Today’s loyalty newswire is packed - PACKED - with interesting, useful and actionable nuggets: CX valuation might just be getting a much needed re-calibration, some crazy-good uses of location intelligence, and Facebook may have actually behaved well with (some of) their user data. Here’s what we’re following in loyalty news …
CX
Want to Know the Future of Customer Experience? Ask a 2-Year-Old
The headline suggests an interesting thought experiment – or maybe an even better real-world one. What would a person whose basic values only extend to right vs wrong, and good vs bad have to say about your CX? Ponder that the next time you cruise the grocery aisle with your toddler.
Watch our Executive Interview with Howard Curtis as he discusses "The Human Element of CX".
ROX Is the New ROI: Prioritizing CX
PwC’s John Maxwell may have just coined one of the most important buzzwords (err … buzz acronyms) of 2019 and, in doing so, may also have brought a much-needed recalibration to current views on customer experience and the value thereof. Smart.
Achieving customer experience excellence at seven critical life cycle points
ERDM Corp conducted over 20,000 hours of in-depth, hour-long research interviews with the customers and prospects of clients such as IBM, Microsoft and QVC and now has data that proves the enormous gap between “the CX fantasy of brands versus the reality that people actually experience.”
CONSUMER DATA
T Card scandal shows invasive side of Japanese point card plans
It’s hard to call this a data “breach” per se, but the effects on members are essentially the same. In this case, the loyalty program operator appears to have willingly given away the personal and shopping data on its entire 67 million members to the authorities – without having received a court order to do so.
Facebook ‘paid users to gather their personal data’
This story created a lot of buzz this week. To be sure, Facebook’s user data practices warrant scrutiny but our take on this is a little different than most. At least in this case, Facebook appears to have paid for that data and, presumably, informed those users of their intent. If our understanding of these events is correct, then it’s a huge step in the right direction.
Data Value for Everyone – Here’s How
Acxiom’s Karen Caulfield articulates a strong case for ethical data-handling practices beyond their marketing value, by creating enhanced trust between data gatherer and data subject. She offers 4 questions that retailers and marketers should consider – and keep considering – as they evaluate their data practices.
TRENDS
Retail revelation: The new UK power shopper is male
More research out of the UK is pointing to males as wielding more influence over household spending and being more involved in the shopping processes through certain channels. Take this nugget, for example: 70 percent of men who own smart speakers are using them to research products and pricing, versus 46 percent of women—a 52 percent relative difference.
Holiday Wrap-Up: Mobile Dominates E-Commerce, Driving 66% Of Traffic
It’s the beginning of February and the holiday shopping statistics are rolling in. Among the more important findings, BOPIS (Buy-online-pickup-in-store) came alive with sales up 50% compared to 2017. Lots more data points reported – it’s a quick and worthwhile read.
TECHNOLOGY
How Companies use Location Intelligence to Delight Customers, Fuel Growth
Confession - we see and track a lot of marketing and customer technology but some of the use-cases presented here are genuinely eye-opening. Such as this one: “one advertiser recently partnered with a major airline and high-end fitness club to target digital billboard ads for travelers from specific flight numbers and originating cities as they leave LAX. The perfectly timed ads encourage travelers from long-haul flights to visit a web page where they can book a workout class to preempt jetlag.” Clever and efficient.
How Jyve Plans to Connect Grocery Gig Workers with Retailers
Think of it as the Uber of retail workers. Jyve has created a Skills-as-a-Service platform that uses AI to find and identify gig workers for stocking, ordering, display building, brand ambassadorship or shelf auditing.
OPERATIONS
Putting marketers and the C-suite on the same page through technology initiatives
We talk a lot about loyalty strategy and the technology that supports it. We talk a lot about customer data and customer experience. Those are fundamental to the practice of loyalty marketing. But spend a few years in this industry and you’ll agree that one of the most difficult hurdles to a successful program is often found in the C-Suite.
Orvis Taps Customer Analytics to Help Convert 58% Of Returns into Exchanges
Ask what keeps retailers up at night and many of them will tell you stories of open-ended return policies and the liabilities that come with them. So when we saw this headline we had to take note. 58% of returns can amount to significant savings PLUS exchanges offer a much better chance to continue and enhance the customer relationship than returns.
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the staff at The Wise Marketer.
