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According to Forbes* “The single most important thing you can do for your business is to get to work building true customer loyalty, one customer at a time.” Not only are loyal customers generally easier and more enjoyable to work with they can spend up to ‘67% more’ than new customers.** Providing your customers with the highest levels of service is the quickest and most efficient way to meet your growth objectives and achieve your targets, but how do you maintain this consistently on top of running your business?

By outsourcing your customer support you will have peace of mind that each and every time a customer comes into contact with your business, they are receiving the same quality of service. Below we’ve listed out some of the key benefits of outsourcing your customer support.

Cost efficient

Outsourcing your customer support to an external contact centre removes the requirement for you to employ customer support staff in house, saving on resource costs including training and wages. If you outsource your customer support, you may be able to provide your customers with a 24/7 round the clock service, which could be too expensive to operate in house.

Experts

By outsourcing your customer support, you will have the peace of mind that every time your customer contacts your support lines they are speaking to an expert trained in customer service. This will remove the demands placed on your administrative staff, who won’t be expected to act as expert customer support providers, and can be left to complete their other responsibilities.

Beat the competition 

As you provide your customer with consistently excellent customer service, they will remain loyal to your business and you will retain their custom. According to Gartner*** 20% of your customers will create 80% of your profits, which means you can grow and prosper by retaining and developing existing customer relationships through expert customer support.

If you’re interested in speaking to an expert team of customer support advisors, to understanding how outsourcing your service can benefit your business, contact Granby marketing today. You can reach us by phone on: 01254 6820702 or by email on: Hello@granbymarketing.com.

* https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2014/05/12/loyal/#1e0d2e6e5c9e
**https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-cost-customer-acquisition-vs-retention-ian-kingwill
***http://www.nextupasia.com/5-reasons-why-customer-loyalty-is-so-important-in-our-digitized-marketplace/

Making instant rewards a reality for brands and shoppers

SwiftReceipt, the fastest digital receipt validation service in the UK, launched by us, Granby, promises to revolutionise the service for shoppers and brands alike.

The bespoke technology validates customer redemptions in less than an hour – and as little as 10 minutes – delivering digital rewards (for example cinema codes) instantly, with the ability to dispatch physical ones within 24 hours.

SwiftReciept removes the need for outdated on-pack codes, instead simply asking customers to upload a photo of their till receipt to a mobile-optimised, branded microsite for validation.

For today’s digitally minded shopper who demands instant gratification, it is fast, effective and reliable. For brands in many shopping categories – from drinks and household goods to impulse purchases and food – it offers the chance to quickly satisfy demand, delighting the customer and breeding loyalty.

SwiftReceipt’s speed outstrips its competitors. The service also offers a best-in-class data capture mechanism. Brands will be armed with important information about shopper trends, making it easier to retarget customers and cross-sell multiple brands and categories.

Meanwhile, the technology’s compliance with ISO27001, GDPR & EU data protection legislation, and access to full campaign analytics and reporting, will also help brands accurately and compliantly grow databases and track ROI.

SwiftReceipt offers both an out-of-the-box solution for single-purchase reward claims, getting campaigns off the ground quickly, and bespoke solutions for more complex needs, such as multi-brand, multi-buy or threshold-spend solutions.

Joanne Kimber, MD at Granby, said: “Digital receipt validation has been taking shopper marketing by storm for several years, but hasn’t offered instant redemption – until now. Consumers are less likely to take the time to complete complex redemption processes these days. They want everything quickly, and brands know it. SwiftReceipt is a gamechanger. Not only is it easy to set up, but brands will have access to more accurate data, aiding tracking and making ROI easier to prove.”

Find out more about SwiftReceipt.

On-pack promotions are a great way to increase the sales of your products and to encourage shoppers to take advantage of a bargain or a great reward. Here are five benefits of on-pack promotions.

Extend typical purchasing season

On-pack promotions are usually seasonal in nature. For example, you could offer a 25% free deal on a larger pack of party food that is intended to last for a limited period, such as over the festive season. By continuing this promotion for an extra few weeks, you can extend the typical purchasing season for this type of product, boosting sales and bringing in more revenue.

New product launch or product trial

On-pack promotions can be a great marketing tool, especially for new products and they can be a very effective way of drawing your product to the attention of shoppers, especially if you are offering a deal that makes your product stand out from that of your competitors.

Shoppers enjoy trialling new things too and everyone has an opinion. Use on-pack promotional literature as a means of telling people that the product is on trial and offer it at a reduced price to further encourage sales.

Encourage multiple purchases

One very effective way of boosting sales is to offer a BOGOF deal: Buy One Get One Free. This can be marketed through on-pack promotions, and teamed with an effective POS display can really add to your bottom line.

Beat the competition

When consumers are faced with a display of similar products, they will instinctively look for the best deal. You can use on-pack promotions to draw the eye of the discerning shopper and persuade them to pick up your product, rather than that of your competition. When combined with a multi-purchase deal, this tactic can bring huge returns.

Offset price increases
As manufacturer overheads increase, price rises are inevitable and this can lead to a price war between companies marketing similar products. On-pack promotions are a good way of distracting customer focus from the fact that their usual product purchase has increased in price. Offer multi-purchase deals or perhaps a larger pack to give shoppers the feeling that they are getting more for their money.

Conclusion

On-pack promotions can be a great way of increasing your bottom line and keeping your regular customers committed to your brand, which is essential in a competitive and uncertain economy.

The recent changing economic conditions have seen changes in customer behaviour, and retailers must move to remain profitable.

Customer engagement

Social media has opened up a whole new world of potential for experiential marketing, allowing retailers to gain a much greater organic reach. Through the use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, marketers can get people talking, benefiting from the integrated narratives that shoppers engage in across social media.

Digital

Digital has changed the way consumers shop. Around 92% of sales now happen online, and most customers spend time researching products and comparing prices before they actually enter a store.

Media spend needs to keep pace with this trend, and advertising budgets should now be targeted more towards digital. Online promotional activity through websites, email campaigns, and PPC advertising should be used to drive sales.

Theatrical experiences in retail

One way of driving customer engagement and generating interest in your brand is by creating a theatrical experience for shoppers who visit your store. A memorable experience is highly likely to be shared on social media, encouraging more footfall and increasing sales. One example of this is at Christmas time; many stores hire ‘Santa’s reindeer’ to be outside the store, encouraging parents to bring their kids along to see them.

Customer and brand experiences in retail

In order to keep pace with the likes of Amazon, retailers need to be innovative. Innovations need to focus on unique brand positioning, creating memorable, shareable signature experiences for customers, rather than just seeking to snare sales. A simple way to achieve this would be through holding a special tasting event to promote new food or drink products in-store.

Personalisation

One very effective way of gaining customer loyalty is by learning about them. You can gain a competitive advantage here, by learning about your clients faster than your competition, and by applying that data more quickly than your competitors.

Useful tools for mapping the customer journey include digital tools that record visitors’ habits when they land on your website. Do they spend time browsing your content, looking at products etc.? Do they order from you regularly online or do they prefer to buy in-store?

Customer service

It’s widely thought that businesses are failing to do enough to provide good customer service, being too focused on processes and sales. UK customers are generally too polite to complain, preferring instead to simply take their business elsewhere next time. This action leads to gaps in the customer data and means that the unsatisfactory service continues unchecked, causing damage to the business in the long-term.

Businesses should make concerted efforts to seek after-sales feedback to establish where they can improve their customer service.

With over 100,000 serious ecommerce businesses earning money on the Internet, the prospect of selling online has never seemed more attractive.

But what does it take to win in this market? In this post, we’ll look at how to make an ecommerce venture successful.

Understanding the customer

As with all commercial ventures, knowing what the customer wants is paramount. Be sure you position yourself correctly. Are you a high-end seller or targeting the mass market?

Be sure to make it easy for customers to find what they want. Simple but clear navigation is key, and you can give your site a modern aesthetic by using design techniques like infinite scrolling.

Give your customers a good cross-channel experience to engage them, and increase the number of points at which they can see your brand. If you are running Facebook adverts, use the video feature to grab attention. If you produce an e-newsletter, triple-check the links to make sure there are no errors and to reduce the risk of losing customers as they go from touchpoint to touchpoint.

Fulfilment and delivery

It might seem like the last stage in the journey, but it’s really the most important as it’s often how customers decide whether to buy from you again.

That’s why it’s important to invest in the fulfilment stages of your supply chain. Your fulfilment house – an outsourced firm you can use to source and ship your products – should be a reputable company with good reviews.

Communication with the customer is key here, too. Take a little extra time to inform them of every stage of their order, such as dispatch dates.

Customer service

Don’t let your business get a bad reputation through shoddy customer service – or, even worse, no customer service at all!

You should have a variety of methods on offer, including phone and email. Contact details should be prominently displayed in all communications with your customers. This includes on email correspondence, as well as in the footer – and ideally also the header – of your website.

And with the rise of cloud-based systems which allow you to outsource your support function and provide round-the-clock assistance to customers without directly employing staff, there’s no excuse not to have a customer service system in place.

Digital promotions can be valuable tools when it comes to marketing. So, what makes a strong digital promotion? And how can you leverage techniques like giveaways for market research and brand loyalty.

Getting interactive

By far the best methods of digital promotion are those which involve a certain level of interaction.

When your users interact with your promotion, it not only builds a rapport between you and them and leaves them wanting to come back for more. It also rewards you with some great free marketing, as their one interaction often gets amplified within their network.

To encourage interaction, you should also consider including bolder calls to action to accompany your videos, images, posts and infographics such as a “Share now” button on your promotional microsite.

Giveaways
Everybody likes free gifts, and those who participate in promotions are often particularly keen.

Giveaways are especially useful when they provide some kind of branded service. If you’re a takeaway delivery company, for example, giving out a free pizza cutter with your branding on it when a customer first orders online is the sort of trick that creates loyalty right from the start.

There’s no reason for a giveaway to be a one-sided transaction, though, and you can benefit too. You could add a compulsory data collection point to the start of your giveaway, and only let the participant claim their prize once they have given you valuable information like an email address or a piece of market research.

Receipt validation

While marketing teams can often see the benefit, promotions risk ending up an organisational headache.

That’s where receipt validation comes in. By providing a platform for users to upload proof that they qualify, the prize-claiming onus is shifted onto the customer and the hassle of answering individual emails and phone calls is removed.

Receipt validation can also encourage long-term brand loyalty. Toy company Hasbro, for example, launched an online platform which allowed customers to upload their receipts and collect points after each purchase – which could later be redeemed for prizes.

In the US, L’Oreal consumers who spent $20 on products were rewarded with a $5 electronic gift card for use in Walmart when they uploaded a picture of their receipt.

Often, companies outsource this function to a digital promotions company who can manage the process for them. If you’d like to find out more, contact us at Granby Marketing.

If it’s one thing the British love, it’s something free. Conveniently delivering a freebie to their own home is a double bonus – and one they are far more likely to tell their friends about.

Door drop sampling can build customer loyalty in a far more potent fashion that any amount of marketing words and images, because the public have an ever-increasing desire to try before they buy. According to a report from Sampling Effectiveness Advisors, 73% of consumers agree they are more likely to buy a product if they are given an opportunity to sample it first.

Show, don’t tell
The internet and mobile technology have made consumers savvier. They can research, compare and shop for products wherever they are, 24/7.

Without doubt experiential marketing is a vital weapon to carving market share in a digital age – it enables you to engage customers with your product samples in a spontaneous and high impact way.

Door drop sampling can also help with meeting the same goal. It takes products from virtual reality to actual reality, providing an important competitive advantage – you’re less likely to lose customers as a result of a rival company’s online hyperbole when your product is the one they have in their hand.

It also addresses increasing scepticism. Consumers are increasingly bombarded with sales messages and advertising, making them more immune to marketing claims and offers. Experiencing a product first hand is going to cut through that.

Door drops are on trend

Another reason that product samples landing on doormats are so welcome is that it fits the nation’s growing passion for ultimate convenience. This is an era when home delivery stretches to everything from nappies to fast food.

Add an offer to build brand loyalty

To build the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage with a door drop sample – and stimulate a subsequent purchase – simply attach a coupon or offer. Receiving both a sample and a discount offer in their home can make people far more likely to change previous buying habits.
Door drops are far more accurate

Door drop sampling is superior to scattergun forms of marketing: it enables companies to bring products to the attention of the households most likely to contain the right marketing demographic.

Modern marketing handling and fulfilment services can breakdown households more effectively than ever, improving the opportunities to stimulate customer interest and loyalty, while cutting down on waste from the indiscriminate distribution of samples.

Customer reward programs have cascaded down over the years, from airlines and petrol stations, into most supermarkets and now down to local coffee shops, hairdressers and much more. Almost all retailers could benefit from a reward scheme, to help improve customer loyalty and increase footfall, website visits or boost repeat purchases.

With the increasing competition among retailers, any business lacking a reward program is losing out. However, not all reward programs are equal or even that valuable, and customers are quick to spot a scheme that is of little value or used merely as cheap marketing. So, differentiation and consideration are required to offer some extra value to ensure yours stands out among rival options.

Make your scheme stand out

Any plan for a reward scheme needs to consider the cost versus the return to the business, with retailers looking to engage in long-term relationships, influencing shopping behaviour and to better communicate with customers. It should offer a variety of rewards to broaden its appeal, from money off vouchers to cash back and free items on major spends, to unique customer benefits. A scheme can also help identify big spenders, spending patterns and encourage further data analysis that will be of value to any business.

Startup retailers can drive early interest in their store with a reward scheme or gift cards, while more established retailers can use their extensive customer knowledge to tailor the scheme to meet specific business needs. A social media aspect to any reward program can also help spread the word, creating free marketing and advertising.

Reward schemes must stand out against rivals big and small

Local or regional businesses are fighting back against major retailers, and the use of loyalty schemes can help. Local businesses are better placed to offer immediate day-to-day offers, while the use of on-pack promotions can mimic the offers seen in big stores, creating the perception of punching above your weight. Whatever your plans or need for a loyalty scheme, get in touch and see how we can help make the most of your data to create a scheme that boosts your business and provides value to customers.

It’s long been accepted by most businesses that retaining current customers is more cost-effective than seeking new ones. Of course, increasing the current customer base will always be a key activity, but many companies do seem to place this ahead of the needs of satisfying, retaining, and growing business from their current customers.

There are two sources that tell you how important this latter task can be. Firstly, the White House Office of Consumer Affairs has said that it is between six and seven times more costly to attract new, rather than retain existing, customers. Secondly, management consulting firm Bain & Co have found that a 10% increase in retention can result in a 30% increase in a company’s value.

How best to retain your customers?

Assuming these figures are reasonably close to what you would find, it makes it clear that customer retention should be a major strategy for any business. So, how best to achieve it?

Let’s start with customer service. It has been suggested that it can take up to a dozen positive customer experiences to outweigh a single negative event. Obviously, this would depend on the level of problem, but even if the figure is often much lower, this still suggests that making sure customers have a positive experience – even if they need to query or complain – is vital to retention. Bain also suggests that a customer is four times more likely to buy from a competitor if a problem they’ve experienced has been service (rather than price or product) related.

The second key to retention is through the provision of customer loyalty programmes, or special ‘regular customer’ promotions. Often, people believe loyalty is simply taken for granted, especially when they can see that new customers are given a better deal to sign up. Therefore it’s also vital that what is offered is seen as having genuine value, or exclusivity, for those who stick with a company.

Flounces off in a huff!

Finally, consider this. In past times, losing a customer, however annoying, would likely see them moan to a few friends – and that could be damaging. Now, thanks to social media, you can multiply this by a factor of several (or many)! It’s also fair to say that retaining a customer can lead to positive experiences in places like Twitter or Facebook – another sign of their value.

There’s a saying that ‘It’s easier to sell up, or sell on, than sell new’. Retaining customers helps achieve the first two parts of this, while you will also be actively seeking the third. This suggests a more rounded and effective business strategy

With a myriad of marketing channels to choose from, it’s remarkable to see that on-pack promotions are still regularly utilised. After all, promotional marketing has been around since the invention of packaging. However, they’re still hugely popular with consumers. They can be also used in innovative ways, tying in with a brand’s other marketing channels.

Effectiveness

On-pack promotions are effective in many ways. Firstly, they make the pack stand out on the supermarket shelf. Next, they encourage loyalty and repeat purchases, especially if you need a certain number of tokens to claim the reward. Most importantly, they encourage sales. People love an offer. In fact, there are large online communities dedicated to getting the most out of on-pack promotions. When they’re done well, they go viral, as much as any social media campaign.

Good examples

Forward-thinking brands drive innovation with their on-pack promotions. We still have the classic ‘save up the tokens’ promotions that have been around for years, such as The Sun’s camping holiday offers. However, we have Nescafe putting a 3D printed alarm clock in the cap of the lids of their coffee jars, you can only turn it off by actually opening a jar of Nescafe. We also have brands partnering up with other brands to drive traffic to each other, such as the promotion between Absolut Vodka and Shazam. If you scanned your Absolut bottle using Shazam, it would take you to a microsite where you could find over 1000 cocktail recipes. It was remarkably effective for both parties.

Shopper Marketing

It used to be that traditional marketing channels, such as TV and radio, would drive shoppers to the on-pack promotion. This still happens, but now shopper marketing is a key driver of on-pack promotions, and continues to be the driving force behind on-pack success.
An effective piece of shopper marketing is all about knowing your consumer, what drives them, where they spend their leisure time, on and offline. As long as brands continue to operate in this way, on-pack promotions will reign supreme for a long time yet.