by Mark H. Goldstein | CEO
The retail paradigm continues to change. Its no longer OK to stack product and allow people to transact…not that this is a new observation but its a slightly different perspective for a geeky Silicon Valley guy.
by David Rosen | Senior Vice-President
Like many Americans, my family and I look forward to the summer as a chance to get away from home and enjoy a well-deserved vacation.
Given my fascination (obsession?) with loyalty programs in general, and travel programs in particular, I blindly embrace all hotel, car, air — and even train frequency programs that I come across — often without regard for my privacy and the sanctity of my hotmail inbox.
Why? For the most part joining travel company’s guest programs yields a better experience — well at least that is the true test of value. As I’ve opined in the past, I’ve pretty much given up on redeeming the points/miles/stays that I’ve earned, but have come to expect a higher degree of service and general consideration when I travel.
So, planning our trips this summer, I joined two more programs (I think this brings me past the 50 mark just in the travel space — I still keep my Western Airlines TravelPassII card handy just in case). The first was Loews-First. From a customer experience standpoint, this program rocks. Easy to join, relevant fields — including questions tied exclusively to member benefits and preferences (which treat do I want when I check in? What newspaper do I want in the morning) — what a great way to introduce me to the benefits before I’m even a member. Submit and I have a number.
I get on the phone to book the room (I want them to match the rate that I found on Hotels.com) and the number is already in the system and the agent has all of my contact and preference information. And to my “surprise and delight,” I’m already a “Gold” member which includes a free upgrade upon reservation.
Clearly, a well designed and executed program.
Next, I joined Amtrak’s Guest Rewards Program. OK, I’m not a big rail traveler, I live in California but am headed to New England this summer. Unfortunately, the program lacks connection to the larger Amtrak experience. I had to replicate my registration on both sites, I’m receiving emails from both entities and I’m uncertain how I will benefit from the program — but again, truth in advertising, I’m in infrequent rail passenger, so I’m not the definitive source for measuring perceived value.
Bottom line, good lessons for any loyalty program design:
By Mickey Neuberger | Senior Director, Loyalty Strategy
Re-engagement and inactivity campaigns are a huge part of any customer loyalty or retention management solution. Companies usually target customers who have been inactive for 90-180 days with a “we miss” you message and aggressive limited-time offer. I thought the email below from eBags (after 6-months of inactivity) was particularly good. It uses the touch-point to not only drive me back with a 20% offer but also as an opportunity to identify any problems with product/service.
By Mickey Neuberger | Senior Director, Loyalty Strategy
Good article on Email Is Not Dead, But Preferences Need to Evolve.
Relevancy is more than just targeted content. It’s also communication and frequency preferences. Brands that ask and listen will win the attention of their customers.
by Mark H. Goldstein | CEO
If The Gap says TV doesn’t deliver a good marketing ROI, can you imagine what CPGs must really be thinking when they aren’t on the golf course at their big-wig ad agency’s private club?
Clearly, the big switch is on. Those TV dollars are flowing to Internet customer acquisition spends—–and finally trickling down to retention and loyalty budgets.
That $5M or whatever in TV spend—it might be missed a little bit. But imagine what $5M could do for your loyalty program? Imagine if you could spend an additional $2.50 over 2.5 million customers to get each them back into your store or to your site? That’s 3 big candy bars or 1 latte or 1/2 a t-shirt or 2+ music downloads! Imagine what your customers might irrationally do for that? For one thing, they’ll listen to you. And another, they’ll be that much more likely to re-buy or be won-back. Think about it.
by Mark H. Goldstein | CEO
I simply wanted to post this on the blog for all to take notice. Like anything sweet—too much email is not a good thing! Email efficacy is way down and plummeting by the day……there are some merchants I will no longer visit because their email cadence was insulting. Think smart and show your customers respect.
by Mark H. Goldstein | CEO
Russ Klein, CMO at Burger King, gets kudos from me on their ‘Whopper Bar’ concept, as featured in today’s Wall Street Journal.
He took the best of Starbuck’s and Fat Tuesday’s and mapped it to his business.
This should be every consumer brand’s retail model. Take your killer product and allow your customers to dress it up the way they want, when they want to, all in a unique, on-brand, to-go environment. Cut the unnecessary products and services out—drop the concept in a high-traffic location and focus on your strengths and be as upscale and aspirational as you possibly can be!!! Burger King, between putting their ‘King’ in bed with fashion models on TV and rolling out a burger bar….they are going to win me back from increasingly staid In-N-Out Burgers after all!
by Joshua Tretakoff | VP, Account Management
Savvy marketers looking to keep relevant communication with their customers took another hit today, as Road Runner, the nation’s fifth largest ISP, announced today it was following the lead of other e-mail providers by blocking images in e-mail by default. For marketers, this means a few things:
With images off by default in AOL, Hotmail/Windows Live Mail, Yahoo!, GMAIL, Outlook 2007, and Outlook 2003, and now Road Runner, email marketers cannot afford to wait another moment in refining their message to reflect these new restrictions.
by Mark H. Goldstein | CEO
New entrant Istorez.com has a great idea (for them and for consumers opting out of email); they take retailer emails and push them to a webpage that requires the shopper to navigate, search and effectively perform 4 clicks before seeing the retailer’s offer! While I commend istorez for the idea, if you are a retailer this is bad bad news–the beauty of email is that you are in the face of your customers…putting your tightly crafted email messages behind an intermediary’s webpage next to your competitors is some truly bad news!!!!!! As a retailer, destiny control is a good thing as is honoring your past and/or better customers with proprietary communications.
By Mickey Neuberger | Senior Director, Loyalty Strategy
In an effort to build deep customer relationships, organizations are increasingly hooked on requesting information from their customers. But some brands go overboard, leaving their customers to wonder why they bothered answering those questions in the first place.
For example, upon registration for a grocery club card, only ask “what’s your favorite vegetable” if you plan on sending the appropriate customers a discount on tomatoes the next day. And when customers call into your support center don’t prompt them to dial in their account number, phone number etc. just to have a customer rep re-ask those same questions a few minutes later.
Recently I had an experience with a brand that did it right. Upon arrival for a repeat hair cut at Great Clips, the hairdresser asked for my phone number. She then looked up my information and said “should we use the #4 clip and cut about an inch off the top again?” Now that’s value add.
Bottom-line brands that ask and then act on only the very critical customer questions win the respect of customers and provide superior service.
