thomas.wieberneit@aheadcrm.co.nz

Top 5 Tips for Retailers to connect with Customers

A few days ago I was asked for my top 5 tips for retailers on how to connect with their customers, limited to 100 words. For a topic that one could write a novel on … Well, here is my answer: –       Help customers solving their problem. This distinguishes and makes you found by the customer –       Marketing/loyalty programs offer your customers value and are not mere vehicles to gather more data points –       Simplify your customers’ life, e.g. with a card wallet instead of own app that directly integrates with your CRM and POS –       Relevant communications at the right time, place with the right content – without appearing intrusive. For this you need to know your customer –       Consistent communications across channels and interactions, optimized for used touch point They probably need some more elaboration, especially the last one. First and foremost, the reason for any business to exist is making profit for its owners. This is not equal to producing and selling things (or providing a service) with a margin. The business will succeed only if it focuses on identifying its customers needs and then delivering solutions for these needs. It is not about pushing a product into the market (mostly, consider that needs can be created by smart businesses). This thought is well in the domain of Service Dominant Logic although I am not a strong proponent. Marketing and loyalty programs are important interaction vehicles between businesses and their customers. Both, especially loyalty programs, need to be set up to be mutually beneficial. It is not only about gathering more customer data that can be...

CRM is dead! Yeah, right – and Earth is a disc

A few days ago I came across a blog entry by @MikeBoysen titled Customers Don”t Want Relationships…PERIOD! A really intriguing title and read – perhaps written to stir up a discussion. Works for me, as it stirs me up from of my absence from this blog of mine… Mike, after this very strong claim the starts with another one: CRM is dead. Well, CRM seems to be pretty alive for a dead one; as a strategy and also as a technology. And here is exactly the point where Mike and other influencers – I had discussions about this topic e.g. with @bob_thompson from CustomerThink as well – are dead wrong (I couldn’t resist this pun). Their argumentation is solely based upon CRM being a technology. And then they compare CRM with another acronym that they claim is a strategy, concluding that the other one is far better. Apples vs. pears. Technology vs strategy. CRM is not a technology. It is also not a process area. CRM is a strategy. CEM is another, related, strategy. Buying a technology without a strategy to implement is bound to fail. It is like entering a road without a destination in mind. This holds true for whatever acronym is used, including CRM, SCRM, or CEM, but also “Loyalty Management”, or “Social Media”, or “Big Data”. What do I need “Big Data” for? Or what is the purpose of doing “Social Media” in an enterprise context? Are customers loyal to a vendor or does a vendor simply manage to create the impression that he is better able to deliver to customers’ needs than other vendors?...

SocialMeetsCRM and AreteN Limited partner up for reselling SocialMeetsCRM solutions

SocialMeetsCRM and AreteN Ltd are happy to announce our newly forged partnership. “Combining the solution strength of SocialMeetsCRM with the strong sales capabilities of the AreteN team will bring both of our businesses ahead and it will help SocialMeetsCRM enter an important European market and give us more momentum in our internationalization efforts. This is an exciting opportunity for us.” says Thomas Wieberneit, co-CEO of SocialMeetsCRM Ltd. AreteN will be the exclusive reseller for SocialMeetsCRM solutions in UK and Northern Ireland and initialy focus on the UK retail market, offering a uniquely integrated social mobile loyalty and couponing solution. This solution enables retail companies to efficiently get more reach via social networks while at the same time giving them the opportunity to engage with their customers on their smartphones taking advantage of toha, the mobile social networking app. Scenarios include the maintenance of loyalty cards and coupons on the phone, where thy matter to their customers, at reduced cost for the creation and management of loyalty accounts and coupon campaigns. Cards and coupons can be scanned at the POS directly from the...

SocialMeetsCRM exhibits at retail australasia summit and expo

SocialMeetsCRM is happy to announce our presence at the retail australasia Expo & Summit that takes place on May 21 and 22. Together with our partner AdvanceRetail we will exhibit our integrated loyalty and coupon solution for Retail. Offer your customers the ease and convenience of a mobile loyalty card and coupons sent directly to their smartphones and their redemption with a simple scan directly at the POS. Expand your reach and have direct communications with your customers on important social networks and smartphones leveraging our Social-Mobile Collaboration Platform and our toha app. toha is available for iOS and...

Social Shopping = Groupon? Nope – this is only the beginning

Some time ago my wife Nicole posted a small series of blogs about the topic of Loyalty on ciber.com. In these readable blogs she identified and summarised three main strategies of acquiring loyal customers, which are Every day low price Classic loyalty programs that base upon cash-back options or that are points based Hybrid models To gain and retain loyal customers it is necessary for Retailers (or brands, or …) to get into a mutual engagement with the customers. In order to achieve this it needs something like a WOW!-factor. An important way to get this factor for Retailers is the usage of social media (or social CRM when being more advanced). Every day low price of course means plain ole price competition. No WOW!-factor whatsoever involved here. On top of that there can be only one competitor that actually has the lowest price. All the others go in from second place onwards. Given that, competition only on price is the surefire way to a Retailer’s death if the Retailer is not the one with the lowest price. Price competition kills margin, service levels, shopping experience, ability to gather and analyze more data on customers, as it needs an investment, which needs to be paid out of lowering margins. Every day low price works well for highly commoditized products and services, else it is dangerous. Customers will not see the real price of a good or service anymore but ask/search for a discount. It is extremely difficult to change this behavior once it shows up – and we consumers are already educated about the fact that the same product...