What’s more, when visiting a pub, bar, restaurant or hotel, consumers are so often disengaged with their surroundings and preoccupied with smartphones that they are oblivious to what’s going on around them, making it difficult for brands to get them fully engaged.

To overcome this, hospitality businesses should focus on providing an immersive experience that draws customers into the present, allowing a connection to form. Here, technology presents many opportunities.

Background Music

Professional background music systems leverage technology to provide hospitality operators with more choice, flexibility, and control over their music. While many businesses turn to consumer music solutions like Spotify (which are technically illegal for commercial use), an equal product experience is now available through advanced B2B music services.

A professional 'music for business' service like Startle allows brands to control their music completely from a smartphone, manage multiple locations at once, instantly change their music schedule at the click of a button, and receive automatic system updates via the cloud.

Of course, the music content itself is key to creating a hospitality brand’s desired atmosphere. Whether managed or not, every brand has its own sound, and this will impact the experience customers have of a venue, whether they return, and the reviews they pass on. To ensure a brand’s background music elicits the reactions they desire, it’s important to carefully curate a soundtrack that marries what customers see and hear, enforcing the brand’s values and creating a seamless venue experience.

Integration

Integrating various touch points in a bar, cafe or restaurant’s digital strategy is key to delivering a high-level, personalised experience that consumers will love. The same can be said for in-venue technologies such as background music, digital signage, and mobile interaction. For example, setting triggers between background music and digital signage systems enables them to react in real-time and adapt to live events. The integration also ensures that brand messages are consistent, improving communication efforts.

Furthermore, many music and technology providers like Startle support various systems from one hardware, making management much easier and saving busy hospitality operators time and money.

By optimising technology for better entertainment and communication in their venues, hospitality brands can create immersive experiences that will awaken their customers and help a connection to form. Startle are dedicated to helping retail and hospitality brands achieve this, with an award-winning, innovative product range including background music, interactive bot technology, digital signage, quiz systems and more.