You’ve invested heavily to attract customers to your store. That includes a real estate team that goes out and buys the land upon which your store is built or negotiates a lease. Construction, display racks, cash register systems, inventory…
You advertise heavily in multiple channels to help drive more feet into the store.
And, now, when someone comes into your store and starts shopping, you want them to log in to Foursquare so you can give them extra incentives.
For example, customers who “check in” to foursquare when they’re in a Walgreens can now get scannable barcodes for instant discounts.
“A person is physically in the store saying ‘I’m here.’ And we try to make that interaction with the customer very seamless, very quick, and something that’s providing value.”Adam Kmiec, director of social media for Walgreens
Jeez, I hope this was taken out of context. Or is he saying that in order for the customer to experience a seamless, quick, valuable experience, they need to show up in a store and log into Foursquare?!
Here’s the deal -several things bother me about this ‘strategy’.
First, it forces the customer to jump through hoops. Why make them pull out the phone, log into FourSquare in order to get discounts?
Second, it discriminates and excludes based on technology. Let me ask you this – how many of your customers have a smartphone and use FourSquare? And what percentage of your best, most loyal customers have a smartphone and use FourSquare?
Now, if you’re like most, your answer is “Not sure.” So imagine this…your best customers are in the store, watching other people get offers that they can’t get. They feel left out. Disenfranchised. They go to Wal-Mart.
Awesome. Now your loyal customers are gone and your store is filled with low cost bargain shoppers that will stick around until your margins are sucked dry. Then they’ll move on to the next retailer willing to sacrifice profits for revenue. (Remember folks, profits pay the bills…revenues don’t.)
Want a better, less expensive solution? Hire smart, friendly people and train them how to make the customer feel special. Then set up processes to ensure the customer is “WOWed!” Make it easy to find a happy, friendly, knowledgeable person for personal assistance. And give your staff the ability to reward customers with special products or even the occasional discount – just because the staff knows the customer is a long time, loyal customer.
For example, yesterday, I stood in line behind a customer that started to pay for his purchase in cash, only to discover that he was about 10 cents short. Instead of letting him go, the employee tapped her foot, snapped her gum and kept telling him “You need 10 more cents…” Finally, after the line behind me grew substantially, she said to the customer “Don’t you have a debit or credit card?”
Now, tell me, you willing to make your customers log into Foursquare so they can enjoy an experience with your staff like that one?!
