Guest Blogger Catrina Logan Boisson: Demonstrating the Value of Customer Data
I love Wegmans. In fact, I think I'm one of my local store's top 100 customers. At least that's what they told me when I picked up my thank-you gift certificate and gourmet olive oil last Christmas.
I use my Shopper's Club Card religiously, not just because I like saving on my rather substantial grocery bill (we eat well at Chez Les Boisson) and want to be sure to receive my gift certificate next holiday season. I also swipe because I am waiting to see what they do with all of the information that they're collecting. After all, they know how many pounds of imported cheese and picholine olives I buy in a year, how many cans of SpaghettiO's (with sliced franks, please) my kids consume, and how many cubic yards of scoopable litter my cat goes through. They can surmise that both of my kids are now out of diapers and that at least one member of my household stays at home during the work week. But aside from the yearly acknowledgement of my overall dollar investment, I've never figured out how or if they use the rest of the information they are gathering in a monumental database somewhere in upstate New York. Tesco anyone?
Now don't get me wrong, I am a loyal customer and will sing their praises to anyone who cares to listen. I have to -- my French husband regularly credits Wegmans with saving him when we moved from Brooklyn to the 'burbs 10 years ago. But all this electronic information-gathering does have me thinking about how NJPAC can best demonstrate the value of the customer data we collect.
At the moment our bells and whistles are limited to the insertion of key data points into personalized letters -- references to what our guests last attended or the types of performances they might want to purchase based on their transactional history, acknowledgement of their frequency of attendance or tenure with the organization. We are just beginning to dabble in the collection of more attitudinal data (in the form of a fun, online personality test -- see it in beta) and hope to use those flags in the future to tailor messages. My dream is to create and then market using segmentation that combines what you buy, why you buy, and how you view yourself. But as a nonprofit with pretty limited human and financial resources it will take some time to get there.
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About the Author: Catrina Logan Boisson is Vice President of Marketing for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and a member of 1to1 Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board.
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Great post.
Great comment, Terri-Ann. And what a great opportunity for learning, had Starbucks been listening. It is ironic that they have received so much notice for their online suggestion box, but may be missing out on valuable information from their best customers.
Catrina, I applaud the efforts that you and NJPAC have taken to leverage transactional data – mega giants like Startbucks could learn a thing or two from you; especially since you’re working with a non-profit budget!
Starbucks was pilot testing their Gold Card program in a few select states a year or so ago. Specific store locations were asked to identify their “perceived” top 10 customers and had the store manager personally handed out beautiful/fancy invitations to participate – and I was one of the few selected! To participate, you were asked to register on-line and provide various information such as how often you visit Starbucks in a month (embarrassingly, I had to admit to visiting over 90 times per month), what your regular drink is with all the “qualifiers” etc – Wow, did I feel special, Starbucks recognized my loyalty and now wants to know/service me individually!
A few days later, a personalized Gold Card with my name appeared accompanied by a warm, welcome to the club packet! Very excited to see what this “means” - I pull into my regular Starbucks location as I do every morning and order the same drink item I told them about on-line, as well as the same blueberry scone I always order for breakfast. The friendly Barista that I know scans my card, smiles because I have the “gold card” and tells me to have a wonderful day – as she/they always do. This went on for a few weeks… the only benefit/value I was receiving was every 10 visits/scans I would receive an e-mail for a complimentary drink, but that was it – nothing referencing what I ordered, not my favorite drink that I already told them about and demonstrated through numerous transactions (such as I always go their for breakfast and order the SAME thing) – nothing personalized, not even for my birthday e-mail! Then, when I visited other Starbucks locations where they didn’t know me, they never utilized the information they were gathering on me to personalize my experience, nor did they have a way for me to pre-identify myself so they could leverage the information I entered on-line or my transitions provided.
Then, I became sick and abruptly stopped visiting Starbucks for several weeks… surely their database is going to miss me… here is someone who was selected as a high volume purchaser, stated they visit over 90 times per month AND demonstrated through scans on the card that this was “real behavior”. Starbucks was again caught sleeping at the wheel - IF anyone was looking at the data, this was a simple “we miss you” e-mail opportunity… not even that!
The more insulting part was when the pilot program was over; they stated we had the option to remain a Gold Card member as long as we paid the $25 annual fee to keep our membership in this “club”. Really, you couldn’t Grandfather those 10 people per location as your test group? And, anyone can become a member of this exclusive club – they just have to pay $25.00? Do they realize all they did was launch a simple points program? Sad, all that data… the opportunity… just wasted!!!!
Don’t even get me started on Starbucks… Duncan Donuts anyone?