Tracpoint Wireless

Programs
• Customer Loyalty Cards
• Gift Card Mailers
• Targeted Direct Mail
• 800 Co-op Response
• Grand Opening Kit
• Dual Use Business Card / Gift Card
• Marketing in the Wireless Industry
• Send a File

Leveraging Your Customer Base

I think you would agree that YOUR CUSTOMER BASE is the most valuable business asset you have. In fact, an up-to-date customer database can double the value of your business and cut your marketing budget by as much as 81%.

For starters, building your database is important because it gives you firsthand knowledge of who your customers are, where they live, and how to contact them. Secondly, once you have your customer's contact information, you can break the ties to mass advertising and speak to your customers directly with personalized marketing pieces. Now, the thousands of dollars you spend on mass advertising can be channeled directly to consumers who have already purchased from you...for a fraction of the cost. Think about it...

Who is more likely to visit your store to make a purchase...someone who has never been there...or someone who has?

A customer database is a goldmine of information, where clean and reliable data is the key to marketing effectively. But first, you have to give your customers a reason to provide this valuable information. In this day and age of identity theft, SPAM and advertising overload...consumers aren't willing to just hand over their personal information. You have to EARN it, and give customers a reason to give it. That's why a customer loyalty program is so valuable.

So if leveraging your database to increase sales is so important, how do you build up your database in the first place?

Here are some tips on how to get customers to enroll in your store's Loyalty Program:

1. Offer Customers INSTANT Gratification
   • Don't make your customers wait for the benefits of signing up for your loyalty program. Offer them something immediately, for this purchase, just for joining. Your goal is to first motivate your customer to enroll. Get them engaged in your program right away.
2. Make the Enrollment Offer Worth Their While
   • You may think that an aggressive deal will clean out your profits, but it is precisely this type of deal that will make the customer excited about joining your program and will get them coming back
   • Example: Have a sign up incentive where customers will get 20% off any accessory.
3. Advertise Your Loyalty/VIP Program Everywhere Your Customers Look

• Display Soft Perks 
  • Sometimes offering smaller, recurring perks can be just as enticing to a customer as an initial, larger deal.  
  • Some great examples of soft perks that Dealers could offer would be:  
    • Complementary bill analysis
    • Free phone book transfer
    • Free ESN transfer
    • Unconditional 1 year warrantee on all accessories purchased
    • Becoming a member of the "VIP" gift card mailing list 
• Aggressively Reward Customer Referrals
  • A highly cost effective way to market your company. Word of mouth promotion of your company will create buzz from people that your prospect trust. There really is no comparison to a powerful referral program.
  • Reward your customers for referring business to you with a $25 in-store credit for each person you refer that activates a new line of service. 
  • You can provide your customers with $25 Referral Rewards key-tags with there loyalty cards

With an effective loyalty program you can double your database each month! But this is only if you actively target the two kinds of customers that enter your stores. The customers who purchase a phone or upgrade are the obvious candidates to enroll in your Loyalty/VIP program. They are easy to auto enroll, and with a well trained sales staff and a great sign up incentive, this should be a done deal. The other type of customers, are the ones who purchase something else. Whether it be a blue tooth, phone case, or charger...it is imperative to capture these customers' data. Without a loyalty program, this information would not be captured and your database would only be a fraction of what it could be. The underlying goal of your loyalty program should be to capture everyone's information that walks through your door.

Here's an example: If you are a Wireless Retailer who does 2,500 gross phone sales a month, you will on average, have atleast 2,500 other people that come into your store to buy something. That's 30,000 people each year who may be slipping out the door without providing you with their contact information. By enrolling these customers in your loyalty program, now those 30,000 people will be connected to your store, and can be contacted for those valuable add-ons and upgrades. Remember, loyalty is about growing your customer base and getting those repeat purchases while making sure the customer knows that there is a difference between your store and the carrier stores.

Find Ways to Differentiate Your Store from Your Competition

What separates your store from any other Wireless Retailer? Most of the deals that you offer on your phones are comparable to the dealer down the street and even the corporate stores. So, with competition between retailers at an all-time high, and saturation rates rising; shouldn't you be searching for any edge to make your stores stand out?

So I pose you these questions:

- How effectively are you targeting new prospects?
- What are you doing to get these prospects to take action and come into your store?
- How can you make sure the customer has a great experience in your store?

- And most importantly how can you get these customers to come back?

How Effectively are You Targeting New Prospects?

There are countless different marketing mediums that Wireless Retailers use to try to reach new prospects. Which ones are you using?

• Community Marketing/Canvassing
• Internet Advertising
• Telemarketing
• Radio
• TV
• Magazines
• Direct mailers

How has the return on these marketing investments been?

The Wireless Industry is certainly not your average market. High saturation and fierce competition have made typical marketing efforts obsolete. Think about it...your potential customers are being bombarded on a daily basis by more advertising channels than have ever existed before. They are being spammed with email and standard mail. This sensory overload has, at the very least, hardened peoples' shell to advertising and marketing, if it has not turned them off to traditional marketing all together.

The key to marketing around your store is to first understand the community's needs and to then educate them on why your services are superior to any other alternative.

Understanding the community starts with knowing your prospects. What are the demographics that you should target, and what is the best way to get them into the store? Make your marketing collateral unique, while creating a call to action for your prospects that will truly entice. 

For instance, when creating a mailing campaign, make sure you are only reaching prospect that will give you the most bang for your buck. Did you know that 55% of all rate plans sold today are family plans? That means when you market to those customers you are hitting entire households who are looking for phone upgrades, accessories, and other supplemental wireless products. When you mail to these prospects, develop the piece so that it is targeted, customized, and personalized with worthwhile offers that make sense to the prospect. Make sure that your mailer stands out from everything else they get in the mail, and create a visual draw that will make them read on.

Combining marketing mediums is also essential to making the community cognitive of you. It does not have to break the bank either. While TV spots and radio commercial can create awareness for your company, there may be other, more cost effective ways to market to your surrounding communities.

An example of this would be to get your store reps to hit the pavement for a guerilla marketing campaign. Take the time to properly train your store reps to understand how to effectively approach, educate and entice prospects. The trick is to design the campaign and the collateral so that it speaks to the prospect. HAND OUT SOMETHING OF VALUE, and make it relevant to the prospect, to get them into your stores. Another perk to community marketing is that it creates a personal connection between the prospects and your store reps, which is something that most other marketing channels lack.

What are You Doing to Get These Prospects to Take Action and Come into Your Store?

Getting customers to take the leap and come into your stores requires effective marketing techniques and collateral. It all starts with you recognizing, before the customer comes into your store, what type of prospects they may be and what their needs are. It is imperative to match your communication and ads to the people that you are targeting. Make them take action with store specific offers that can't be matched.
 
Stay connected to these prospects. Make sure they think of your store when it is time to buy a new phone. You can do this by utilizing a multitude of channels. Standard direct mail or radio normally isn't enough to make people flood into your stores. Couple these marketing tools with others like phone calls, web sites and search engines, and face-to-face contact...Making sure that your company is always front of mind will help make the prospects take that action step.

You must also differentiate your store from other Wireless Retailers and corporate stores... Make the advantages that you are offering your prospects inherently clear. Your offers and promotions should stand out on all your advertisements. You can also differentiate your stores by setting up creative deals that many other Wireless Retailers neglect, like referral programs and package deals. Make sure prospects and customers can easily contact you for questions or even directions. Have your contact information (website, 800 number, address, facebook, twitter, etc.)prominently displayed on all your marketing pieces.

How can you Make Sure the Customer has a Great Experience in the Store?

Losing one customer can't be that bad, right? Wrong. Think about the impact of what losing even one customer could really cost your company...not only are you losing that sale, but you are losing any other potential leads that the customer was connected to. For example, the customer could have been a father whose children were ready for their first phones and this wife was in need of an upgrade. Like previously mentioned, family lines and accessories are a very large portion of all wireless sales.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool to gain business. If your customer has a bad experience in your store, that loss of good will or a kind word that they would have passed around can put a strangle hold on your stores...and forget about growth.

Take this statistic for example...Shoppers are 80% more likely to refer friends and associates if they have a great experience than those who had just a standard experiences, and nearly 80% of shoppers will talk about a great shopping experience. On average they will tell 4-5 people about it! (Wharton School of Business). This may seem obvious, but think about how important this is...By satisfying even one customer who was originally upset you could potentially be adding 4 or 5 new customers. By making sure that customer has a great experience, even if it means taking a loss, you could be exponentially growing your company. As you can see, losing just one customer can create a snowball effect and could equate to years of lost revenue.

So, are you just hoping that your customers come back?

As a Wireless Retailer, you need to give them a reason to come back. Whether it is to differentiate your stores, educate your customers, or entice them with rewards and deals (I would highly recommend a combination of all of these), there has to be an incentive for your customers. Dangle the carrot in front of their noses...

The key to getting customers to come back is to transform them into loyal patrons. Give them a reason to come back, with your own loyalty or rewards program. Loyalty is not just a gimmick. It has to be ingrained in the company's environment and part of it's core values. It starts with the ownership's ability to get buy-in from the top down. Loyalty must be a culture, and practiced every day. Because, if your employees don't believe in your store loyalty, neither will your customers. Loyalty should resonate from you, to your staff, to your customers and should be felt outwardly in the community.

There has been an overwhelming trend in the wireless industry towards customer based marketing. Capturing customer data, not only adds value to your company, but also creates the opportunity to "market smart." The more information, the better. Capture their data when they're in the store, make sure the information is as accurate as possible, and ACTUALLY USE IT! Send Thank You cards when a customer purchases a new phone and include a special offer, just for them, to get them back into the store to drive accessory sales. Stay connected. An important advantage of having a loyalty program and a large customer base, is your ability to stay in touch with your customers at least a few times a year. Loyalty, along with proactive marketing techniques can make the difference between a company flourishing or failing.

Long Term Growth and Profitability

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