The Future of Customer interactions is Yesterday
One of the interesting aspects of the rise in mobile devices is how these are reinventing established ways of doing things.
Things that we've been used to for decades have suddenly been made accessible and interactive by being combined with mobile devices like a smartphone.
Take the payment checks for example.
This was a technology waiting to die. The thought of filling out a piece of paper to make a payment to someone else that then took days to transfer between accounts was an idea rooted in the last century. We're much cleverer now - allowing payments via a tweet or a simple bump of the phones. One of the most popular innovations however is remote deposit of checks whereby customers can pay in a check simply by taking a picture of it. Banks such as US Bank, Chase and USAA have introduced it, with USAA originally pioneering this back in 2009 and now introducing the service to the iPad2. Having processed nearly $4bn transactions in just 2 years, this reinvention of an old technology has proved a hit with customers.
Taking this one step further, start-up Card.io have introduced a solution which allows a customer to make a payment by simply taking a photo of their payment card.
Another innovative use of the smartphone was demonstrated by Tesco in Korea when they transformed outdoor media from being passive to interactive. Recognizing that people didn't always have time to visit a store, but had to make time to stand, waiting for a train, they decided to bring the store to them. Using outdoor media within the station platforms that mirrored store shelves, customers were able to add goods to their virtual basket by taking a snap-shot of items they wanted. These were then delivered that day so that orders made on the way home could be enjoyed that evening. With sales reportedly increasing by 130% and registered users up 76%, this cross-over from old school media to new media struck the right note with customers.
This can also be applied to loyalty interactions between customers and a brand.
Startup Punchd is looking to change how traditional paper-based punch card promotions work. Moving the card to the smart-phone and replacing the punch with a QR code - and in the process they are revitalizing punch card loyalty programs. Recently purchased by Google, this start-up is offering retailers a cost effective (free) solution for tracking and rewarding customer frequency. Better still, they are then utilizing this data to provide retailers with reporting and the opportunity to target communications, something the paper based solution alone could never provide.
Another start-up has done the opposite of Punchd and used a paper based solution to create a cutting edge loyalty program. Blitzly uses paper cards with unique codes on them to let retailers reward customer purchases. Aiming to create loyalty for smaller retailers who don't have the POS infrastructure in place, the Blitzly solution is both simple and elegant. Each retailer is given a set of cards which are uniquely linked to them, this then allows Blitzly to track customers by retailer, providing reporting and insight for the business and ensuring that only points earned at that retailer can be spent there.
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