On the download

If you’re ever curious about the current events or best deals in town, well, there’s an app for that.

Earlier this year, Osceola Chamber Main Street (OCMS) debuted the Explore Osceola app. It allows users to “explore” all of Osceola’s businesses, events and more.

“As we get the word out, more and more people seem to like it,” said Derek Lumsden, OCMS executive director. “That’s one of the issues we’re still working on is trying to get word out a little more. We’re trying to have informational booths at our events to remind people that it’s out there.”

Explore Osceola is a free app that can found on Apple’s App Store or Google Play. It can go to the smartphone or iPad.

To go live

The idea for the app evolved from questions local businesses had and the visitor’s guide OCMS used to do.

One problem with the visitor’s guide was OCMS couldn’t access the utilization, analytics and data of the public usage.

A decision was made to develop an Osceola app through a Texas-based company called Bar-Z. Lumsden said Bar-Z had produced apps for Orange City and other ones the chamber utilized.

Several of Osceola’s businesses have deals and loyalty programs people can only get exclusively through the new app. This ranges from shopping, dining and lodging to community events and attractions, including Osceola’s Fourth of July celebration.

Three levels

For businesses, the app offers three different levels of sponsorship.

The first level is a general business sponsor, which gets the business name, address, telephone number and website.

The second level is a point of interest (POI). This next level offers turn-by-turn directions to the selected location.

The third level is loyalty level, which offers the point of interest coverage and a loyalty program.

Lumsden said the loyalty program is similar to an “old-fashioned punch card system.”

“Say you go to Iron Horse (restaurant) and you buy 10 sandwiches, you get your 11th one free. Any of the businesses at POI level or above can do deals or coupons,” he said.

Lumsden said the cost for businesses to be in the app averages out at the highest level to approximately $30 a month.

Working it out

Since the app made its debut in January, Lumsden said, overall, it’s been good for the first half of the year.

“One of the problems we ran into selling it to the businesses, we didn’t have a prototype of Osceola to show them,” he said. “So, we have probably a couple of hundred different people on it now through our analytic, and we have them from all over the country and all over world. We have some in Europe that have even downloaded it.”

The Explore Osceola app has also been successful with promoting and reminding people about community events, especially updating when an event is coming up or cancelled because of the weather.

“Our first event we did that for was our Snowflake Ball back in February, and we about doubled in attendance on that, just from people reminding the fathers, ‘You have to take your daughter tonight,’’’ Lumsden said.

Still to come

According to Lumsden, a recent comment he’s heard is people like to have hard copies of information in their hand in case they forgot their phone or a battery is low.

OCMS is looking at providing a written “companion piece,” which would provide details of Osceola’s restaurants and activities. It would be similar to a summer guide, but it wouldn’t be in the quantity or detail as the old visitor’s guide.

As with any piece of technology still in its infancy, the Explore Osceola app will be ever evolving.

Lumsden said one of the benefits of the app is OCMS gets a 100 percent rebuild every year, because it’s already built into the cost.

“I’ll probably start again this August, and we’ll spend a couple of months talking to businesses, showing them the current one, telling them how we’re going to update it,” he said. “And, then, it will go live again every January.”