The Top 5 Local Guides Apps for Relocations
Let’s face it, your clients are interacting with consumer-grade experiences every day, from ride-sharing apps and interactive maps to online banking and takeaway food aggregating apps. All of these experiences inform expectations, and when our clients come to us for their relocation their prior interactions with businesses create hopes which we often fail to live up to. This does not need to be the case, however, as we now have many avenues of approach available to provide these kinds of service levels.
When looking around at what’s currently on the market it’s important to consider what your clients are really looking for, and what you have the ability to provide. It is counterproductive to supply a client with plenty of information about local schools if they don’t have any children. An excellent model to follow therefore are the many local guides apps which are now available for smartphones. Although most are targeted towards the larger tourism market, some stand out as a good fit for relocation support.
Spotted by Locals
Spotted by Locals prides themselves on their network of hand-picked and personally vetted of ‘Spotters’ which all live and speak the language of their hometown. This provides the platform with authentic advice and tips for locals, avoiding any tourist traps or cultural issues which could be found through a foreigner’s eyes. Regularly updated, Spotted by Locals provides the exact kind of intimate information that assignees will need to get their feet on the ground, and start to feel at home in their new location. Avoiding tourist traps is a must for proper integration and preventing the feeling of being on holiday.
Airbnb
Airbnb is now rapidly becoming the gold standard for many when looking at travel and guide apps due to its slick and intuitive user experience and the amount of information it has to offer. This is the app to take a good and hard look at to see what’s currently being provided by others around the world. Having branched out from their business of short-stay renting, they are now offering a variety of local guides who can take visitors around and show them what the locality has available. These services are indeed more geared towards tourists but should give you a great idea of what the local area has to offer your assignees in their new home.
Google Maps
Google Maps is almost too obvious to list, but it’s worth mentioning due to its unrivalled depth and ease of use. Some recent gamification of the Google Maps reviewing system has led to their ‘Local Guides’ initiative which aims to provide more accurate information from locals as opposed to tourists and other visitors. When doing research for your assignees, look out for the local guides as opposed to general reviews, to make sure you’re getting the most accurate local views.
Routes Guide
Routes Guide, as you may have guessed from the name, provides local guides in the form of routes to explore through the city in question visiting a variety of spots recommended by locals. This app may not be great for assignees that have already made the move but should be ideal for those travelling to explore or home search ahead of relocation. There are many guides to choose from making them perfect to get a snapshot feel of a city in a short amount of time.
Manyguide
Manyguide is an intriguing and (artificially) intelligent new way for you to get local and accurate information on the fly for your assignees. If one of your clients has a specific question about their new home which an outsider cannot accurately answer, get on Manyguide and connect to their extensive network to find the person who can. Not necessarily built for the global mobility industry and relocation professionals, but their advanced AI and impressive chatbots will get back you no time at all. Although only currently available in Brussels and Amsterdam, expect Manyguide to expand to you soon.
For more information please contact CEO and Co-Founder of ReloTalent, Sebastien Deschamps - seb@relotalent.com