It’s common to see large companies using customer loyalty programs. They have the money to use the programs, and they see them as a helpful service. Smaller, locally-owned companies usually don’t use them, mainly due to monetary reasons. But that’s changing with a company like FiveStars.
Forbes profiled the company recently, focusing on how the company can help a place like a local coffee shop or café. Tracking the volume of customers is a simple matter of signing up for the promotions FiveStars provides and the company handles it from there.
“Fortune 500s are spending billions of dollars in that space,” co-founder Victor Ho told Forbes. “Small and medium enterprises had nothing. We wanted to democratize that technology and make it even better.”
Placing a customer relationship management system near a point of purchase, like a cash register, costs the client about $2,500 annually. FiveStars collects the information for the merchant and offers extras like bonus points. The company offers an affordable rate for small business, giving a very helpful way to gauge matters like customers’ spending habits.
How can it work for your SMB?
“Marketing automation is a huge wave,” Ho said. “And it’s going to transform business — big and small — over the next decade.”
For a small business, they can use a company like FiveStars to consider discounts and coupons for their customers. What percentage would work and what might not work. That sure is much more effective than rolling the dice without any strategy.
Using a system they created called AutoPilot, Ho explained how easy it is to get this ball rolling for a merchant. “So what happens,” Ho said, “is the business owner will say, ‘Okay. I’m willing to give this range of discounts, some amount to new customers that I’m trying to get to come back a second time, a larger amount to older customers that I’m trying to rescue and maybe this type of promotion for someone’s birthday. And because we can see the entire customer funnel – we know all their behavior – we can, through AutoPilot, send several customers unique messages at the right moment in time, an example; ‘Congrats on your second visit. Come back a third time, within a week, and get 30 percent off!’”
FiveStars has carved out a strong niche and other companies will follow. Such thinking is vital as technology continues to affect a majority of our daily lives.
