GiftCard Partners Blog

Everyone's walked into (and presumably grabbed a coffee from) a Starbucks at least once. In many American cities you can't stand on a street corner without seeing that Mermaid logo somewhere in your 360 degree view. Starbucks has led the way in a lot of areas including employee compensation, employee training and consumer experience. Starbucks cares so much about consumer experience that they offer a full feedback loop with consumers and their app is so well designed that it has made them a (if not the) leader in mobile payments. The Starbucks app combines mobile payments and their loyalty program enables them to get consumers through the line faster, reward them for repeat purchases and streamline the consumers' checkout process. Starbucks is the mobile payments ideal, as it exists to enhance a consumers' experience at the point of sale. Setting aggressive goals to almost double their mobile payment transaction this year is what makes Starbucks an example for mobile payments across the board. Since consumers are so attached to their cell phones, bringing the check out process to their device is a great way to ensure the revenue potential skyrockets.
For more information on Howard Shultz' view on mobile payments head over to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The age old business model "give 'em what they want and they'll keep coming back" still rings true today. Customer experience is critical in maintaining repeat business which drives incremental revenue. Loyal customers also use word-of-mouth to refer their friends and family to your business. In the extremely competitive hotel industry, big chains and boutique hotels alike compete to give busy travelers what they went, when they want, where they want. Providing information to all of their devices and channels becomes critical to giving them the customer experience they need. According to a new study by Magnani Caruso Dutton here are the top 5 pieces of information travelers look for on a hotels mobile site or mobile app:
 

Achieving customer loyalty is no doubt one of the biggest challenges our clients face…it’s a moving target. Not only are consumer needs evolving by the day, but retail marketing is impacted by new consumer technologies, for online and brick-and-mortar buying. We have a general picture of how technology is effecting our brand content flow, buying experience, and rewards and loyalty – we are consumers ourselves and we participate in one or all of these brand experiences every day. But how are these technologies effecting our clients? They are retailers and merchants who partner with us to promote their gift cards in programs such as customer loyalty, engagement, and rewards. They are on the front lines of technology evolution, retail marketing, and customer loyalty and engagement and their challenges are multiplied by selling in the B2B marketplace. Check out the
Ten Ways Technology Can Enable Customer Loyalty Infographic posted on the Huffington Post online. Click image to enlarge >>

Engaged employees are happier, and happy employees make your customers happier. We know high employee engagement is good for margins. A new study from Towers Watson revealed that profit margins for companies with low employee engagement rates were around 10%, but for those with high engagement rates profit margins soared to 27%. What is particularly interesting is that a lot of the increased margin came from improved customer experience. When customers are happy they buy more, and according to
new report from Forrester, happy engaged employees make customers happier. Here are a few easy ways to engage your employees and affect your bottom line.

E-gift cards have become a popular choice in the B2B world as both an incentive and motivational tool. These virtual gems bring together the power of flexibility and convenience.