytics are still free for the small business owners, well, then they might be a second layer in the “you are the product” stack. So, Foursquare can act as lead generator or market maker to help connect small businesses with service providers.
Even better, integrate Foursquare software with existing solutions and makes it easy to close the loop. Then it can provide understanding of the customer experience from check-in to payment to follow up through customer feedback.
Ok. Those are some ideas. What might be a hurdle to adoption?
1) Understanding the psychology of the 'check-in'
A small businesses owner needs to understand when and why people check-in. Is it before their experience, regardless of what happens? Maybe afterwards? Maybe only check-in if they loved or hated it. This, to me, is the biggest limitation facing Foursquare. Possibly the very large and growing user base would wash away the outliers.
2) Customer Segmentation and Bias
Customers are going to be more diverse than the subset of smartphone owners who also have Foursquare who also check-in who also leave tips. Business owners are already busy managing a Yelp page (and the actual business). They don't have time to check out the check-in data. Maybe the data around specials is more interesting, but by then, the business has already been convinced of the value of the Foursquare deal platform over competing deals services.
3) Fine. So, why Foursquare?
10 million registered users. Free business analytics (for now). Data. Insights. Profit!
I’ve made some assumptions about the depth, breadth and quality of data and inferences we’d be able to pull from Foursquare. Which are too big? What do you think of these options?
