With loyalty programs and check-in technology gaining popularity with the help of smartphones, one loyalty provider has developed a tool that integrates social media check-ins directly with point-of-sale (POS) systems.
Beanstalk Loyalty allows retailers to gauge the success of loyalty campaigns driven by check-in technology like Foursquare and Facebook Places.
Gilbert Bailey, vice president of marketing and business development for Beanstalk Data, says the program boosts return on check-in campaigns because it requires a transaction.
“In traditional marketing … somebody would run a campaign and say, ‘Get your friends and go check in at The Gap or go check in at Taco Bell, and we’re going to reward you for doing that,’” Bailey says. “The marketers are frustrated that people show up and check in, and they incentivize them just for checking in; they can’t monetize them for that campaign.
“We flip the paradigm slightly in that the mobile device is the delivery mechanism for communicating.”
Through Beanstalk Loyalty’s program, customers are checked into Facebook Places or Foursquare—whichever they’ve opted into through the loyalty program—when they swipe their loyalty card. After they’re checked in, a deal can be sent both to the customer’s mobile device and to their social media pages, where their friends can also receive a deal.
The retailer can also send the customer a survey via their mobile device to collect feedback on the brand.
Bailey says the added bonus of the program is that it stores data on the customer through the POS system, including on the people who are interacting with the deals that are sent to the customer’s social media. Storing this data on the POS system and using it to influence a customer’s future purchases and check-ins creates tangible return on the campaign, Bailey says—something that has long prevented retailers from using check-in loyalty campaigns to any extent.
“That’s why there’s been no big uptake on it, in that you make an offer, and you can’t monetize that offer,” he says.
By Sam Oches
