Digital Signage and the Customer Experience

Digital Signage and the Customer Experience

The Renovating and Revamping Trend

As old concepts are refreshed in the franchise world, more aspects of the business are moving digital from signage to punch cards. Brands have new and exciting options to explore when updating, renovating, and refreshing their stores. This trend has picked up recently with various franchise categories from regional chains such as the overhaul of Daphne’s California Greek (formerly Daphne’s Greek Café) to national chains such as Jack in The Box who is currently in the process of updating their logo, store décor, and overall image. Digital is seen as the future and forward-thinking concepts are looking to lead the way and reap the benefits of leveraging new technology. Digital signage, referring to menu boards, in-store kiosks, and point of purchase advertisement displays, are just a few examples of consumer-facing technology being deployed to drive sales and improve the in-store customer experience.

Staying Competitive in the Face of Change

Despite proof of measurable increases in revenue when properly leveraging new technologies, many franchisors and particularly their franchisees are off-put by anything different and resistant to change. The majority believe what has worked in the past, still works, and will continue to work. Even before understanding why trends are developing toward a more digital world, many are discounting new technologies, raising unfounded barriers, and ultimately doing themselves a disservice by not considering new technology a way to stay competitive and ahead of the curve. Continue reading Digital Signage and the Customer Experience

Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales

What is a Touchpoint?

A touchpoint is a point of contact between a customer and your product, service, or brand. Whether before, during, or after an actual sale has taken place, any interaction a customer has with your business is considered a touchpoint and potential for your business to increase their customer’s perception of your brand. Touchpoints span the whole value chain, but dealing specifically with the franchise industry and the major customer touchpoints franchises have to manage in relation to customers, there are five: direct mail marketing, in-store advertising, point-of-sale advertising, social media marketing, and mobile initiatives.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail is one of the most heavily used forms of advertisement with multiple coupons for different brands hitting mail boxes every day. The direct marketing association pegs the response rate at “Letter-sized envelopes, for instance, had a response rate this year of 3.42 percent for a house list and 1.38 percent for a prospect list.” This shotgun approach has been a consistent marketer’s tool , but with the low response rate, and even lower conversion rate, marketer’s are seeking other channels and touchpoints to reach customers. Continue reading Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales

Why Your Loyalty Program Isn’t Working

If you’ve been using a CRM-based loyalty program or a punch card to build customer loyalty, you might be sinking money into a low-ROI loyalty program. Here’s why:

Swipe Cards Don’t Work

Many popular CRM-based loyalty programs use a magnetic stripe-based card that people are supposed to carry around and swipe when they make a purchase. These are really popular at the large grocery chains, so I’ve chosen to use them as an example. I routinely drop $100 on groceries whenever I go, and for years I’ve routinely also saved a significant amount through the ‘club’ prices at, for example, Safeway or Jewel Osco. Despite this, I’ve never actually held a grocery store’s “club” membership — I’ve been using their dummy card or a friend’s phone number for years. Safeway thinks my roommate, whose number I use, loves avocados (even though he hates them) and buys both fat-free and 2% milk. Ever since I’ve known this “loophole”, I’ve used it for two reasons: I don’t want to fill out a 2-page form for a swipe card I’ll forget every other week, and I already know I don’t need to. In the meantime, Safeway’s collecting the wrong info, giving me discounts as a free rider, and fails to engage anyone in the brand. This type of loyalty program makes customers loyal to the program itself, but not loyal to the brand. Continue reading Why Your Loyalty Program Isn’t Working

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

The Modern Barcode: Integrating The Physical And Online Worlds

QR codes, or “Quick Response” codes as the abbreviation stands for, are becoming more prevalent in American life every day. They can be found on store windows, on the side of buses, at cash registers, and even in bathrooms. What are these things, and where are they all coming from is the question that runs through many of our minds. For the vast majority of Americans, QR codes, pioneered by technology leaders such as Adobe, are still new. But quick education and mass adoption seem to be under way.

QR Code Origins

QR codes were originally developed in Japan in 1994 by a Toyota subsidiary primarily used for tracking parts of manufacturers. Ever since then, southeast Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea have been quick to adopt QR codes into everyday life. These special barcodes scan very fast and have the ability to display text, compose an email, link to a URL, or take a specific action if scanned within a particular application. The majority of mobile phones in Japan and South Korea have built-in QR code readers which almost instantaneously decipher and generate the link or action designed to take place. Continue reading The Modern Barcode: Integrating The Physical And Online Worlds