Mining customer data can pan out in repeat sales

END GAME: Joel Evans, center, VP of strategic integration at Mobiquity, says developers must focus apps and websites on the user experience. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
END GAME: Joel Evans, center, VP of strategic integration at Mobiquity, says developers must focus apps and websites on the user experience. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

If a company has customers, then it also has data about them. For some businesses, the uncertainty comes in how to harness that data and leverage it to their benefit.
During the second part of PBN’s Social Media and Marketing Summit held Feb. 27, panelists attempted to shed some light on this topic and other areas of technology-based marketing.Through customer interactions, company websites, mobile apps and social media sites – even payment transactions – companies have access to what’s known as “big data,” data sets that can be measured by volume, such as the number of transactions; velocity, perhaps the number transactions per minute; and variety, things like tweets, reviews or likes on Facebook.
According to panelist Matt Sly, vice president of products at Swipely, a company specializing in payment marketing for small businesses, there can be clues about customers in that data.
Swipely, which works mostly with restaurants, uses credit card transactions to learn more about a company’s clients. Each client who pays with a credit card begins as an anonymous user, but by tracking that user’s actions, a company can build a profile around its customers to find out how much the average sale is, who the best customers are, the amounts of new and returning customers and how sales are affected during campaigns. Eventually, if the customer opts into a program, the merchant can attach an identity to the customer to tailor its marketing efforts.
Knowing so much about people’s habits is something that, as a lawyer, fascinates Brian Lamoureux, a partner with law firm Pannone Lopes Devereaux & West LLC. Lamoureux said companies are starting to explore a new trend called “if then marketing,” in which technology makes both the company and the consumer marketers.
For instance, when a waiter stops by a table to collect payment, he can offer an incentive to the customer. He might suggest that if the customer posts to Facebook that they just ate at the restaurant, the restaurant will pick up the tab for their valet parking.
“Within that five-second interaction with payment, there will be this interesting dialogue with the consumer to help us push our product to your friends and you’ll get something right now,” he said.
In addition, it could help the company learn more about their customers.
But sometimes, how much you can learn about a customer depends on how it easy you make it for them to share information about themselves. Joel Evans, vice president of strategic integration at Mobiquity, says it’s important to tap into what the customer is looking for and make it accessible, whether through a mobile site, a website or an app.
Evans said this is an issue for many apps, which, he said, are not built to be analytical or to be focused on the user experience.
“[Developers] weren’t really understanding of exactly what problem they were trying to solve,” he said.
Evans said his company sees mobile technology as an entry point.
“If you don’t have a mobile strategy for your business, you don’t have a strategy,” he said, adding that it’s important to understand what mobile can do for a business.
Evans cited a project his company did for Weight Watchers, in which the company shifted its strategy from website to mobile. Before, customers were tracking what they ate by going onto the website and typing in the items they were consuming. With the app Mobiquity created, customers are able to use their Apple or Android devices to simply scan the barcodes of items they consume and skip the desktop experience.
In another example, Evans explained how Panera Bread used an app to enhance the customer experience to the company’s benefit. To help shorten lines, and minimize order mistakes, Mobiquity created an iPad kiosk that allowed customers to place and customize orders. The kiosk could track the customers’ order history, which could be used for marketing purposes, and was estimated to be 50 percent faster, and an asset that has increased Panera’s corporate value.
He said jewelry retailer Alex and Ani also found technology worked to their advantage with the use of a mobile point-of-sale system, which also cut down on lines around registers. Using a handheld device, associates could approach customers ready to check out, scan the item and accept payment.
“Their sales went through the roof as a result,” Evans said.
But sometimes, when it comes to mobile marketing, companies don’t know what they need to do, or which options are available.
Christopher Ciunci, the founder and CEO of TribalVision, a marketing firm, was asked how many of his clients understand the possibilities of big data in conjunction with an older business model. He said none.
“That’s not to be negative in any way,” Ciunci said of his clients. “They’re so busy running their own business and in the trenches doing what they have to do to make sure they’re getting their bottom line.” Ciunci said that’s why it can be important to have an adviser or someone to educate you on the solutions that are on the horizon.
Lamoureux added that part of the problem could also stem from a generational disconnect. The people that are running companies and controlling budgets may have started out on the ground level with just a couple employees. Today, with hundreds of employees, they still might not embrace technologies the way that their consumers are.
Regardless, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Ciunci offered an example of his father, who owned a carwash in the 1970s. He said his dad didn’t reinvest in new equipment for years, and then at a certain point, he did, to the tune of about $1 million. Ciunci said the question was, did his dad really need to do that, and could he quantify it?
“It’s a bit of a leap of faith, but it’s the cost of doing business,” Ciunci said, adding that if his dad didn’t do it, a competitor down the street probably would. “Sometimes, you just have to do things in order to stay competitive,” he said.
To wrap things up, Ciunci offered five takeaways to help audience members optimize their marketing efforts.
Think holistically, he encouraged the audience.
“Days of lazy marketing, just paying to play, are over,” he said.
Next, he said, measure, whenever, wherever you can. Companies should ask themselves if they can quantify the extra they may spend on a fancy brochure, and analyze their key performance indicators.
Third, the devil is the details. Ciunci explained that it’s easy to have a strategy, but if the strategy is not executed in a detailed way, it’s not going to be effective. He suggested implementing a schedule in which every angle is considered and people are assigned tasks to carry out.
He also said that companies should be using social media to strengthen the customers’ journey with the company’s brand. Companies need to be engaging consumers at multiple touch points throughout a constant process, Ciunci said.
And finally, companies should keep in mind that all employees are marketers. From the way the receptionist answers the phone to the point of purchase, the company’s culture can influence a customer.
Gia Barsoian-Drummy, of Saccoccio & Associates Architects, was in the audience and said her company had recently launched a Facebook page.
“This is an opportunity to gain more knowledge on some of the other marketing strategies,” she said. •

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