This past Holiday season we witnessed location based marketing starting to fulfill its promise
The huge growth of Smartphones feeding the empowerment of proud, app wielding bargain shoppers. For those retailers who focused on how to make location based marketing work for them, the Holiday season was a wondrous experiment of what is possible in the present and the future of how the physical world meshes with the connected customer experience. Shoppers using location based apps like Foursquare, Facebook Places, GeoQpon, Coupon Sherpa and Yowza browsed location based deals and discounts, and in some cases instantly shared their smart deals by broadcasting it across their social networks. (true story: a competitive shopper I know saved several hundred dollars this Holiday Season just because she downloaded GeoQpon, and it happened to work in nearly every store she walked into).
For those that relied on beefing up holiday staff and churning out marketing campaigns as usual, the Holidays were more like getting called out and ganged up on during recess. Shoppers armed with Google Shopper, TheFind, RedLaser and Price Check by Amazon demand price transparency. They instantly compare prices and complete purchases by scanning a barcode and clicking purchase, rendering an unsuspecting retail clerk speechless with the flash of a screen. You could practically hear “Gotcha!!” every other aisle.
Finding the best deals, enabled by geolocation can be a competitive sport and it made me think about the other ways location based marketing can and will change the customer experience in other industries.
Ever seen a QR code? I’m sure you’ve seen a few lately in magazine ads. These little boxes can hold any digital media you desire. They are a real-world link to a virtual destination. By tagging an object with a QR code in the real world, a marketer can reveal the history, details, and of course, the marketing message for any given product or service. The possibilities are endless.
Other industries could make use of location based technology to truly make a difference in a customer experience Here’s a short list of some possibilities:
Pharma:
Imagine a drug maker uses a location based strategy that includes a QR code. When the pharmacy fills a prescription, that drug maker produces a custom QR code to stick on the label. That code instantly takes the patient (via a quick scan using redlaser or any other free reader) to a library of documents and videos that educate me about how to manage or manage a health challenge. Take it further – since the phone knows where I am, how about suggesting some smart choices at the grocery store and including a few coupons to help incent me to make healthy choices…. If I stay on this train of thought, I eventually share that code with my physician, and create a space where the patient and physician can dialogue care.
Healthcare: From an excellent report from mobilestorrm.com) “Looking ahead, advanced solutions such as implanted wireless sensors and robotics inside patients, combined with an always-on mobile data connection, can open a wealth of opportunity in terms of real-time care, emergency response and remote monitoring. Imagine having a health condition that’s monitored and managed remotely to where your physician can easily know of problems before you do. Care can be administered in real-time, without the need to schedule appointments or wait until it’s potentially too late, and much more expensive, to treat effectively.”
Service repair:
Let’s say something in my house breaks. Perhaps it’s the water heater. If the manufacturer or reseller used a QR code tied to their inventory and service center, and I scanned it with my phone, they could direct me to a page where I can instantly purchase a replacement on the spot. One step further, they could direct me to a service portal that knows what the part is and asks me to schedule the service call at my preferred time. (Side note, if the service company in the above example had used our Swyft for Mobile App, they could simultaneously push that service call to the closest service agent in the field – but we can save that for a different post.)
Airlines:
It’s already happening with mobile boarding passes. You see it more and more at the airport. But what about using my location in the airport to help make the experience even better? The best example enhancing the travel experience with real time information today is the Denver Airport . They provide security wait times and parking lot updates right on the home page, and they even have a scavenger hunt you can play if you’re stuck there for a while. But I’m talking about using my physical location in real time. I think the airlines could get in on this game by delivering location-aware information to enhance my travel experience. For example: if I have a long flight – remind me to get some reading material, and maybe provide a 10% discount at the news store in their terminal. No meal on this flight? Make sure I know that, and suggest a restaurant in the terminal… you see where this is going.
How do you think your location could affect the way you interact with brands. How much will be too much?
It was a week long and I was dedicated, motivated and excited the whole time. [Ok, fine. It was a long week that kicked off with me hallucinating from starvation and included moments where I was ready to tear the door off my fridge - but it ended on a high note with a 5lb weight loss, a hard earned sense of accomplishment and a tear jerking reunion with a bottle of red zin.] Goal met, I’ve moved right along with no real intention of enduring said detox again. But the process has me thinking about the ‘one hit’ relationships we have with certain brands. How can they bring us back after we’ve reached a goal – after we think we’re done?
Using my own experience and preferences as a starting point, I’ve thought of a couple ways that a brand who sells ‘one and done’ products or services could secure my loyalty, re-engage me and make me want to ‘do it all again’:
1) Connect with me during my journey: In the aforementioned example – I wasn’t enrolled in any type of formal program… it was merely a week long eating plan I read about on a blog. Had I enrolled in something formal and relinquished contact information, (ie, email address or phone number) I would have welcomed encouragement during the journey. I had to buy all kinds of exotic ingredients (easier said than done around here - dried bonito flakes? Really?) I also had to organize my meals by preparing them the night before. I was totally immersed in the process each day and would have welcomed an email or text message with tips on how to save time preparing. I would have been delighted if my foursquare check-in at the natural foods store had generated a discount on the incredibly expensive ingredients I had to buy, or even if a consolidated shopping list had magically appeared via text. These types of interactions would have just made the big price tag that much easier to swallow and it would have kept me engaged and encouraged.
2) Know what my results are: Most programs (like this detox) focus on the end game – pure results. So it would make sense if the brand a) knew my actual results b) helped me benchmark the results (I LOVE feeling at least better than average) and c) sent me personalized encouragement. If I had reported my progress in real time (for example on a mobile app) and received feedback and encouragement that was personalized to me “way to go Jenn, just 2 more days until you can reward yourself with a glass of wine.” I would have loved it. No one likes to feel like they are doing it alone. Even some sort of encouragement from others like me would have been really well received too: “You and 10 others are on day 3, see what they have to say, click here…” I would have clicked – if for nothing more to reaffirm that misery loves company.
3) Remind me of my success: So after it’s all said and done, and I’m enjoying my normal diet again – you can bet a timely reminder via email or text: “Those jeans still loose, or is it time for us to break out the juicer again?” would get noticed. Because no, my jeans aren’t loose anymore. (bummer) Point is - remind me of my results and re-engage me.
4) Give me incentive to try again: A split second after remembering how elated I was to fit into my jeans my mind would snap back to how difficult the program was to stick to and how expensive it was. If a brand were serious about customer loyalty and getting me to try the program again, the next logical step would be to incent me with a personalized invitation to come back. That could come in any format – a discount card for my favorite place to buy jeans? (creative!), a coupon to my local whole foods? (not as subtle, but maybe more effective) or most obvious – a discount to re-enroll if there was a fee to start with.
Bottom line: single use products and one hit programs have a huge challenge in creating customer loyalty or repeat business. The very nature of an end goal (like a weight loss program) sort of sets them up for that. Obviously, everyone wants to ‘maintain’ when they reach a personal goal like weight loss or better fitness in general – but very few people are ready to part with money for maintenance if they don’t have to.
My advice: Use the right combination of technology and customer insight to keep customers like me engaged. Be in it with me, remind me of my success and lure me back with incentives. Seems logical, right? The technology to pull this off exists today (insert self serving sentence at end of blog post here.) The question becomes, do brands know how to use the technology that exists to execute on this type of customer loyalty/retention strategy? Hint: it requires multi channel interaction management, adaptive decision support and the ability to pull customer data from anywhere at any time. We will continue this thought on a later post. Right now I have to go juice some beets and chard…
We came away feeling more excited than ever about launching our new apps in the AppExchange! The reoccurring themes we heard during the event that really got us pumped included:
Making everything:
Now: Real-time information shared across channels is the sure fire way to improve efficiency, satisfaction and performance.
Mobile: Delivering the decision support sales and service reps need anytime, anywhere and on any device will continue to differentiate leading organizations
As-a-Service: Freeing teams from the colossal time and expense suck of boxed solutions will empower them to define and execute strategies faster than ever before.
In the coming weeks, we will launch Swyft Mobile for Salesforce as well as, Swyft Contact Center for Salesforce. Both solutions echo the themes we heard at Dreamforce and we are thrilled to be a part of the growing family of apps that extend the possibilities of the Salesforce platform.
We also had a great time interacting with Dreamforce attendees at our booth. We enjoy using social apps like Foursquare to make events more fun, and our promotion included an iPad for one lucky winner that checked in during the event.
Our lucky winner is Rhiannon Bach, VIP Marketing Associate from Harrah’s
(Rhiannon, Now you can chatter on the go and ‘roll like Benioff’… but please - store the iPad somewhere besides your pants!!)
Insurance enterprises, by their very nature, are extremely complex organizations.
Layered on their complexity is the diversity of products (e.g. P&C, life, health) and distributions systems (e.g. independent agents, direct, brokers). Line of business leaders in insurance organizations juggle very different goals:
Marketing focuses on increasing market share with the right product messages and the most competitive programs.
New Business focuses on closing new business and increasing the wallet share of the existing book of business
Policyholder Service focuses on improving policyholder satisfaction with better efficiency and lower cost
Claims focuses on quick response and fairness to both the company and policyholder
Underwriting focuses on capturing profitable business and shedding undesirable business.
Producer Development focuses on training existing agents and recruiting new talent.
As seemingly different (and sometimes conflicting) as these individual goals can appear, they all share an elusive goal: Improving the outcome of every interaction to improve or increase ‘something.’
If Marketing can improve the relevance of their messages and the accuracy of their programs – they win. If New Business can reduce the sales cycle for new business and pinpoint subtle opportunities within the existing book – they win. If Policyholder Service can reduce the steps taken to find the right answer, they win. If Claims can identify gaps in coverage and new business opportunities, they win. If Underwriting can see the whole picture and focus on the profitable targets, they win. If Producer Development can leverage the knowledge base to get new agents up and running faster – they win.
While their journey towards reaching that common goal (improved interactions) may commence down very different paths, a common desire to:
Create a consistent message
Increase agent knowledge
Understand and leverage multichannel customer interactions
Increase efficiency
Reduce costs
make insurance organizations ideal candidates for a technology platform that creates a single view of multichannel customer interactions and informs every business unit with relevant content delivered at the time of need.
In the coming weeks we will explore how the different insurance lines of business and operational areas can benefit from a true multi-channel policyholder interaction strategy.
We spend enormous amounts of time helping organizations understand how our technology can help them improve their customer interactions across multiple channels and almost every time, we end up telling a story to help illustrate the point. We decided to take one of our stories and turn it into a short video that can do a little of the explaining on demand. In this video, we explain how to make interactions across mail, the call center and field sales more efficient, profitable and seamless.
