Weight Watchers' consumer-facing app

Weight Watchers has launched an app to help its service providers -- the leaders and receptionists that run the member meetings -- collect member data and track sales. Weight Watchers Vice President of Enterprise Systems Loic Vienne told MobiHealthNews that the tablet app will be deployed "as fast as possible" to meet the needs of the company's health plan and employer clients. The app was developed in partnership with Kony.

"We have thousands of meetings running every week and this tablet [app] is going to be used to process the meeting, so check-in members, do product sales," Vienne said. "Also it can be used to capture information about the member... That information is then going to be made available to health plans so that they can ensure engagement of Weight Watchers members in the program."

Weight Watchers meetings offer members a place to interact with with others in the program, talk to a weight loss mentor, and learn more about the company's eTools. In every meeting, members also weigh-in. All of this data is collected by the Weight Watchers staff.

The company has meeting locations and retail stores in every major US city, but the company also offers "traveler's locations" that are in rented spaces, including churches and schools, but also at corporate client offices. In these locations, a company spokesperson said, service providers are currently using a paper-based or laptop-based data entry system. The tablet app rollout will happen within the next couple weeks and the rollout will replace the laptop and paper in all locations.

Vienne added that collecting this data is a key requirement for health plans and employers.

Because most of the employers and health plans that incorporate Weight Watchers into their programs subsidize the cost for members, Weight Watchers plans to provide them with the different data points that they company collects including how many people signed up for the program, how many stayed in the program over a period of time, and how many meetings these members went to. This information will allow health plans and employers to adjust how much of the program they are subsidizing.

On top of collecting meeting data on member weigh-ins, the check-in process, and sales made during the meeting, the tablet will also be used to record data on interactions, like if a member plans to go on a vacation for a few weeks. 

"The information that we are collecting is consolidated with information we are collecting in the meeting room," Vienne said. "One of the things we are going to do is have this channel view of all the interactions. In the background this data is being collected and centralized so we can leverage the information."

Weight Watchers will also use some of this information for the personalized marketing messages it sends to members. For example, if a member hasn't been to a meeting for a couple weeks, the company will use the data to send them an email to re-engage them in the program.

In October 2013, a study conducted by Baylor College and sponsored by Weight Watchers found that a guided in-person weight loss program, such as Weight Watchers, may be more effective than the self-help approach.