Reprinted from NACS Magazine [September 2017] with permission. For more information about NACS and subscription information for NACS Magazine, please go to www.convenience.org or contact NACS at (703) 684-3600. NACS Magazine interviewed the late USA Today founder Allen “Al” Neuharth in September 2008, a time when headlines screamed that print...
Have You Identified Your Holiday Mobile Strategy?
The sheer amount of pumpkin spice flavored offerings in the recent marketplace tells us that the holiday season is right around the corner (or it could just be an impatient marketplace offering pumpkin spice as early as July?). Last holiday season, consumers flocked in droves to their smartphones to complete...
How to Discover Your App’s Retention Hook and Improve User Retention
With more than five million apps in the two-leading app stores1, app publishers are making larger investments in app development and user acquisition. Most are failing to achieve success, as demonstrated by the average app losing more than eighty percent of their users within just seven days of downloading the...
What Have We Done To Consumer Expectations?
Whatever you think of him, Steve Jobs was excellent at product development. Consumer friendly, intuitive design was the at the core of every product he introduced. He felt that the user should be able to effectively use a device or software without being told or shown how, and he did...
Maximizing Your Tech Dollars in QSR
Technology Strategy Shifts More and more businesses are seeing success in leveraging technology for consumer engagement. Consumers have shown that they are very willing to adopt to the line-busting, order customization, and frictionless payment experience that a well-designed app or kiosk can offer. At the same time, businesses enjoy the...
What is Omnichannel Anyway?
Time to Reflect At first glance, Omnichannel appears to require a lot of costly, labor-intensive infrastructure work spanning your payment systems, retail network, loyalty program, etc. However, the hardest part is building something that customers will use and be attracted to. In order to make omnichannel less ominous, let's take...
Spotlight on Loyalty: Part II of II
Loyalty and the Consumer Experience This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Part 1, "Five Assumptions That Will Doom Your Loyalty Program," can be found here. Corporate loyalty programs are designed to drive consumers to spend additional funds and to encourage consumers to be loyal enough to their brand...
Spotlight on Loyalty: Part I of II
5 assumptions that will doom your loyalty program Loyalty programs are the cherry on a sundae; consumers come to expect them when making everyday purchases. While companies commit financial and employee resources to build loyalty programs, they must remember those programs are the cherry; not the ice cream, the bowl...
Approaching Consumer-Facing Programs
“Do my consumers really want this? Will they use it?” This is one of the most fundamental questions any merchant must ask when venturing into a new consumer engagement or payment program. It is also a huge lesson to be learned from both the successes and failures from some of...
Value in Loyalty Programs
Perceiving Value Any loyalty program introduced to market must of course add value to a merchant’s brand. To gain traction, however, it’s required that consumers perceive value in the program as well. Consumers typically choose where to shop based on quality, convenience, service and price. In a recent survey conducted...