Jack Mackey, talks about the game battle ship, and how it might relate to a better retail strategy:

If you could somehow see through, around, or over the shield, and your opponent could not, you would have a real competitive advantage. Otherwise, it's just a game of chance. My point? In the real world, in this stingy economy, the odds of keeping your customers cannot simply be left to chance.

You need to know more

Without information about your customers, you are just guessing about what to do. You need to see through, around, or over the shield between you and your customers. With reliable information about customers, you can act smarter to win their loyalty. You have to "win" customer loyalty because you have a lot of competitors trying to do the same thing. If your competitors know more about customers than you do, your odds of winning, or even surviving, just got worse.

To lead the field, you need a deliberate customer retention strategy, one supported by actionable customer intelligence.

Strategy comes from the Greek word strategos--which, roughly translated, is the art of the general, which is the art of positioning forces on the field of battle. An effective strategy requires an understanding of the market (field of battle).

Gathering intelligence refers to collecting data about customers and past customer experiences. In his book, On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins (founder of Palm Computing) says, "Intelligence is measured by the capacity to remember and predict patterns in the world." So beyond remembering what happened in the past, intelligence answers questions like: Where are the opportunities to improve customer retention and increase customer likelihood to recommend next month?

Strengthening customer strategy

Almost all of the largest firms survey their customers to learn which elements of the customer experience drive customer loyalty.

But there is a much higher level of value. Winning companies start with customer satisfaction, but they are now moving to a much deeper and more profitable level.

They are asking: What delivers more profits?

They are finding the answer in Customer and Market Intelligence

An effective customer intelligence system provides you with:

· Knowledge and tools to increase customer counts;

· Knowledge and tools to increase Visit frequency and selection over competitors

· Knowledge and tools to increase purchase per visit

· Knowledge and tools to increase referral of business to the customer's social network

What drives the actions that drive your revenue, and how to most effectively act on that insight

This is actionable customer intelligence that is specific to each of your locations.

If you can walk in the mind of customers and your potential customers, you will know what to do that will have the highest impact on sales.

In a time of diminishing resources, you need better intelligence, in order to take intelligent action.

These days, intelligent action means - Give me more profits, while spending less!

How did we help a national chain spot a 45 million dollar revenue opportunity that was right under their noses?

How did we help a national women's retailer increase change room sales by 28%

The answers were contained in customer and market intelligence


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Martin Hoffmitz
VP, Client Partnering
BehaviorWorx Inc.
#202 - 222 Islington Avenue
Toronto, ON M8V 3W7

Email: martin.hoffmitz@bwxi.com

Office: 416.251.0111 x250

Cell: 647.287.4491
Fax: 416.251.9489
Web: www.bwxi.com
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