David Mitroff, Ph.D. was featured in DELL’s – Tech Page One article “Why you need a customer engagement system” on their website at techpageone.dell.com/technology/need-customer-engagement-system
“With more information about your customers and their buying patterns, you can better adjust your business to meet specific needs,” explains David Mitroff, founder at Piedmont Avenue Consulting.
Mitroff, who helps businesses use technology to create brand awareness and loyalty programs, encourages business owners to collect as much information as possible.
“It is significantly easier to re-sell previous clients who already have a relationship with you,” Mitroff explains. “Most customers do not buy the first time you meet them.”
Below is a copy of the full DELL article:
Why you need a customer engagement system
French Fry Heaven is a rapidly expanding franchise with 12 U.S. locations and 58 more in the pipeline. The company is barely three years old and attributes its aggressive growth to its brand loyalty programs.
“We want to make sure that customers feel connected to us and happy with the products we offer,” says Scott Nelowet, French Fry Heaven’s CEO and founder. “We give our customers something unique to keep them happy and coming back for more.”
Today’s consumers are information-driven. They’re looking to make decisions quickly and have on-demand access to all the data they need. Small businesses can embrace this trend to build one-to-one relationships with research-hungry shoppers. Technology makes it possible for business owners like Nelowet to inspire delight, share exclusive offers and better understand customers’ needs.
For French Fry Heaven, the solution has been a personalization tool and app. Nelowet has seen this investment yield a direct translation into sales.
“Technology leaves an impression that consumers will appreciate, remember and eventually share with their friends, bringing more customers to your store,” says Nelowet. “Your loyal customers help sell your product.”
Building a mobile game
French Fry Heaven’s strength — 21 unique flavors of fries — can also be a source of weakness. For time-strapped consumers, an abundance of options can sometimes feel like information overload. There is a fine line between “fun” and “frustration.”
French Fry Heaven’s solution to this pain point was to build a mobile game that teaches consumers about the restaurant’s different flavors of fries. In the game, players complete tasks in exchange for surprising and fun facts about French Fry Heaven’s flavors.
“One flavor is called the Festival Saint,” says Nelowet. “You might have no idea what that is, but the game will teach you that it’s a sweet potato fry that tastes like a funnel cake.”
The game is designed to be fun and to help French Fry Heaven maintain a highly engaged customer base. Consumers can take the time to learn more about French Fry Heaven during their downtime.
“Since we released our app, more customers have come to our store with an understanding of our unique menu items,” explains Nelowet.
Nelowet explains that for brick-and-mortar businesses, a successful loyalty program starts in stores.
“Customer loyalty is all about initial experiences,” says Nelowet. “You can employ all the technology you would like, but unless you start out with a great in-store experience, online is unable to help.”
Tracking buying patterns to build predictive models
Customer engagement is the first step of a successful data collection strategy.
Businesses can use point of sale (POS) systems and restaurant reservation tools like OpenTable to track customers’ preferences and buying patterns. Business owners can export these data points to marketing automation systems.
“With more information about your customers and their buying patterns, you can better adjust your business to meet specific needs,” explains David Mitroff, founder at Piedmont Avenue Consulting.
Mitroff, who helps businesses use technology to create brand awareness and loyalty programs, encourages business owners to collect as much information as possible.
“It is significantly easier to re-sell previous clients who already have a relationship with you,” Mitroff explains. “Most customers do not buy the first time you meet them.”
There is no cookie cutter approach to integrating customer data into a business’ sales and marketing strategy. Businesses will need to customize automation systems to track user flows and engagement patterns based on purchasing history.
When executed correctly, technology can amplify human-to-human connections. POS systems, marketing automation systems and mobile games should be interconnected to deliver a cohesive user experience.
