Tools to cash in on customer experience are becoming the thing to talk about right now. Consider Pokémon Go, one of the most recent mobile augmented reality games which has grabbed both the media and the everyday consumer’s attention.
Kids, teens, and adults have been “transformed” into “trainers” searching for iconic creatures for fun, and retailers are leveraging the craze for some major jumps in loyalty and business.
What is all the fuss about with this one game?
Pokémon GO uses a smartphone’s GPS and camera, along with augmented reality, to turn the real world into an expansive hunting ground. A new lexicon has even emerged to accompany the game’s success: Local attractions and businesses are turned into Pokémon Gyms; PokéStops are places where players can stock up on free accessories and items like PokéBalls, and there is an in-game item called a “Lure” which players can purchase to attract Pokémon to a specific PokéStop for 30 minutes. –Store Trends 2016
Less than two months ago, “Pokémon Go had already reached 21 million daily active users, clinching a spot as the most popular game in history.
Restaurants have jumped on the bandwagon and found brilliant ways to out-do each other simply by tapping into the fact that so many are playing the game.
Take advantage of the tools the people in your area are already using.
Once Pokémon Go launched, restaurants like Babo Market in Ann Arbor, MI, which was a registered PokéStop in the game began to see a big jump in sales. Store Manager Joe Williams explains the spike:
“The other night, one of our managers saw like 10-12 people in our stores at 9:00 PM, just hanging out…somebody asked the guests, ‘what brings you in here? And they said that “oh, we’re just trying to catch a Pokémon,’” he laughs. “It was kind of out of the ordinary.” Since then, Babo Market has signs drawn in chalk in front of their store, advertising their status as a PokéStop
–5 Brilliant Ways Restaurants Are Using Pokémon Go To Level Up Sales, 2016
Restaurants have found they can purchase lure modules too, which cost about $1. When they attach them to a nearby PokéStop, the rate at which a wild Pokémon will appear for gamers in the area goes up, thus luring more people near their place of business.
Consider what your customer needs or wants to do. Consider their problem.
Are your customers dealing with numbers all the time or do they need to sift through a bunch of information in order to make a decision? Are they doing a lot of online research? Likely they are. Help them do that by providing them tools such as these three which we pulled from Ion Interactive’s 50 Ways to Produce Interactive Content:
- Calculators offer prospects hard and fast quantitative reasons to believe. They make effective lead generators and qualifiers higher in the funnel. Consider the many applications—ROI, cash flow, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization), life needs, business valuation, among many other financial applications.
- Quizzes are lightweight, engaging, high-funnel digital conversation starters. And they’re great for social sharing, lead generation, and qualification. The benefit of quizzes is that they connect your core audience to YOU! Consider this recent Garth Brooks quiz which received at least 60,000 shares in just 12 months! People love testing their knowledge.
- Assessments provide useful and highly valuable recommendations or benchmarks. This makes them ideal for mid- to low-funnel lead qualification. Applications for assessments are far more wide-reaching than for HR purposes such as qualifying individuals for a job. They are useful for collecting lots of data from your customers to get a big picture of who they are while learning little things that set them apart from others.
Are your customers contemplating big questions that may lead them to a solution with you? With average website sales conversions of 1-2% max, finding ways to engage your customers through CXM tools is a must. When your customers are out and about, attract them, mobilize them to see you, and leverage the power of online tools that they are already using. When they are surfing the web, make sure there are interactive tools they can easily spot and be attracted to doing so that they stay a little longer.
If you really want to out-CXM your neighbor, get creative, get brainstorming, and get going on learning what it is your customers are using. Following these two steps will drive loyalty.
And loyalty drives business.
Need we say more?
