Earlier this year, Vancouver was selected as one of the top five cities in the world for members of the Millenial and Generation Z cohort to make their mark.
With this in mind, businesses are beginning to recognize it is no longer a choice to cater to Gen Z, but a must. This puts pressure on businesses to become tech-savvy, and offer seamless end-to-end experiences for their consumers.
Large organizations have long understood the importance of technological innovation but for small to midsize businesses in the Canadian market, this has been less of a priority – until now.
Growing tech stack creates challenges for businesses
The number of platforms businesses have to be on to market their services, in addition to the various software they need to run their day-to-day, is putting a significant strain on smaller businesses, especially given the economy is recovering from a huge global downfall and heading into its next potential economic recession.
The challenge lies in being able to maintain pace with the various platforms and growing tech stacks that businesses must use to ‘stay with the times.’
Today, businesses use a minimum of eight different software systems to run their operations, and for marketing. As marketing efforts increase, this number increases with it. For businesses to stay afloat especially in the Vancouver market, thin margins and an increased spend on tech is a huge caveat to a healthy bottom line.
The ROAR platform: an all-in-one solution
That’s where ROAR comes in. ROAR is an all-in-one booking platform built to manage day-to-day operations and connect businesses with their core market – and at the current moment, for many, that happens to be Generation Z.
Currently, there is no platform that exists that can merge the large number of platforms businesses need to both operate and market into a single platform, and that serves the growing service-based sector. The company also has plans to expand and serve Canada’s insurance and medical sector in the near future.
ROAR’s platform is two dimensional and structured as an ecosystem. Businesses can take care of backend logistics through the platform while their customers can search, filter, book and pay for services in one place. Customers can also skip the benefits claims process through the platform, when applicable.
Consumer-facing challenges
The growing tech stack has not just become an inconvenience to businesses but also to customers. The sheer number of booking apps dedicated to individual sub-sectors coupled with the use of social media platforms like Instagram as a booking portal is no short of a nuisance. Not to mention, customers may still find themselves making an odd phone call from time to time.
ROAR’s advanced API and integration capabilities allows for real-time availability extraction from POS software, which has led the company to onboard over 200 vendors in 11 months. The platform’s ability to integrate with POS software also puts the company in a first-mover position, given no other platform has this unique capability.
Platforms like ROAR are allowing businesses to focus efforts elsewhere while giving them the opportunity to maintain their place in the market.
The Road Ahead
In light of ROAR’s developments, the company recently announced a partnership with publicly traded company, Zonetail. Zonetail is a well-known mobile platform for high-rise residential amenity services in the Canadian marketplace. Its partnership with ROAR will offer guests and homeowners convenience and access to a wider selection of services and businesses, which they can book from the comfort of their own home.
Like how OpenTable changed the way in which we planned our business lunches or dinner dates for the better, ROAR is creating the same efficiency for customers looking to manage all appointments and bookings across the services based industry.
Maya Adly is the CEO and Founder of ROAR.
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