Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Ten ways technology can increase customer loyalty

Poorly used technology could simply result in disengagement not only from communications, but from the brand altogether.

So how can you ensure that your brand is using technology to deliver the most relevant and timely communications in order to drive your customers to spend more, spend more often, and remain engaged? Ikano Insight offers the following ten tips for using technology to increase customer engagement and loyalty:

1. Make your customers' lives easier and simpler
   With so much choice on offer, if you're not offering a personalised, relevant and streamlined experience across all channels, chances are you won't keep your customers for long.
2. Be consistent ... Everywhere
   Responsive websites and social channels that are integrated with your other systems and processes are a must-have.
3. Don't talk barbecues when it's 5 degrees outside
   Location-based notifications can add value when they're timely and contextual! Consider time, location, demographics and individual needs when planning your messaging.
4. In-store tech can enhance customer experience
   Kiosks and interactive tablets provide an additional touch-point in the customer journey and can be used to collect data and trigger engagement - think personalised offers, self-service ordering, or membership and loyalty sign-ups.
5. Get real with real-time participation
   Drive your customers to participate in real time. Consider topical and timely tweets, targeted digital, gamification and interactive TV ads.
6. Tune in to your customer's wants and needs
   The 'Internet of Things' is a massive opportunity. But always think about how what you're doing benefits your customer - for example, would anyone really want a fridge that tells them not to eat any more cheese? Make sure you are 100% tuned in to how your customers expect to interact with you and what they want and need.
7. Build communities of like-minded individuals
   Where possible, segment your customers according to their interests as well as their preferences or demographic profile. The better you understand people as individuals, the more likely they are to be loyal.
8. Don't drown in data
   It's tempting to gather every piece of data that's ever created - but be brutal about its value. Only collect data that you know will directly affect sales and influence customer behaviour.
9. Technology is nothing without the human touch
   Remember the last time you used that self service checkout and it wouldn't let you put that bottle of wine in your bag until the assistant had been over and pressed a button? Real people make processes and transactions simpler, easier and more user-friendly, and are vital to maintaining happy customers.
10. Match the technology to your customers
    Personalised offers aren't new. Whichever technologies you choose to invest in, ensure you create a seamless customer experience from start to finish to keep your customers coming back. 'One size doesn't fit all' has never been a more important mantra.

Ikano Insight has published a detailed white paper providing greater detail and additional tips, entitled Using technology to boost customer loyalty and ROI, and has made it available for free download from the company's web site - click here (free registration required).

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)