SAN FRANCISCO - A Choice Hotels executive at the Mobile Shopping Summit said that the first interaction between many of its customers and the brand is via mobile, adding that user interface and branding becomes more important in capturing user engagement from the beginning.

During the ?Mobile Roadmap Part V - Measuring Behavior: Providing Visibility On Your Customers Mobile Interaction. Day 1 Reporting Requirements For The Next Iteration? session, panelists discussed how important metrics are. The panel was moderated by Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis, Atlanta.

?You do need to look at the engagement,? said Chris Brya, director of user experience and ecommerce at Choice Hotels, Phoenix, AZ. ?We?re in an era where analytics really does give you great information.

?Without the metrics and really understanding who our mobile customer is, it?s really just numbers,? he said.

Mobile patterns
Mr. Brya said that it is important to get to know your consumers and notice patterns.

For example, the company finds that consumers who access its Web site via their PC tend to book vacations for the future.

However, consumers looking to book a room right now are doing it via mobile.

?Mobile consumers are booking for today or tomorrow,? Mr. Brya said. ?It?s geo-located, they want to see what they can book now, near them.

?The behaviors are different between our mobile travelers and our regular travelers,? he said.

The executive also said that it is very important to create a friendly and easy-to-use user interface.

When consumers access a company?s mobile site or application ? especially if it is a hotel booking one ? they need to be able to find categories easily.

If customers are having a hard time and are confused with the user interface then that relationship between that brand and that consumer is not going to work.

?For some of our customers, their first interaction with our brand is via their mobile device,? Mr. Brya said. ?And that?s new.

?User interface becomes important,? he said. ?Branding becomes important.?

Mr. Brya said that it is important for companies to look at who their customers are and how they use mobile.

?You have to look at those different channel shifts, cannibalization and unique users and how they use your mobile site differently,? My Byra said.

?You need to be prepared to be flexible on what it is that you?re tracking,? he said. ?You have to see where the areas of struggle are and are consumers leaving because that path is confusing.

?The numbers can show you a lot and tell you a lot about the behavior and that customer.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York