As I write and work in the loyalty space, I sometimes stop to think about the places I consider myself loyal to. There aren’t a lot of them; I frequent my grocer and use a friend’s phone number instead of a club card, and I usually don’t cave to the deals offered by loyalty programs. For other businesses, I am fiercely loyal, and make it a point to recommend “my” businesses whenever friends or tourists ask. “Why so loyal?” you ask? Because they all have one thing in common: a socially-charged mission. Continue reading The Importance of Having A Mission
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Mobile Marketing: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The growth in smartphone usage is phenomenal – there are more than 200 million smart phones in the U.S. and 100 billion text messages are sent every month. Utilizing mobile marketing is now a no-brainer; the difficulty is how to use mobile marketing without being intrusive to your customers.
The Scenario
Your best customers have given you their mobile phone number and opted into your Mobile VIP Program. The first message you send them is critical as it sets the tone for the relationship.
Continue reading Mobile Marketing: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
4 Types of Franchisees and How to Motivate Them To Do Better
You can provide a better POS system, add a loyalty program, add a new coat of paint to the business; and yet, the business may still fail. The reason – the franchisee did not get the job done.
The corporation is responsible for providing the franchisee with all the tools and training necessary for the success of the business. This post will identify the 4 types of franchisees and how to motivate them to do better, work harder, and ultimately succeed as a franchise owner.
Continue reading 4 Types of Franchisees and How to Motivate Them To Do Better
RewardMe Wins First Place at the AlwaysOn OnMobile Startup Competition!
The AlwaysOn OnMobile Conference
RewardMe was recently featured at AlwaysOn’s OnMobile Conference in Redwood City; a 2-day lecture-heavy exposé of the mobile and tablet industry. AlwaysOn has been one of the most prominent business media brand networking the Global Silicon Valley, with attendees of top executives from Fortune 500 Companies as well as successful technology startups.
Most of the conference was set around B2C businesses, but there were a few interesting B2B startups that could create some waves in the Restaurant and Retail industries.
Here are some highlights:
Mobile Technology Advancements For Restaurants & Franchises
Two things stick out here: automation, and dynamism. There were some big leaps in terms of automating various elements of the ordering process, but taking out the cashier can just be too automated in some cases. One startup is trying to take the online-ordering process to the next step — automating the process by taking the order directly to the POS and getting it ready for delivery. This could potentially help serve more customers during high-traffic times and lower waits for everyone. Continue reading RewardMe Wins First Place at the AlwaysOn OnMobile Startup Competition!
Guests, Not Customers
I recently came back from a conference, the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, and at the conference listened to a panel of franchise marketing executives speak on successful marketing and customer loyalty tactics. One of the panelists, a CMO of a Fortune 1000 company addressed the importance of customer experience and brought up the notion of treating your customers as guests. Whether this means literally addressing your customers as guests or maintaining the underlying philosophy throughout your company culture, the bottom-line is understanding this mentality and championing it throughout your entire organization in the direction of building a better brand, increased customer loyalty, and ultimately a better customer experience.
The Disney Customer
Walt Disney made this famous with Disneyland’s iconic customer service and transformable customer experience. Disney called all the employees “cast members” and called all customers/visitor “guests.” Walt Disney may epitomize this philosophy and have taken it to an extreme extent, but if applied to a fraction of the degree as Disneyland, your customer service and experience will translate to a better interaction with your brand for your guests. This is not to say you need to turn your franchise or business into Disneyland, but understand that details matter and every single customer’s experience may be a new one. Continue reading Guests, Not Customers
An Analysis of the Status and Consolidation in the Loyalty Space
Loyalty Solutions are everywhere
The “loyalty industry” is crowded. So crowded that store owners and investors are starting to blur the differences between each company. There seems to be anywhere between 3-10 local players in EACH major city that are trying to saturate their own neighborhoods.
And of course, why wouldn’t it be? When there’s a lot of gold somewhere, there’s bound to be a lot of gold diggers. And especially post-Groupon, stores have been more open to new technologies, investors are getting interested in the space, and entrepreneurs are all thinking about better experiences when they are sitting at a restaurant.
If it were eight years ago, and an entrepreneur pitched an idea to sell technology to brick-and-mortar stores, investors would have laughed in his/her face and point out that the new wave is on social networks and eCommerce. Offline is no longer sexy.
Today, it’s a very different story.
Loyalty Action is happening everywhere
Continue reading An Analysis of the Status and Consolidation in the Loyalty Space
The POS Industry will always be fragmented
But what about Square?
After working on RewardMe (In-Store Intelligent CRM that quickly helps any store setup a Rewards Program) for a while, I’ve been asked by potential investors over two dozen times, “What do you think about POS companies like Square, and do you think they would take over the market?”
First of all, I definitely think a few of the iPad based POS companies would become financial successes (like Square, perhaps Revel).
They are making money and doing well.
But after operating in this space for a while, I strongly believe that the POS industry will always be a fragmented industry.