Category: General

The HotSpots Merchant Service Program provides business owners with the opportunity to more effectively promote their products or services. Merchants create highly engaging special offers and feedback invitations using text, images, audio tracks, and videos for a monthly fee. Consumers are then able to view and use the special offers at the selected location. This will provide incentive for Consumers to visit businesses more often and increase business for Merchants with more engaged and loyal customers. 

These promotions created by Merchants will be available for users to view when on the app. As part of the Merchant Service subscription, businesses can post an unlimited number of promotional messages. For example, a barista at a coffee shop could record a video showing a new drink they have made for customers. This will not only help give attention to the barista but also increase brand loyalty between the customer and Merchant. 

A promotional message created by Merchants could be “Most Popular Today”. This would be a notification on items that are most popular at a Merchant’s location to encourage customers to visit and see what the rave is about for these items. An image created by Merchants could be “Today’s Special” with the special offer displayed on it. This is a great way to advertise a deal for consumers to take part in. An audio message could be a “Mystery Special Offer” where only those who listen receive the special offer by Merchants. This would encourage users to check up on the messages in the app directed towards them in order to not miss out on an offer. This in turn benefits both HotSpots and the Merchants. These are just a few examples of great ways that Merchants can attract loyal customers through our Merchant Service Program. 

An important future feature is the ability for users to give feedback to Merchants on the business in general or specific items or promotions. Merchants will be able to respond and engage with consumers through the app. Such interactions can be anonymous without having to share identities. This can keep the focus on building a strong affinity for the business and a way for Merchants to improve their products or services and promotions thereof. Consumers will know that they can rely on the Merchant for their needs and concerns and the Merchant will know that the customer cares about their product or service. 

Our Merchant Service Program is very accommodating to Merchants and their needs. We will address any Merchant issues by solving problems with our service in a timely and eager manner. Merchant success is the highest priority of the Merchant Service Program.

Interested in participating in our Merchant Service Program? Contact us at merchants@sizzlescene.com for more information!

User Studies are a great tool to conduct in order to uncover any opportunities in your product to improve or market upon. They involve a moderator asking participants to perform certain tasks with a product or service in order to gain insight on the performance of it. While the participants are completing these tasks, the moderator will be observing their behavior and listening for feedback.

The goals of a user study are to identify problems, uncover opportunities, and learn about the target users behaviors and preferences while using the product or service. It can be hard to learn about how well your product or service is functioning without the consumer actually using it and forming opinions about it for you. This is where the user study comes in. 

The elements of a user study are the moderator, the tasks and the participants. The moderator guides the participants through the user study process, gives instructions, answers participant’s questions and asks follow up questions. They also ensure results are high quality and the data is valid by not influencing participant’s behaviors. 

Tasks should be realistic activities that the participants may actually perform in real life and be specific or open ended depending on the information you are trying to receive. For example, if your product is an app, you may want participants to go through the features on the app as their tasks. Something to be aware of while tasks are being completed is if the task is working. This is when there are small errors in how a task is phrased causing participants to misunderstand what they are supposed to do and influence how they perform the task. It is important that instructions are read aloud by the participants to help them understand what to do and avoid task working.

Participants should be people in your target market that would actually use your product or service. Social posts, emails or word of mouth are all great ways to seek out participants for a user study. During the user study, they are asked to think out loud for moderators while performing tasks in order to give feedback to the moderators. Once all tasks are completed, a survey may be distributed in order for moderators to fully understand what elements need to be improved or marketed upon. 

A user study is best to be conducted shortly after a product or service launch so you receive immediate feedback and can utilize it while the product or service is still new. However, anytime one is conducted is extremely valuable for you and your company. User studies are not necessary, but can be a great way to uncover hidden information about your product or service you would not have known about before.

One of the most important parts of a product launch is having marketing efforts ready and executed before the product is actually launched or even exists. There are many marketing factors to consider before this launch, especially depending on the type of service or product you may offer. For example, TrampleZone LLC is a company that provides consumers with applications to make their daily lives easier. Therefore, marketing efforts include app store optimization, social media preparation, user studies and other efforts specific to the application. 

Similar to search engine optimization, app store optimization includes all the factors involved in making sure your application appears at the top of a user’s search results in the app store. These factors include, your keywords in your app title and description, ratings and reviews, downloads and more. It is important to make sure these factors are customized and reviewed accordingly to your application in order to encourage downloads and engagement.

Social media preparation is crucial for spreading the word about your product. Many consumers use social media daily where they see advertisements for products like yours and choose to follow accounts promoting products of their interest. Appropriate posts must be drafted and scheduled to interest consumers that follow you as well as help build a strong brand loyalty. To help build a strong following, it is important to interact with users by following those who may follow your competitors and creating advertisements on social media platforms to target users. This in turn will gain traffic to your product and build you a strong brand loyalty.

User Studies are a great tool to conduct in order to uncover any opportunities in your product to improve or market upon. While a user study is not conducted until after a product launch, it is important to be prepared to execute this before the launch to get feedback on your product as soon as possible post launch. However, a study could be performed before a full launch if certain completed features of a product are wished to be tested. Users Studies involve having someone from your company act as a moderator with volunteer participants using your product in front of you. While your product is being used, you can observe how it is being used and any feedback participants may have about it. A survey may also be completed by volunteers after the study is over in order for you to fully understand what elements need to be improved or marketed upon. 

SEO and ASO are crucial for having your product receive hits and traffic. Social media will spread the word about your product and user studies will give you feedback on a product from those interested in using it. These are just a few of the valuable tasks that can be prepared before launching your product, specifically if your product is an application such as the ones produced by TrampleZone. Marketing efforts before a product launch are what will ultimately determine the reach and success of your product.

As businesses begin to open across the United States, the safety and wellbeing of staff and customers is more important than ever. Businesses are required to follow state guidelines. However, do you wonder if locations are as safe as they claim to be? With HotSpots’ new COVID-19 Safety rating category, you can see how other users assess the safety level.  The rating levels range from bad to good…

• Dial 911!
• Ignores Standards
• Extremely Risky
• Very Risky
• Risky
• Good Standards
• Safe
• Very Safe
• Extremely Safe
• Exceptional Standards
• Germaphobe Approved

Reviewing other user ratings allows you to select a location that will make you feel safe and comfortable during your visit. HotSpots also allows users to share pictures, videos, audio, and comments so you can see exactly what the scene is like before arriving. No longer will you worry about the location being too crowded or customers being unmasked, as you can see the scene in real time.  What can be an overwhelming time for most just became a little easier with HotSpots’ COVID-19 Safety rating.  Prioritize your safety and download HotSpots today to find safe locations near you!

When you open the HotSpots app the first thing you will see are the spots around you based on your location. The spots around you can be sorted by their rating, name or distance. Selecting a spot will allow you to submit a rating in multiple categories. The individual category ratings are combined to get an overall rating. 

The categories on which you can rate your spot are price, product, service, cleanliness, dining crowd and ambiance. Once you complete these ratings, an overall rating is calculated from this. In addition, you can enter comments to go along with your rating. Your comment can include text, an image, an audio track or a video. After completing everything, you are ready to submit your rating to HotSpots. You are also able to check-in, post to Facebook or post to Twitter. 

Your ratings for spots in the area you are currently in on HotSpots will show up at the top of your screen when you sort by the highest to lowest rating. You are also able to edit your ratings after you submit them. For example, if you go to a restaurant that you found on HotSpots and originally gave it a good overall rating but then when attending the restaurant a second time do not still feel it deserves the same rating, you may submit another rating to update the overall score.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting the TrampleZone Blog. Here you can learn more about our available applications and new projects under development.  You can tell us about your experience using our apps, suggest new features, and report any problems you have discovered. We invite you to participate and engage directly with our company staff.  Here is more info about the HotSpots app.

HotSpots is a brand new app to find and rate your favorite nearby venues in several categories.  You can filter on price, product, service, cleanliness, ambiance, entertainment, crowds, and more.   Be smart and spend your time wisely with the highest rated places.  Join us to make it possible for the world to Track the Herd and Save all of Humanity!

HotSpots is a product of TrampleZone LLC.  We are a relatively new software startup in the Boston area, focused on mobile and desktop applications for savvy consumers. Growing from ground zero, we are actively looking for marketing and engineering innovators with fresh new ideas to join the team and help save the world, one app at a time.

Jim Melvin, CEO TrampleZone LLC