#mobile based loyalty

Have you recently seen any quarter page ad in your local newspaper where another leading Indian retailer is launching its own branded mobile app.

Looks very promising, with perfect creative, great work in copy writing, a cute looking QR code to scan and download the app on your iPhone or Blackberry or Android.

So far so good. You are excited as a patron of that shop. Feel proud too about the forward thinking of your favorite retailer.

And as a true loyalist, you download the app. Thanks to 3G, very soon you have the app on your mobile. You start the app and within 30 seconds you realize that the app has met some snag. Its not working as desired. You give it the benefit of doubt. You start it again. Same story.

Has this happened to you? I have experienced this twice recently. Once with the pioneer in Indian organized retailer and next with a leading electronic retailer.

I tried to analyze why did this happen? The reason is that the mobile app was treated like an advertising one-time campaign and it wasn't given the due respect it deserves as a business channel.

In the rush to launch the app, a quickly half thought through product was conceptualized, cheapest vendor to develop the app was called and within couple of months launch was planned.

The mindset was that of a campaign. If any marketing manager had shown such careless attitude with any business channel, he would have got fired.

In the recent years mobile usage has truly skyrocketed to enormous proportions in India. As per Business Monitor International (BMI), a leading London based Industry Research Company there are as many as 8 to 10 million mobile subscribers being added every month. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) estimated 904 million mobile subscribers with a tele-density of 78 for the month of January, 2012.

Increasing mobile phone usage in the country has resulted in companies using this medium to reach out to their expanding customer base. Retail businesses are the biggest beneficiaries of any mobile driven campaign to connect with customers. The idea behind driving the customer to a retail outlet for repeat sales seems to have found the right chord with retailers across the country. With a large number of retail players in the picture, keeping a stack of plastic loyalty cards no longer appeals to the customer. 

There are an ‘n’ number of different possibilities that you can explore to drive forward your retail business by marrying the benefits of a customer loyalty program with the power of a mobile phone.

Introducing a mobile based loyalty program simplifies the customer connect objective in some of the following ways:

Retailers can now generate valuable insights to track consumer buying behavior. A successful retail business model has to revolve around studying individualistic buying behavior and making product improvements accordingly.

Earning and utilizing reward points is a hassle-free experience for consumers thanks to a mobile phone. They can flash their mobile at a Point of Sale (POS) and get instant redemption against the reward points they have in their kitty.

It pays to know your customer in this fast paced competitive terrain. Information captured via mobile loyalty programs can be used to strengthen customer affinity towards your brand. For instance, the store executive can engage with the customer at a much more personal level.

Personalized incentives and offers can be rolled out to customers to give a boost to sales. A methodical approach towards marketing and sales should revolve around understanding the precise needs of the customers. This form of precision marketing will help increase sales revenue and reduce marketing overheads.

There is no denying the fact that having all your customers wired onto a mobile loyalty platform will help forge that instant connect with them. Amongst a host of exciting things you can instantly communicate new product announcements, opening of new stores, stock clearance discounts and even wish your customers on their birthdays/anniversaries.