Last week, we explored the evolving world of crm mobile technology, detailing some of the ways it’s being used to strengthen CRM efforts and bolster customer engagement across devices. As part of our “Future-Focused” blog series, today we’ll take a deeper look at one emerging sector, geolocation applications, and how organizations are using these tools to glean valuable customer insights while driving smarter and more direct campaigns.
Simply put, geolocation apps make it possible for retailers to track a shopper’s movement near or inside a store, enabling them to send tailored, targeted promotions and announcements to prospects. At its core, this concept is relatively familiar—web servers have long used online “cookies” to observe and record user activity to prepare customized web pages, save login information, and remember preferences. Yet, geolocation apps are unique in that they can be used to monitor both digital and physical activity. The same organization that monitors a user’s clicks within an ecommerce website can also track that same shopper’s mobile signals as they approach their brick and mortar store, vastly expanding opportunities for connection and conversion.
Through beacon technology, these same retailers can “push” messages they think are relevant to consumers. One example is the Foodspotter app, which uses your current location to suggest dishes at nearby restaurants, and, through social media integration, can also display where your friends like to eat, which dishes they like, and even how far apart you are from them, so if you’re close enough, you can meet up for dinner. In the future, experts expect that geolocation apps will become sophisticated enough to send communications not solely based on current or future movements, but past activities as well, meaning, for example, someone who just left the grocery store with breakfast food might receive a push offer for a cereal coupon, good on the next purchase.
While the insights gained from CRM mobile monitoring boost business intelligence efforts and provide for deeper analytics, organizations should adhere to stringent data integrity policies, providing customers a transparent look into how information is tracked, store, and shared, so their trust—a critical linchpin in the quest for brand loyalty—can be secured. Overall, the more a company knows about how its target audience interacts virtually and physically with a brand, the better prepared it is to design personalized messages that meet them where they are—no matter where that might be.
Tune in next week to learn more about how data analytics can be applied to organize and evaluate the immense amount of information afforded by new and emerging digital technologies. In the meantime, to learn more about these new technologies and how our seasoned CRM consultants can deliver this functionality to your business, please contact any member of our consulting team at [email protected]. We also encourage you to contact Tokara’s VP of Business Development, Mark Fillingim, directly at +1 972-719-0213.
Sources:
CRM Trends, “Top 5 CRM Trends for 2015,” http://www.crmtrends.com/crm.html
“The Present and Future of Geo Location Based Technologies,” Ling Design, March 26, 2014, http://www.zingdesign.com/the-present-and-future-of-geo-location-based-apps/
Comcowich, William, “Geolocation: The Newest Movement in Mobile Marketing and Measurement,” Cyber Alert, March 15, 2014, http://www.cyberalert.com/blog/index.php/geolocation-the-newest-movement-in-mobile-marketing-and-measurement/
NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT
