Growing popularity of mobile phones has pushed retailers to acknowledge them as a medium to connect with the customers. Time has come for retailers to accept the upcoming reality by integrating mobile technologies into retail.
India of the 21st century: Young men and women with text-worn fingertips living off their cell phones, strutting about the malls and offices or even at their homes, lying flat in front of the television, banging away at mini-keypads or touch screens of their smart phones, browsing real-time news on Google News and surfing the Web while doing everything else that life demands of them.
The cell phone has become an integral part of the human form (sic), at least in India. These compact devices are fast becoming the communication medium of choice for everyone. Not just that, but today the mobile phone allows you to make payments for shopping, send and receive money, and a host of other things.
To a retail brand, such a high level of mobile penetration like in India should be music to the ears. Consider this – the banks have all the data in the world about their customers and so do the telecom companies. As a result, they can and should run excellent loyalty and reward programmes to keep the customer-connect strong. In contrast is the case of a retail brand – unless the customer buys into the proposition at site, there is little opportunity for them to connect and build a relationship with a prospect or customer, except, of course, through ATL (Above The Line) activity and that is an expensive route.
Enter the beloved mobile. Smarter retail brands have already migrated from plastic to the cell phones which are the best technological invention to have graced the retail trade. Yes, the POS equipment has automated a large chunk of the number-crunching exercise but it is actually the mobile that can help keep the customers coming. Correctly put, using a mobile-based loyalty program will and can make the difference in a prospect choosing one brand over another.
The mobile phone can be used by the retailers for customer acquisition and retention as well as for the purpose of rewarding the loyal patrons. By means of a simple short message on a product, prospects or customers can text in to connect.
Once they are inside the loop, all it requires on the part of the retailer is good marketing communication to keep the connect alive and profitable. Pesky SMSes are not appreciated anymore in India and are also against the law. However, once a person connects on his or her own, it becomes a free-will acquisition, one that the brand can now send and receive information from.
We are aware that the biggest challenge for marketing managers in India today is not knowing their customer by name. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew your customers by name, where they stay, the income group they belong to, along with the brands they prefer and the products they buy? Can you imagine how effective this information would make your marketing, sales and customer service efforts? There are simple and effective solutions already existing in the market for the retailers to do just that. These can even be used on window shoppers most effectively!
We have found that a good incentivised appeal, using long code or short, draws a response of almost 37 percent across a period of 30 days. This is the highest among any outreach mediums used in the industry today. We know that instant gratification is perhaps the only sure way of engaging prospects, delivering rewards through the mobile phone medium hastens the process, and makes the experience more instant that ever.
During one of our many mobile-based programmes, we discovered that the redemption rates can be controlled without disappointing the prospect. Where needed, the entire process was made extremely simple and the redemption exceeded 59 percent. For smaller retailer brands with limited budget, one can control the process adequately to limit the redemption but not at the same time affect the perceived value of the rewards.
The power of the mobile phones is far greater than anyone of us can imagine today, and retailers must use this technology to enhance their reach and engage their respective target group. Remember, any kind of data can be gathered about the customers, as explained earlier, without infringing on the law of the land. The data could contain name, address, income group, preferences, etc.
With the technology available today, it isn’t difficult to integrated POS activity with an SMS-based system that can be accessed online, better still on a micro site exclusively accessible to your prospects and customers. While the operation is simple for the user, the retailer gets the flexibility of a dashboard to analyse customer/prospect data from whatever perspective he desires.
The key to a good programme using any kind of technology is the simplicity of its operation. Most loyalty programmes that fail or end up stagnant are those with long winded engagement and redemption processes. On the other hand, only those programmes that are affordable can and will be employed by the mid or small brands. So good technology, right price and simplicity of operation are the keys to an effective loyalty programme.
The principle benefit of the mobile is the fact that it can create hyper-local programmes even for a unit outlet, as well as location-based LP applications that advantageously affect the bigger brands. It is inexpensive, highly reliable and, most importantly, delivers on time.
