august 2012, vol. 1, issue 5 customer experience...

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Apps serve Up mUnChies,

merChAndise And more

FACebook still A big drAw despite

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soUthwest, others mAke

mobile And soCiAl Crm Fly

Social cRM GoeS to MaRket

ExchangEaugust 2012, Vol. 1, Issue 5

Customer Experience Transforming The CusTomer experienCe wiTh TeChnology

Customer experienCe exChange • august 2012 2

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Editor’s lEttEr

Idon’t typically look forward to grocery shopping—just finding the time to do it can be challenging. I was recently surprised when I went into my local Stop & Shop supermarket and saw that it has an app that allows me to scan and bag my

groceries as I go. While it’s not exactly Angry Birds, it does make shopping a little more fun. Instead of bonus birds, I get offers like free soda or grilling sauce (yum).

The grocery app is just one of many ways that companies are getting creative in how they reach out and connect with customers. Linda Rosencrance highlights some other ways retailers are using mobile apps to provide location-specific ad-vice—and get a better idea of how their customers move through the stores—in the cover story “Mobile Commerce Apps Serve Up Munchies, Merchandise and More.”

Speaking of connecting with customers, companies are starting to take a second look at how social CRM fits into the overall marketing strategy. In “Facebook Social Ads Still a Big Draw Despite Recent Exits,” Vangie Beal looks at why compa-nies are scaling back on paid Facebook ads but still using the social platform to interact with customers.

Finally, with summer travel in full swing, travelers are turning to the Web to figure out where to go and how to get the best deal for their blissful getaways. Sue Hildreth discovers what other industries can learn about improving the customer experience in “Southwest, Others Make Mobile and Social CRM Fly.”

What is your company doing to keep customers happy? Send me an email or reach out on Twitter (@JacquelynHoward).

Happy travels,

Jacquelyn HowardExecutive Editor,SearchCRM.com

It’s a Brave New (MoBIle) world

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Al costello, owner owner of Boston-based Al’s Cafes, shares his simple recipe for success on his website: “Combine a fanaticism to quality food and customer service with a loyalty to custom-ers/family and you end up with a sub sandwich that cannot be surpassed.”

To ensure that success, Costello knows he has to offer his customers conveniences not offered by his competitors—conveniences that will in-crease their loyalty to his sandwich shops. One of these is enabling cus-tomers to pay for their hot or cold sandwiches, salads or soups using their

Mobile coMMeRce appS SeRve up MunchieS, MeRchanDiSe anD MoRethe explosion of smartphones is lead- ing a new trend in applications that lets customers buy a sub, board a plane or order theater tickets merely by touching a screen. by linDa RoSencRance

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ning to recognize—that companies can sustain customer loyalty, better attract new customers and get shoppers to spend more by providing seamless in-teraction whether they’re in the store, on the Web or on their mobile devices, said Rebecca Wettemann, vice presi-dent of research at Nucleus Research Inc. in Boston.

“Being able to send a promotion out to a mobile device … and have [the customer] scan the promotion directly from his phone helps bring that link-age back from the mobile device to the in-store customer experience,” she said.

mobile devices and a mobile app called LevelUp.

All customers have to do is en-ter some basic information and link their favorite payment cards. Then they download a quick response, or QR, code to their iPhones or Android phones. When they get to Al’s—or the many other establishments that offer the service—they select the app, place their phones on the LevelUp terminal and get an electronic receipt.

“People love using their phones for everything, especially the younger gen-eration,” said Costello, who has been using the app in his shops for about six months. “It’s convenient for them. They don’t have to take their credit cards out. Everyone has their phone in their hand,” he added.

MobilE CoMMErCE Apps GAininG trACtionStop & Shop, the Quincy, Mass., gro-cery chain, introduced its Scan It! mobile app last year, which allows iPhone and Android-toting customers to scan their groceries as they’re shop-ping. Customers then scan a barcode at the register to send the order to the cashier for payment. They also receive special offers through the app, which is tied to a customer loyalty card. Of-fers are based on customers’ location in the store as well as their purchase histories.

Although it’s still the early days of mobile commerce apps, vendors have recognized—and retailers are begin-

The free LevelUp app for the iPhone allows customers to turn their debit or credit card accounts into QR codes that retailers and

restaurants can scan for payment.

PhotograPh: leVeluP

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https://www.thelevelup.com/

http://www.stopandshop.com/our_stores/tools/scan_it_mobile.htm?svcid=SCAN_IT_MOBILE

http://www.stopandshop.com/our_stores/tools/scan_it_mobile.htm?svcid=SCAN_IT_MOBILE


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ample, Passbook can call up store apps based on the customer’s location—so when people using Passbook go into Starbucks, they will see the Star-bucks app open automatically on their smartphones.

The University Co-op, which sells University of Texas academic materi-als and merchandise, has rolled out an app that enables customers to receive location-centric offers and announce-ments, check in to one of six locations around the state and access product information while there, said Brian Jewell, the retailer’s vice president of marketing.

Using technology from mobile com-merce company Digby, the University

In addition to store-specific apps, customers can use services such as Google Wallet to store loyalty, debit and credit cards on their mobile de-vices. Later this summer, Apple will in-troduce its new Passbook app—which stores boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons and loyalty cards—as part of its iOS 6 mobile operating system.

thE Growth of GEofEnCinG Companies will also be using geofenc-ing, also known as location-based mar-keting, to know when a customer is in the store so it can offer a particular promotion, Wettemann said. For ex-

PhotograPh: aPPle

Apple’s Passbook app, which will be released in the fall, stores customer cards as well as travel, sporting and movie tickets.

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ing to us for a specific product like a University of Texas T-shirt, they’re still shopping all kinds of other web-sites: Target, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart,” he said. “If they are accustomed to ac-cessing everybody else in their life via the mobile device, but yet they can’t from us, that’s eventually going to hinder our business.” n

Co-op’s iPhone and Android apps allow the retailer to set up virtual pe-rimeters, or geofences, and push mes-sages, announcements and offers to customers once they cross a geofence. The apps also let consumers search, browse and buy Texas Longhorn gear while at home, on the go or in a store, Jewell said.

The location-based technology also measures consumer engagement in real time using Web analytics for each store location. This allows the re-tailer to gain valuable insight about its customers to serve them better in the future, Jewell said. But it also lets the University Co-op offer its custom-ers what they’ve come to expect from other shopping outlets.

“Although our customers are look-

location-based technology measures consumer engagement in real time using Web analytics for each store location.


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Facebook Still a biG DRaW DeSpite hiGh-pRoFile exitSSome companies are moving away from paid ads, but most value the site’s youthful audience too much to go closing their accounts. by vanGie beal

generAl motors mAde headlines when it announced it would stop pay-ing for ads on the popular Facebook social networking site. The news fu-eled discussion in mainstream media and blogs: Were companies ready to abandon Facebook?

Ryan Holiday, director of marketing for Los Angeles-based American Apparel, the largest garment manufacturer in North America, said he had already cut Facebook social ad spending from $1 million a year to a few thousand each month. For American Apparel it was a gradual decline over 18 months and not the immediate exit GM made.

Holiday cited several factors in the decision to spend less on Facebook social advertising. The most notable reason was the dramatically smaller


CustoMEr loyAlty


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target and engage with young people and customers in the 30-to-39-year-old age bracket.

“We feel that Facebook is a great fo-rum to educate our audience, not just existing members but hopefully new

members that are part of our commu-nity. What we like most about Face-book is that our existing members can actively engage with us,” she said.

Justin Flitter, co-founder of Flitter, a social Web studio based in New Zea-land, believes that businesses mov-ing away from Facebook are those that have failed to harness advertising and engage customers on the site.

“[Facebook advertising] remains—and will do for some time—the most significant opportunity for brands to engage customers and fans who spend time on Facebook,” he said.

AiMinG for A fACEbook soCiAl Ad strAtEGy The best approach, according to com-panies that have had success on Face-book, is to engage customers on Face-book itself rather than get them to leave and do business on another site.

Kate Eidam, account manager for Airfoil Public Relations in Detroit,

Facebook ads, which limited how cre-ative companies could be with ads, and poor return on investment.

thE rEAl AttrACtion: fACEbook’s youthful usErs While some are moving away from Facebook social media marketing, companies are still investing heavily in the networking site as communication platform, including American Apparel. Despite a drastic scale back in Face-book paid advertising, the retailer in-vests in a major social presence on the site to communicate with more than 900,000 fans.

The main draw to Facebook is its users’ age demographic. For example, American Apparel’s clothing line is popular with tweens and metropoli-tan adults (ages 30 to 39) and its target customers are highly engaged in social media. In fact, Holiday said there is no better platform than Facebook to com-municate a message to customers.

Generations Federal Credit Union in San Antonio also finds Facebook extremely valuable for communicat-ing with customers in its three tar-geted groups of clients: youths (ages 16 to 25), consumers (25 and older) and small-business owners. Generations uses Facebook for engagement, brand awareness and to provide financial ed-ucation to young people.

Wendy Bryant-Beswick, the com-pany’s vice president of marketing and business development, said Facebook is an excellent platform on which to

the main draw to Facebook is its users’ age demographic.


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mobile And soCiAl Crm Fly For example, the retailer recently sent

a sweatshirt to Boo—a dog with a Facebook page and 8 million fans. A picture of Boo wearing the garment was posted on Facebook and made social waves, resulting in more than 30,000 “likes.”

Holiday said there is an unlimited amount of things they’d like to com-municate with customers, but the strategy must focus on prioritizing which avenues provide the highest cus-tomer engagement.

“If you’re only looking at Facebook as a one-way communication platform you’re going to be disappointed. When we post images, ask questions and in-vite participation we get a better re-sponse from fans,” Holiday said. n

works on the agency’s own social strat-egy and helps clients manage their so-cial presence. She believes that success on Facebook comes from engagement. Her favorite strategy is to provide Facebook fans with content that can be shared—such as video and images—because this is the social experience customers expect.

“When you look at your own Face-book timeline, what pops up is the sharable content. Companies need to leverage this social expectation of shar-able content around the brand,” Eidam explained.

Holiday agreed that Facebook users prefer images, videos and updates over outbound links, and American Apparel has seen success with this strategy.

CustoMEr loyAlty

PhotograPh: amerIcan aPParel

Ryan Holiday, of American Apparel, said branding on social media requires understanding of what kind of material spreads on various platforms. Facebook favors images, videos and updates over outbound links.

This image of popular pup Boo wearing an American Apparel sweatshirt was a major social success.


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trEnds in CEM

for compAnies thAt depend on repeat business from loyal customers, maintaining a reputation for quality customer service is critical. For Southwest Airlines, that means delivering a reliable travel customer service—on-time flights and intact luggage—as well as running a contact center that can respond quickly to customer concerns. To respond effec-tively, companies have to first see the feedback—and that can be a real challenge with all the different social CRM channels that consumers use to communicate.

A few years ago, Southwest discovered that many of its customers were not calling when they needed help or even emailing. Instead, customers were posting about the airline on social media sites, where everyone

SouthWeSt, otheRS Make Mobile anD Social cRM FlyWith social media launching a new era of communication, the airline found it needed to connect with customers in more ways than just phone and email. by Sue hilDReth



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Southwest isn’t the only travel com-pany to offer Web customer service, of course. Many airlines and major hotel chains provide online booking capabil-ities, along with information on their services and nearby attractions. Mega travel booking sites such as Expedia.com and Travelocity.com provide infor-mation on local attractions as well as customer ratings and reviews so trav-elers can share experiences and pro-vide advice on which hotels are best or what clothing to wear on a cruise.

Delta Air Lines also provides a mobile app that allows travelers to check in and scan their own boarding passes without going to the counter. Likewise, Southwest and the Marri-ott hotel chain have mobile apps that people can use to change their reserva-

except Southwest customer services staff could respond.

“There was a portion of the cus-tomer base that wasn’t comfortable calling or emailing but were tweeting,” said Catherine Gantt, manager of cus-tomer advocacy and communications for Southwest.

turninG to soCiAl MEdiA In response, Southwest developed a customer support team of social me-dia specialists and created a Southwest Twitter feed, Facebook page and You-Tube account. The social media team doesn’t reply to everything but tries to keep an eye out for solvable problems and potentially inflammatory issues that require fast responses.

PhotograPh: stePhen m. Keller/southwest aIrlInes

Mark Clan, 3, tries on a Southwest Airlines mas-

cot costume while he and his parents wait for their flight from Hartsfield-Jackson

Atlanta International Airport.


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by phone and email, at minimum, and increasingly they want to get help through social media, live text chat and mobile devices. Something travel’s experience taught: Don’t wait until you have a public relations disaster to ramp up your social CRM efforts.

Only a few years ago, travel compa-nies did not do much more than put up promotional posts on social me-dia sites. That changed rapidly when angry customers began posting rants, pictures and even videos online that went viral and created major negative PR for the companies. The “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube video by mu-sician Dave Carroll and movie direc-tor Kevin Smith’s rant about being

tions, find information on nearby ser-vices or activities, email customer ser-vice or even use the Global Positioning System to locate the nearest branch of a car rental company.

As many travel companies look to cut costs, self-service options on a range of communication channels have become more common. Travel-ers often prefer an online service to spending an hour on hold in a call cen-ter queue.

Here are some lessons the travel in-dustry learned as it added multichan-nel technologies.

n Online channels are essential. Cus-tomers expect to contact companies

PhotograPh: delta aIr lInes

The Fly Delta app for the iPhone allows customers to check in, get their e-boarding passes and pay for checking bags. The app is also available for Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

http://mashable.com/2010/02/14/southwest-kevin-smith/


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kicked off a Southwest plane for being too fat are two notorious examples out of hundreds. Since then, high-profile services and retail organizations have been moving into social channels to solve complaints before they become a trending topic on Twitter.

n Create customer self-help communi-ties. People increasingly flock to online forums to ask for help on a variety of topics, and the travel industry is one of them. From Travelocity’s ratings and reviews—where travelers post frank assessments of their trips—to help-ful responses on Twitter, Facebook and other social forums, it’s clear that people are happy to offer, and accept, advice from one another. Company service reps monitoring the forum can always jump in and provide additional help or information if necessary.

HomeAway.com, a vacation rental site that unites owners and prospective renters, maintains several forums for both renters and condo owners to chat and share advice. The site also offers a

reviews section for vacationers to post good and bad rental experiences.

“Transparency is at the heart of a trusted and successful online market-place, and providing ratings and re-views helps create that transparency,” said Jeff Mosler, vice president of global customer experience for Home-Away.com.

n Consider Web customer services channels carefully. Southwest only adopts a new channel when it sees that enough customers want to use it to communicate. “When you open up a new channel, you take on a larger volume of comments, and we want to ensure that we can continue provid-ing the best level of customer service,” Gantt said.

Kate Leggett, a senior analyst with Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., advises companies to evaluate how its key customer audiences want to interact. “If you’re a high-end ser-vices firm, you may want to start with chat and escalate to a phone call,” she said. “But if you’re a retailer targeting youth, then you might want to opti-mize your mobile channel.”

Self-service features aren’t accept-able to all consumers. The younger generation may be comfortable search-ing for a frequently asked question for information, but older people often want a human voice.

“When you remove that human factor, you create uncertainty and doubt in a lot of people,” said Timo-thy O’Neil-Dunne, managing part-

the younger generation may be comfortable searching for a frequently asked question for information, but older people often want a human voice.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/14/southwest-kevin-smith/


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ner for travel business consulting site T2Impact.

n Integrate customer silos. Too often when a company adds a channel, it becomes a standalone silo that can’t share customer data with other CRM systems. That forces service represen-tatives to ask the same questions and customers to repeat the same answers as they move from one channel to an-other. Southwest discovered this issue when it initially staffed its Twitter and Facebook accounts with social media employees who did not have full access to, or training in, the customer service systems.

“It was an awkward process where PR would ask around to get informa-tion for a customer, and it might take hours to answer something that the services team could have answered in 15 minutes or less,” Gantt said.

Southwest’s solution was to create a hybrid team of customer service reps who were also communications staff. They understood social media—and they knew how to access customer data and quickly answer questions.

Donna Fluss, president of contact center consulting firm DMG Consult-ing in West Orange, N.J., agreed.

“Often the only group in the enter-

prise that knows how to handle a high volume of interactions is the contact center. For instance, you need work-force management tools when you reach a certain volume, and market-

ing doesn’t usually know those tools exist,” Fluss said. She added that, too often, customer service is the last department to find out when a new social media or mobile channel has been added.

“The customer service contact cen-ter should be involved in setting up strategy, especially as 80% of the com-ments and feedback are about cus-tomer service issues,” Fluss said. “This goes back to what the goal for CRM was years ago—to get customer service and marketing to work together. It’s a goal that remains elusive.” n

too often when a company adds a channel, it becomes a standalone silo that can’t share customer data with other cRM systems.


About thE Authors

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Sue Hildreth is a freelance IT writer and a senior analyst for Hypatia Research in Lexington, Mass. She has covered enter-prise software technology and IT manage-ment issues for many of TechTarget’s sites, including SearchCRM.com, SearchSMB.com, SearchDomino.com and SearchSecu-rity.com. Email her at Sue.Hildreth@ comcast.net.

A former Computerworld reporter, Linda Rosencrance has written about technol-ogy for more than 10 years and has been a reporter for more than 20. She is a free-lance writer in Massachusetts and also an author of several true crime books. Email her at [email protected].

Vangie Beal has spent the last decade contributing featured articles and reviews to more than 20 technology-focused publi-cations, including SmallBusinessComput-ing, SearchCRM.com, EnterpriseAppsTo-day and Ecommerce-Guide. Email her at [email protected].

Customer Experience Exchange is a searchcrm.com e-publication.

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