First Experience, Getting Discounts with Foursquare Application in Local (Indonesia) Venue

Even if it might sounds a bit weird, frankly I was rarely even never use any discount facilities obtained from the check-in at a particular location with Foursquare applications, although I'm using location-based applications quite often such as Koprol, Foursquare and Gowalla.

It is still a hard thing to do - to get a discount by showing the results of check-in at a particular location – due to several reasons, such as my laziness, since the behavior to show the results of check-in itself is not my usual pattern of behavior in visiting a specific location (a cafe or a place to eat). Which means I have to add one new pattern in the activities of eating, for example by showing the phone's display after I checked-in.

The second one is my own doubts on the certain location of business (cafe, etc.) whether they are ready to campaign through Fousquare system or just because it is popular, and the application of a discount program based on the activity of check-in itself is still unfamiliar for most location owners (though they are growing) compared with other promos such as discount coupons.

Foursquare themselves are promoting their check-in service and promotions integration with merchants on their services, at least in overseas. Indonesia itself is the biggest Foursquare user in Asia, which makes the opportunities to offer discounts based on your Foursquare check-ins very interesting. Although there are some other barriers that the behavior of Foursquare users in Indonesia itself is still mostly remote.

The promotion by the owner of the location associated with Foursquare application can also be influenced by the character of the site, whether it is close to the online communities and quite suitable with their market share. At least that's what I experienced last Sunday in Potluck Kitchen, a quite popular place in Bandung, Jawa Barat-Indonesia, which I think its market share is also quite internet savvy.

Experience using check-in facility in Foursquare was quite exciting, although I still find some communication problems, such as my lack of confidence if the cashier quite familiar with this facility, but everything went on smoothly and I got the discounts, even one of my friends was to be 'major' on the spot anf get another additional prize – a meal/beverage voucher.

Potluck itself is running a program for visitors who do check-in, by showing evidence of check-ins (the mobile screen), then the visitors will get a discount of 10%, while for 'major' will get a 50 thousand rupiahs voucher. Everything must be shown at checkout at the time of payment.

The most recent developments of the Foursquare also provide more support for the merchants and consumers. For the merchants now they have new Specials facility provided by Foursquare. At least there are 5 offers that can be given by the site owner for its new customers as well as 2 offers for loyal customers. The setting these various offerings can also be customized, according to what the owner location desired. As for consumers, Fousquare 3.0 gives a better view, more cool to use, as well as some new facilities such as the Explore which could provide an additional information about other locations around from the other Foursquare users.

Other facilities are associated with the offers from the merchants. When we find a place to check in then there would be a special banner if the merchant around the location are having a promotion. This is certainly easier for the merchants to promote their business and gives useful information to consumers.

One of the weakness from this Potluck discount program is that in this facility, users can read the announcement of a discount from the poster in front of the cafe as well as from the site / blog but did not get any information rom the Foursquare application itself. Perhaps they have not utilize the new facility from Foursquare Specials.

Foursquare could be a place for site owners to create promotional programs, although of course there are still many things to be optimized, including the understanding and level of literacy of the site owner itself. Koprol also have started to get into the business by launching a Koprol business account. But Koprol still have a weakness that is the application, at least there has been no application for the iPhone from Koprol (Koprol only have application for BlackBerry, JavaME and mobile version, also facilities to touch device (http://touch.koprol.com). However, I think the appearance still needs to be fixed. There is a buildup of text at the beginning of login process, and view bar 'change place' is quite unclear.

For me, promotions based on location-based services should be with mobile access and this can be optimized through application. Illustration: you take a walk, near the site, open the application and get a Special, interested to visit the location, check in, do the purchase and get a discount on check-in activity. Though of course there are many other factors that could affect the optimization of location-based services for the promotion, such as the number of feature phone users in Indonesia is still quite a lot. However, segmentation may be an option, the location of the upper-middle segment of course can penetrate this barrier with the logic of visitors they already have a smartphone.

The most interesting part of location-based services, for me is not only the activity of checking in, seeing where friends were, but rather to the integration of such services in other fields, especially business, at least with promotional programs integration in the application.

There is still much improvement that can occur, the competition in location-based services also continued to emerge, we see how the site owners, especially at the local level can use the facilities of various location services, whether it Foursquare or other services.

That was my first experience getting a discount from location-based services, quite fun and of course I will try to find other discount offers, hopefully more and more site owners (merchants) make the promo via Foursquare or other location-based services. What about your experience?

ps: Thanks Yohan and Reza for the photo.

Translated by Nita Sellya