Turnstyle Blog

  Posted by Bennett Fitzgibbon on Oct 23, 2014

Throughout Univeristy, I spent a lot of time working at various bars and restaurants (only to go back and spend my pay cheque at the very same bars and restaurants). Anyone who’s worked in this competitive industry knows that your shift usually doesn’t end when clock is punched. There’s constant pressure to build guest-lists, promote events, and use your personal Facebook page as ad space for the business.

Any successful company will make good use of its resources, in this case, its front of house employees. While this can be effective, it does have its downsides. Having your service staff double as your promoters usually works well for the first 6 months and then employees lose motivation, tap out their network of friends, or move on to work at a new place down the block.  

Thankfully there’s another fairly untapped resource available. That resource is your guest Wi-Fi network. This expense can cost the average small business upwards of $200 a month and often goes unnoticed or unappreciated by the clientele. The good news is that many businesses are now starting to use something called Social Wi-Fi, to turn this business expense into an effective markering asset. 

Social Wi-Fi Gives Recognition to Your Customers

Everyone loves shopping at a place where their buddy hooks them up. A free drink? A “staff discount” (even though you don’t work there)? This personal relationship and recognition is what keeps them coming back. Venues with Social Wi-Fi are able to give customers similar acknowledgment.

Upon entering the boundaries of your venues geo fence, Social Wi-Fi users can instantaneously be sent a message containing a coupon, discount, freebie, or even a friendly hello. That guest’s initial impression and feeling of excitement is now associated with your brand, as opposed to a friend behind the bar. 

Don’t get me wrong; your front-line staff is undoubtedly one of your most valuable marketing assets, but you’d be surprised at how easy it is to create personal connections between your customers and your brand, using Social Wi-Fi.

Social Wi-Fi Creates Brand Advocates

Getting more traffic to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page is something every business strives for. With the exception of a few of your die-hard fans, most people aren’t apt to searching your venue on Facebook and posting a comment. They’re much more likely to give credit to your brand if the opportunity is presented to them naturally.

Redirecting users to your social channels through your splash page makes liking, posting, following, and checking-in to your venue easy and friction-less, which will result in a bigger social presence and more advocates of your brand.

Social Wi-Fi Rewards Loyalty

Social Wi-Fi can essentially double as a loyalty program for your business, keeping track of who your best customers are and how often they visit. These are the people you want to take extra good care of. The cost of acquiring a new customer is 5x as much as retaining an existing one.  

The good news is that keeping track of your brand evangelists is effortless. With the click of a button you can view the names, number of visits, and contact information of each Social Wi-Fi user.

Exceed their expectations by rewarding them for their patronage, without them having to ask. This will payoff ten-fold in the form of free word-of-mouth advertising and a steady client base providing recurring revenue.

CONCLUSION:

The most successful brands in the world have one thing in common, an emotional connection with their customers. Creating this is difficult but not impossible. Remember that you need to make the most of your given resources and it’s the little things like recognizing and rewarding your customers that count.

Related Articles:

Why Your Restaurant's Marketing Plan Should Include Free Guest Wi-Fi

Congratulations to Mona on today's launch of their myBAC app!

'Simplifying the way property management communicates with tenants and retailers'

Learn more about their app at monanetworks.com or check it out for yourself at the Bay/Adelaide Center and don't forget about the Turnstyle powered free Wi-Fi throughout the concourse and food court! 

Turnstyle was invited to Adweek 2014 in New York to showcase our product alongside a number of innovative companies. 90 000 attendees from around the world participated in 4 days of panel discussions, debates, and a few happy hour networking events. 

Below is our CTO Chris Gilpin explaining what we do at Turnstyle.

As the number of smartphones and tablets continue to grow, so does the need for WiFi access. Most businesses are starting to recognize the demand by customers for free WiFi hotspots, however find it difficult or nearly impossible to measure the ROI of this investment. In this first edition of a three part series, I'll highlight 3 reasons why you should offer free WiFi and how to capitalize on this investment. 

Reason #1 Offering Free WiFi Increases Dwell Time

In a recent study by Colin Salter, dwell times were examined to shed light on the positive correlation Social WiFi has with boosting sales. More than twenty venues were studied covering a mix of restaurants, bar’s, cafés, and clothing retailers.

Average dwell time or visit duration measures the length of time a consumer spends in a venue. Typically, the goal is to increase dwell times as this should result in a higher probability of purchase and an increased ability to up sell resulting in larger overall sales. 

  As the graph indicates in the overall column, those who signed-in to social wifi stayed on average 23% longer than those who did not sign-in. 

Pubs/night clubs experienced the greatest increase in dwell time at 31%, while cafés experienced the smallest boost to average dwell time, only a 2% increase. Restaurants and clothing retailers came in at an 18% and 17% increase respectively. 

Reason #2 Offering Free WiFi Increases Repeat Visits

The cost to acquire a new customer is generally 5-10 times more expensive than retaining an existing one*. What does this have to do with offering free WiFi? The results from the same study uncover very interesting results.

    The graph shows cafés experienced the highest increase in repeat visitors by customers who sign-in to Social-WiFi. They had 59% more visits and restaurants experienced a 25% lift! Pubs/nightclubs and clothing retailers experienced the same increase in customer loyalty with an increase in repeat visits of 27%. Overall, there was a 35% increase in the number of repeat visits by customers who took advantage of free WiFi.

Reason #3 WiFi access Enables Valuable Data Collection

How you ask? For a minimal additional fee, you can transform your WiFi network into an audience analytics platform among other things, such as, location based mobile marketing capabilities, branding opportunities, and floor layout optimization. (I’ll touch on these advantages in the following posts). Although audience analytics may sound complex for the purpose of restaurant marketing, it’s actually very simple, plus you already know about two of the key metrics from above – dwell time, and repeat visitors. Additional metrics can tell you how many new customers your latest promotion brought in last week, which day of the week could use a daily special to drive sales, or even go so far as to break down the average age and gender split of your customers. As you can imagine, this information is very powerful if used by the right people.    

Conclusion

More and more businesses are recognizing the advantages of offering free wifi, but are failing to capitalize on this investment. Providing WiFi access is only the bare minimum, be sure to explore all the other ways this investment can improve your restaurant marketing efforts. 

Bonus Tip: Make access to your wifi network known and easily accessible (chasing down a busy waitress and asking for a 10 digit alphanumeric password is not the greatest customer experience). 

Click below for the full white paper on the benefits of offering free WIFi.

                                        * http://www.camfoundation.com/PDF/Cost-of-customer-acquisition-vs-customer-retention.pdf )

By Bennett Fitzgibbon

Photo Credit: Anne Worner, http://goo.gl/SNiZ4D

In a recent publication by Gartner, analyst Andrew Frank recommends Turnstyle to chief marketing technologists as an innovative tech provider to consider, saying "[they] should keep a look out for emerging providers with innovative technologies to support the marketing strategy."

Having Andrew’s endorsement is flattering to say the least. He has over 30 years experience in data driven marketing, advertising technology, IT, media intelligence and is a distinguished Gartner analyst. 

More specifically, he recommends considering Turnstyle if you are a retailer, public entertainment and transport venue (including sports and cultural centers), restaurant or bar, or government organization.

Thanks for thinking about us Andrew! 

The full write up can be viewed here, however a Gartner account is required. 

When Apple announces the next iPhone Sept. 9, most experts think it is somewhere between a probability and a near certainty that it will be capable of NFC payments. Most retailers are not well-prepared, though there is still time. There are several considerations, some of them obvious, others not so obvious...

Number 8. Learn how to effectively use mobile location services: Location awareness can be used to dramatically enhance the payment experience – from prompting the right offers to sending e-receipts. Micro-location (and iBeacons in particular) will also likely become an important component of the payments experience as well. Retailers who have deep knowledge of how these services work and how their customers respond to them can create enhanced mobile experiences at checkout.

(Full Article Here)

Photo Credit: Agustin Rafael Reyes, http://goo.gl/63xmg0

From your display windows to parking, these strategies will help you stand up to Amazon, Wal-Mart, and other retail giants.

Exploit your size

Small merchants should carry brands that the big box stores can't carry. Paco Underhill, founder of consulting firm Envirosell and author of What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping, says a big-box store needs to work with suppliers that can provide 20,000 pieces at a time. Find the manufacturers, designers, and artisans who work in small, exclusive, runs, and promote your relationships with them.

Keep it fresh

Change stock frequently, to give customers a reason to come to store, says Antonio Moreno-Garcia, an assistant professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at the Kellogg School of Management. "Selling stuff is not that hard," he says. "The main challenge is attracting traffic."

Use your windows to tell a story

Store windows should do more than just display merchandise. They need to tell a story that will intrigue passers-by and get them to stop in. Underhill points to a recent Kate Spade window, playing off the theme of "A Visit to Tokyo." The entire window had "a slightly Asian feel, and just looked great," says Underhill. "They were reaching out to Japanese tourists."

Face the customer

Generally speaking, Underhill says, 65 percent of traffic will walk past a window in one direction, and only 35 percent of foot traffic will be in the other direction. Make sure your display is oriented toward the 65 percent, not the 35 percent.

A little technology goes a long way

Most of the customer identification and fancy in-store advertising display technology is not really suitable, or realistic, for small merchants, says Lee Peterson, executive vice president of brand strategy and design at WD Partners, a Dublin, Ohio-based consulting firm. What small stores should have are fully wired store associates. That means an associate can check out a customer using a tablet or other device--without having to go to a register. If you have a larger store with inventory in the back, a store associate shouldn't have to dig through the back to find out if you've got a certain pair of shoes in a size seven. That information should be available immediately, on a device the associate can carry with them.

(Full Article Here By Kimberly Weisul) 

Photo Credit: Ricky Brigante, goo.gl/UzFFHA

The visual presentation in the store has always been the major customer motivation accounting for the a majority of retail purchase.  Your window display has the potential to attract the customer, reel them in and ultimately lead to purchase. However, there are a few key points every merchandizer should keep in mind.

1. Show less, Focus more
: The human mind has a limited attention and focus span and therefore it is advisable to keep the display simple and uncluttered. Leave a lot of space around. The most common mistake is trying to show too much at the same time. Props should be simple in shape, preferably something that provides a large mass of color or texture, such as blocks, covered boxes or risers.

2. Love odd numbers
: Always place an odd number of elements in a group. Since it's easier for the brain to zone in on the middle and the arrangement is slightly off balance, the eyes moves around to look at each frame or object. A perfectly balanced arrangement ie even no is dull to the eye.

3. Repeat, repeat and repeat: Use variations of identical elements as that creates a very powerful display mechanism. It's a simple idea but can have a lot of impact on the mind of the consumer and it's hard to miss such a display.

4. Contrast is key
: Make sure the items or frames you want to focus clearly contrast with the background. This includes color contrast as well as material texture contrast. For example, don't put a metal frame on top of a glossy background. Try making the background dull and repeated so that the frame that displays important information stands out.

5. Attract first, provide choice later: Pyramid method
 - Place one element at the top of the display which is clear and focussed. Below that, in the form of a pyramid, place other elements which provide choice. It's hard to go wrong with a pyramid display.

6. BONUS: Always hire a good agency to execute your campaigns. An idea is only as good as it's execution. So while your presentation might look fabulous in your laptop, the real thing in the store must be as efficiently done.

"Good visual merchandising is a mix of art, inspiration and science. While great visual can sell lousy product, poor visuals can do nothing for great merchandise."-
Paco Underhill, Why We Buy

Get comfortable with having some empty space in your high fashion displays. Crowding is a symbol of low value. So anything that is high value deserves a lot of space around it. If you keep an expensive item in a crowd the human brain perceives it to be of lower value.

Above all, use the K.I.S.S. theory of display: Keep It Simple, Sweetheart!

Author: Maniraj Singh Juneja, is a director at Amitoje India: One of India's best store branding and execution firms based in New Delhi. Check www.amitoje.com for more details. You may write to him at [email protected]

This infographic was created using data from Latitude’s Next-Gen Retail: Mobile and Beyond study.

Put your ear to the ground and you can hear the future. That’s because the advance party has already arrived – we are living in an early beta version of what’s to come. But the rumblings you sense now are nothing compared to the earthquake on its way.

Steve Brown, Chief Evangelist and Futurist at Intel, believes that “there will be as much disruption in every sector in the next decade as has been experienced in the last 30 years in media and publishing.” Print in particular was relatively easy to play havoc with, reckons Brown, and now more complex categories are in for an overhaul.

(Full Article Here) 

David Dorf of Oracle Retail shares his thoughts on privacy 

"I'm all for limiting data sharing with third parties, and I support the "right to be forgotten." I'm concerned about identity theft, and I don't go around advertising my contact information. So I guess I do value my privacy — I just don't think a few beacons in my local stores are a big deal. And I like the result of stores having better assortments, lower prices, and providing offers that interest me."

Here's a few insights and stats from an article written by James Bickers of RetailCustomerExperience.com 

Sales of mobile device units represented $13 billion in revenue in 2013. Gartner foresees that will go up to $42 billion in 2018.

71 percent of smartphone users in developed countries use their phone five times a day, on average.

In the United States, 22 percent of digital commerce revenue is coming from mobile.

86 percent of mobile users use their device while they are consuming other media.

Average time spent using a mobile device varies drastically by type: The average smartphone session lasts 47 minutes, while tablet users are pinching and swiping for an average of 59 minutes. By contrast, the typical session on a desktop or laptop computer is around 90 minutes.

(Full Article Here)

1. Warmly welcome your customer with a smile. A huge barrier buster, a smile demonstrates to each customer that he/she is the staff's priority, the staff is happy to see each customer, and that the staff enjoys working at the store. That last point is key. Who enjoys a party when the host or hostess isn't having fun?

2. Get out from behind the counter. Counters are not only physical barriers, they're personal barriers to connecting with your customer.

3. Avoid using retail clichés. When customers are asked over and over "How may I help you" or "Do you have any questions?," these barriers actually become even higher.

4. Acknowledge and move past the first barrier. Don't take "I'm just looking" personally. If it's clear they want to experience the store alone, by all means let them. Typically, however, "I'm just looking" is a natural barrier built on past bad experiences. Acknowledge it with something like, "Great, you're going to find some wonderful things." Further telling them you'll check back in a bit gives the customer space to take in the store, and gives you permission to reengage in a few minutes.

5. Proactively show your customer your newest products. Can shoppers easily tell what the newest products are? Nope. That's how you add value, and at the same time bust a barrier.

6. Hand your customer a product whenever possible. Our work with boutiques, jewelry and other stores shows that when you get the product either in a customer's hands or on their person, the likelihood to purchase increases substantially. This is also true at a hardware store, pet store, toy store, camera store, and so on.

7. Tell your customer about the product they're looking at. It's a great way to reengage. But don't ask a customer if he or she has any questions or needs help! The answer will most likely be no.

8. Make it personal. Exchanging names with the customer is challenging for many people, but can make all the difference when your goal is to deliver the best possible experience.

(Full Article Here)

According to the Omnichannel Shopping Preferences study—the latest addition to A.T. Kearney’s ongoing study of the evolution of omnichannel commerce—physical stores are clearly customers’ preferred shopping channel and a place where the most significant consumer and retailer value continues, and will continue, to be created. 

Digital retailing is capturing headlines and inspiring spirited debate as retailers plan how best to invest for future success. But beyond the headlines, physical stores remain the foundation of retailing, evidenced by the fact that 90 percent of all retail sales are transacted in stores and 95 percent of all retail sales are captured by retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence.

(Full Article Here)

Survey of 100+ Global Retail Executives Shows a Growing Interest in Deploying Technologies to Improve In-Store Performance and Optimize Multi-Channel Strategies...

(Full Article) 

Not that these two are that far apart given the connection to motivation theory, but it is amazing to me that more brands are not striving to use their customer information to build the kind of relevant experiences that could genuinely result in the type of spontaneous, emotional energy that ultimately defines a great brand experience.

(Full Article)

There is nothing more annoying than trying to sign-on to WiFi at a venue you’re visiting. You go to connect, the standard screen pops up asking you for a password, you ask a staff member what the password is and they don’t know so they ask someone else who works there, the second person is usually busy helping someone else, so they quickly blurt out the oddly spelled password consisting of upper case and lower case letters with a few random numbers thrown in the mix and it’s not long until you wish you had never asked. 

In this day and age with so many people reliant on smartphones, laptops, and tablets, WiFi has become a necessity.   Offering something so simple can mean the difference between attracting customers and turning them away.   With a custom login splash page from Turnstyle Solutions, you can provide a seamless WiFi experience to your guests, making them happy, and keeping your staff focused on what they do the best.  You’ll also be able to glean valuable insights, direct traffic to your website, social media channels, and engage directly with your customers. 

There’s a reason websites sell shirts like these, don’t let your business become one of them!

By Justin Gifford

PHILADELPHIA – Given the significant investment needed to sustain mcommerce, Century 21 has elected a responsive design over applications to drive return on investment and acquire new customers.

As the population of smartphone owners continues to climb, developers will notice that a greater percentage of the Web traffic going to their online content comes from mobile devices. Brands with responsive Web designs will have no problem accommodating visitors using various screen sizes, but companies with slow-moving desktop pages or costly apps that require a platform built from scratch, will find it challenging to get smartphone users to their pages, let alone convert them.

(Full Article)